In Hathras, Nothing Remains The Same After Gangrape Case

FOUR years after the gangrape and death of a Dalit teen jolted the nation's consciousness, Bhool Garhi is a village forgotten, mired in neglect and the struggle for basics, the elections only a distant echo in the uneasy quiet of everyday life.

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The 2020 incident of the 19year-old woman who was brutally assaulted, allegedly by upper caste men in the village, and died two weeks later in a Delhi hospital has further polarised the village between the Thakurs and the SC community.

Cut off with no proper road access, leaving people to walk the last mile, Bhool Garhi - the name ironically translating to forgotten citadel -- is a small village, its primary occupants being 90 families of upper caste Thakurs and four Dalit families. For the residents of Bhool Garhi, the tragedy four years ago casts a long shadow but life has returned to the urgent concerns of life - rising prices, unemployment and the struggle for survival.

"We were promised a home but just received one instalment of it and sanitation issues are very serious here as you can see,' said a woman in the Dalit basti outside her home marooned in gutter water.