They try their best to gain composure in order to be able to say what they want to tell, but they just cannot help it and break down time and again. One can understand their extreme distress. Anyone who has heard of this tragedy has felt highly distressed and shocked, and they are after all the parents of the girl who has suffered the extreme tragedy.
They are from Nevada village of Mahuwa block (Banda district, UP). Their 12 year old daughter Chhaya was repeatedly being harassed, stalked, abused and insulted by a ruthless (dabang) young man known to be of bad character and belonging to an influential household. The girl being of a tender age was not at all prepared for this kind of behaviour and felt terribly threatened, confused and endangered. The youth wanted her to follow his dictates and when she resisted this he abused her. The parents tried to stop all this but belonging to poorer and weaker section of society (dalits) could not succeed. It is important to understand this background in order to understand the sudden, disastrous turn of events on November 13.
On this day Chhaya had gone to get some branch or leaves from a tree to make a broom. Here again the youth appears to have followed her and made an effort to molest or assault her.
On hearing the girl’s shrieks, her mother Shanti rushed to the spot. She found the youth dragging her daughter and abusing her in highly insulting ways, using unprintable words. Shanti managed to rescue her daughter from this goon, although he continued to utter bad and threatening words. Meanwhile some other villagers also gathered at the spot. Feeling badly insulted and threatened, the girl rushed towards her home.
Observing that the situation is becoming difficult for him, now the goon tried to move away. However as Shanti has also stated in a written complaint, even at the time of leaving in a disgraced way he was threatening to kill and using abusive words.
It took Shanti some time to get away from the scene where people had gathered. By the time she reached her home, her insulted, hurt and confused daughter had already committed suicide by hanging herself.
When Shanti related this deeply shocking incident at a meeting, crying at the same time, the assembled people were deeply moved and particularly several women had tears in their eyes.
Later when I met them separately, Shanti and her husband Jaswant were inconsolable. This tragedy has affected them very deeply and they are unable to recover from this. While the village community should certainly support them, at the same time officials should visit the family and assure them of all possible support for emerging from this distress, while at the same also giving assurance of strong action against the culprit.
While all such crimes should be strongly condemned and strong action should be taken against the offenders, what is most tragic is when such assaults take place against minor girls and children. In another recent incident which had sent shock waves in this region, in Masuri village of Mahuwa block a 12 year old dalit girl had been raped about 3 months back, causing serious injuries which took a long time to heal. This girl had gone to work in a field where finding her lonely and vulnerable she was attacked. In this case the culprit has been arrested and is in jail at the time of writing.
Preventive steps to minimize or eliminate the possibilities of such tragedies are certainly needed on the basis of urgency.
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The writer is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include "When the Two Streams Met" and "Planet in Peril"
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