Sexually assaulted twice, and she is just 11 years old

GURUGRAM: A Class IV student of a government school in Gurugram had, earlier this week, sought refuge in her friends. She was in pain, physically, and scarred emotionally and had no one to talk to.
Hours later, a 16-year-old boy, her neighbor and a dropout from the same school, was detained for raping the girl, allegedly for several months, after her friends informed their teachers. On Saturday, the principal of her school revealed the girl had been sexually assaulted earlier too, over three years ago.

The 11-year-old girl had been unable to pay attention to her studies or keep up in class, was extremely quiet and was often found looking outside the window, principal Nirmal Sheoran said. She even failed to write her own name or recite tables. That is how the principal realised something was wrong.

“I had formed a group of 50 students who were weak in studies so that teachers would give them more attention. This 11 year-old girl was part of that group,” Sheoran said. “I used to visit the group once a week. I noticed the girl seemed to be in a different world. She would be physically present but mentally absent. So, I asked teachers to check her family background.”

Sheoran spoke to the girl last Thursday when she overcame her fears and told her friends and then teachers about the repeated sexual assault on her by the teenager, who would go to the girl’s house when her parents were away for work. The school informed the police.

After the girl’s revelation, the teachers visited her house. The girl’s parents are migrant labourers and the family lives in a small room in a building where several other families live. On questioning the mother, the principal found out the girl had been sexually assaulted by another neighbour in 2014. However, at that time, her medical reports had failed to show anything conclusive and her family had tried to hush it up. They had even taken the girl out of school and moved out of the area for a while before coming back in 2017.

Sheoran alleged the girl’s parents as well as other villagers did not want her to take any action in the case. “Her step-father denied anything wrong had happened. When we asked the girl why she had not told her mother about the sexual assault, she said, ‘I did, but they torture me and say it’s nothing’. Her parents told me to hand her over to them and they would do whatever they decided and the girl would not come to school again,” said the principal.

Sheoran and the other teachers, however, contacted an NGO and took the girl to the Civil Hospital. Bud Foundation director Divya Vaishnava said, “I went with the child to the hospital and I only left after the medical examination was done. I requested the principal not to divulge the details of the child to anyone other than the police. The child needs to be protected and her safety is of the utmost priority for me. It can get jeopardised if details about her are leaked.”

Sheoran said, “I told the cops everything I knew. I stayed in the police station till 9pm. The trauma which the girl has gone through is horrifying. My main concern is that the authorities might hand over the child to the parents. I had left her with the police.”

After the medical reports came, the police allowed the girl to leave with her parents. The detained 16-year-old boy had studied with the girl in the same school till Class IV after which he dropped out and started work as a labourer in the city. He also stayed in her building.