Even three days after the incident in which 34 school girls were brutally assaulted by a mob of men, boys and women for protesting alleged harassment by boys from the village in Supaul district of Bihar, Amarlal Sardar and Malti Devi still fear for the life of their granddaughter Jyoti Kumari.
Jyoti Kumari was among those seriously injured in the attack and still has pain in her chest and nausea.
“We spent ₹900 for her check-up in a private hospital as facilities for X-ray and other tests were not available in the government referral hospital on that day…though, she is better we fear that she will be attacked again by the family members of those who have been arrested”, Amarlal Sardar and Malti Devi told The Hindu on Tuesday outside their village Jogiachahi of Kusaha panchayat, some four km from the Kasturba Gandhi residential girls school in Daparkha village.
Showing the medical prescription and money receipt of the tests done for their granddaughter, they rued that “the expenses have not been reimbursed yet by the school authorities as promised.”
Jyoti Kumari’s father Ravindra Sardar works as a labourer in Punjab. The girl is in Class VIII and along with the other girls she has come back to the hostel.
Dharilal Sardar’s nine-year-old granddaughter Radha Kumari too was attacked and sustained injuries in the incident. Radha Kumari’s father Dinesh Sardar also works as a labourer in a factory in Punjab and her mother Urmila Devi lives with her four sisters and grandparents in the village.
“We pray to God that the girls are not attacked again”, said Dharilal Sardar. “Sardar (Batar)” is a scheduled caste and falls under the Mahadalit community in this part of north-east Bihar. The Kasturba Gandhi Residential School for Girls is meant for poor students from SCs, STs, Other Backward Castes, minority community and those who have BPL (Below Poverty Line) cards.
