Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Shalini (name changed), the five-year-old daughter of a school-teacher mother and shopkeeper father, used to stay for around 45 minutes after returning from her school at the home of their neighbour, till her mother was back from work.
One day, Shalini told her that uncle, an ex-army man, licks the place from where she urinates and asks her to lick his genitals. The 46-year-old personnel used to tell the child that this was a game which they would play every day. The parents approached the police, the man was arrested and sent to jail. But neither Shalini nor her parents have managed to overcome the trauma. Whenever she crosses the shop, which the man used to run, she gets terrified.
Counsellor at Sakhi One Stop Centre, Bhopal, Rashmi Mishra says that over the past one and half years, they have received at least 300 cases of minor (persons below 18 years of age) survivors of rape and sexual abuse or assault. The cases are referred to them by Child Line, police stations, courts and the Women and Child Development Department. “The perpetrators of such crimes may or may not suffer, but the victimsdefinitely do,” Rashmi says, adding that “the survivors are unable to get out of the trauma for months and years. They have a range of psychological and behavioural problems.”
Fourteen-year-old Maya was raped by her stepfather and got pregnant. Some neighbours, on noticing the changes in her body, called Child Line. The police were informed and the mother and the stepfather were arrested from the bus stand when they were trying to leave the city, along with Maya, to get her pregnancy terminated. Maya gave birth to a boy at the JP Hospital, which was handed over to an adoption agency.
Maya’s mother and stepfather were sent to jail. Maya is now 18 and lives in a shelter home but keeps on telling the counsellors that she wants to live with her mother. “We try to convince her that it is not possible but she is not ready to give up the hope,” says Rashmi.
The counsellor says that they help such children build a career for themselves. “We try to ensure that they get over the incident and start leading a normal life. However, sometimes we find that the condition of the survivor is not improving. In such cases, we seek the help of psychiatrists,” adds Rashmi.
Juhi, 13, was dragged away from her maternal uncle’s place, where she used to stay while her mother was away on work, and raped multiple times by a married man. She became pregnant. After the matter came to light, the pregnancy was terminated. The rapist is in jail and Juhi is in deep trauma.
Not only is she looked down upon by her neighbours but even her father, after drinking, abuses her for bringing a bad name to the family.
(All names have been changed to protect the identity of the survivors)
