Not Safe At Home

Horror stories making headlines in the national capital have put the spotlight on the need for gender sensitisation and a safer environment for children. Despite the new laws, however, concrete action seem a long way off for thousands of minors living in insecure conditions.

- Amit Bhardwaj

Like an old wound that throbs afresh in inclement weather, the memory of 16 December brings a singeing pain when Delhi’s harsh winter sets in. The commemoration of a barbaric act in the name of Nirbhaya was meant to strengthen a society’s resolve that violent crimes against women must stop forthwith. That is why thousands of sensitive souls took to the streets to demand that the State take note of their anguish and ensure personal security.

However, the streets of the city did not become any safer — let alone its enclosed spaces. The bestiality of male predators breached all human barriers when four-year-old Neha (name changed) was violated yards away from her own house.

After it all, when she stood on a mound of garbage bleeding profusely, she struggled even to say the word ‘Papa’, let alone describe the ordeal to which she had been subjected. It was left to her grandfather Kishan to put words to the atrocities. “Blade se yahan kata (cheeks), hont par bhi blood mara. Sir pe pathar mar diya, gala ghota, (He slit her cheeks and lips, drawing blood. Hit her head with stone and tried to strangle her).”

He pauses before continuing, “Balatkar bhi kar diya (He raped her too).”

It is the evening of 9 October and the little girl is in the ICU at Safarjung Hosiptal, the very hospital where Nirbhaya succumbed to internal injuries. In Neha’s case, vaginal injuries were so severe that surgeons took two hours to repair the torn tissue, a source tells Tehelka. Alternative passages had to be created for the excretion of urine and stool. Doctors say that her physical recuperation will take at least three months.