Surat: This Diwali was perceptively better for seven-year-old Dindoli rape survivor Sunita (name changed) who stepped into the New Year with hopes of erasing the horrid past from her small slate of life. Living in a nondescript one room house in Limbayat, the family too basked in their daughter’s joy after the girl, who had to live all this while tying a colostomy bag around her waist, finally got rid of the bag and its woes.
Daughter of a labourer in a textile unit, Sunita now hopes to rejoin school, like all her friends and lead a normal life again.
“I want to go to school now. I could not earlier as it was uncomfortable with the bag. The school authorities also asked my parents to send me only after I recovered fully,” an ebullient Sunita told TOI.
Brutally raped by then 19-year-old convict Roshan alias Kalu Bhumihar on September 29, 2018 the entire family of the minor is living a painful life. Bhumihar was sentenced to life imprisonment in November 2019 but the agonies of the family did not end.
On October 25, Dussehra day, Sunita was operated upon once again, this time to remove the colostomy bag now that she is able to control her rectum muscles. The minor went under the knife six times to reconstruct severely ruptured private parts and will need a few more major surgeries as she grows older.
The entire family was tied down by that one ‘colostomy bag’, which brought out their worst fear of being ostracised by natives if they visited their village in Bihar with their daughter. Since 2018 we didn’t go to our native. But now we are preparing to go around next month,” said mother Anita (name changed) who looked wistfully at her daughter, hoping it all goes well.
Former member of Juvenile Justice Board and lawyer, Pratibha Desai who is assisting the girl every step of the way, said: “Hopefully she will now move around freely.”