Bihar: 15-Yr-Old Differently-Abled Girl Gang-Raped, Eyes Damaged

In a heartwrenching incident, a 15-year-old hearing and speech impaired girl was allegedly gang-raped and brutally assaulted in Bihar's Madhubani district. The police said that the accused damaged her eyes with a sharp object so that she could not identify the perpetrators.

According to reports, three people have been arrested in connection with the incident which took place on Tuesday, January 12. The victim, a Class 10 student and reportedly the daughter of a daily wage worker, had taken her goats for grazing to a field outside the village. One of the accused, from the same village as the girl, allegedly assaulted and raped her.

The accused was then joined by his two friends, who also tried to allegedly rape the girl, according to the police.

"The girl has suffered serious injury in one eye. Her second eye is also affected. She needs to get treated by an eye specialist," said the local primary health centre in-charge, reported The Indian Express.

The doctors referred her to Madhubani Sadar Hospital given her critical condition, police official Prem Lal Paswan said, as reported by NDTV. They also stated that both eyes of the minor were damaged but it was yet to be ascertained whether she had completely lost her eyesight.

"All the three have been booked for rape and also under POCSO Act provisions since the girl is a minor. A medical examination has been done. The report is awaited," said Deputy Superintendent of Police Arun Kumar Singh said.

India's rape problem

In a shocking revelation, India recorded 88 rape cases every single day in 2019. The latest data released by the National Crime Records Bureau also stated that the rape vulnerability of a girl/woman has risen up to 44 per cent in the last 10 years.

A number of rape cases reported in the past few months have put the spotlight on the country's long-standing battle against gender-based attacks. Protection of cows, passing ordinances to ban cow slaughter, the on-paper introduction of ambitious programmes to prevent crime against women and indulging in blame-game rather than delivering justice are some of the tasks prioritised by the government on the face of rising atrocities. The stigma attached to the incident, failure to punish the perpetrators, and seeing no light at the end of the tunnel often forces the survivors to take extreme steps. Meanwhile, the perpetrators are left entitled to a guilt-free life.

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