“No one can understand our pain,” says rape victim's mother

The 10-year-old girl was visiting her relatives in Delhi last year when her brother-in-law’s cousin lured her to a deserted spot near the Ghazipur vegetable market and assaulted her for hours.

“I can’t be at peace till my daughter’s attacker is punished,” says a 10-year-old rape victim’s mother in response to Mulayam Singh’s comment that rapists shouldn’t be hanged.

The woman said that her family’s pain was something no one else could understand, least of all Mr. Singh, who should have put more thought into the statement.

While narrating her daughter’s tragic case over the phone from Haridwar, the woman burst into tears. “Even after one year, I can’t talk about it without getting emotional. My daughter is still traumatised,” the woman added.

The girl was visiting her relatives in Delhi last year when her brother-in-law’s cousin lured her to a deserted spot near the Ghazipur vegetable market and assaulted her for hours.

“If what Mulayam Singh is saying is right, then the rapists will not get punished. If one is not punished, more men will indulge in such disgusting acts,” the woman said.

She said she wouldn’t want anyone else to go through what her daughter has faced. “She was a bright student, the first one from our family of illiterates to go to school. We had such high hopes for her, but now her whole life is ruined.”

According to the mother, anything short of the harshest punishment would not be justice. She hoped that politicians would think before making such statements that end up increasing the sense of hurt.