A mother’s continuing ordeal

Her daughter was raped in a playschool in January

July 27, 2014 11:55 pm | Updated April 22, 2016 03:04 am IST - BANGALORE:

The rape of a six-year-old in a Marathahalli school earlier this month galvanised hundreds of people to fight for justice to the girl. The incident also brought to light similar crimes that took place in the past.

The mother of a two-and-a-half-year-old child, who was raped in January this year in a playschool, was among those who took to the streets to vent her anger. In an interview with The Hindu , she spoke about her continuing ordeal and fight for justice.

“When I heard about this case, my instant reaction was why should another child have to go through the same ordeal? How many more such cases do we have to see?” she said.

More than six months after her daughter was raped allegedly by a driver in a school bus on the playschool premises, she said she was yet to come to terms with what happened.

“That man did not spare my daughter who was in diapers, and the school management claims that they had no idea about it. Either they knew and tried to hush up the case or they were negligent,” she said.

Visits to the police station and the Karnataka State Commission for Protection of Child Rights became a routine for her. “I want to fight to get justice for my daughter.”

She said she also had to be with her daughter, who had gone into a shell. “She would cry every night. She could not stand even male family members,” she said.

She added that the bureaucracy needed to be sensitive to such crimes. “The judiciary has been awfully slow. Not a single hearing has been called after the charge sheet was filed, and we hear the government talking about fast-track courts?”

Having a separate cell to deal with such crimes would help in ensuring that they do not go unreported, she said. “Awareness is poor and people do not know what steps need to be taken,” she said.

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