Surat: “Our lives have turned into hell since the crime. There is no end to our pain,” mumbled 26-year-old mother, whose seven-year-old daughter bears the gut-wrenching wounds inflicted by a rapist two years ago.
Fearing ostracization by their own, this unfortunate family from Dindoli didn’t dare to go back to their natives in Bihar even during the lockdown and continues to tend to the minor’s miseries in isolation.
While the brutality of Hathras gang rape incidents had stirred people’s sentiments across the country, this survivor's poor health condition might never get accepted even by her kin. With a bag hanging from her to collect body waste, the girl has been leading a tattered life for two years sans school or enjoyment that kids her age live.
The heinous sexual assault had left the girl’s private parts ruptured almost beyond repair. She has already undergone four major surgeries to restructure her private parts. If that’s not all, a few minor surgeries had also to be done on her face to give it a normal look after the 19-year-old convict Roshan alias Kalu Bhumihar, had bitten off.
The rapist who had left the girl in a pool of blood in a huge pipe to die on September 29, 2018, was sentenced to life imprisonment in November 2019.
“If anyone in our village sees her in this condition we are likely to be ostracized. There is no end to our ordeal despite the treatment that has been going on for two years apart from the multiple surgeries,” said mother, Anita (name changed), while life passes by in a haze of tears and anxiety for the family.
The survivor’s father is a labour in a jari unit, while Anita had to stop working to take care of her daughter.
The family finds support in two women from the city — Vidhi Chaudhary, deputy commissioner of police, and Pratibha Desai, a lawyer — who is helping them fight their situation.
Chaudhary supervised the investigation and with woman police inspector A K Chauhan, and filed the charge sheet in 35 days. Apart from ensuring good treatment for the girl, the police also followed up on her progress and provided the family with financial and medical support from the state government.
Desai took responsibility for medical expenses and supporting the survivor until she gets married. “Another surgery will be performed on the minor on October 21, and hopefully the last one if the attempts to the bag permanently get successful. She underwent therapy to control her rectum for the past few months and there has been good improvement,” said Desai.
Chaudhary said that city police offered the mother of the girl a job in the traffic brigade and also helped the family in other ways possible.