Rani (name changed) is grieving over her older sister Sweta’s death. On September 29, Sweta, from a village in Balrampur district of Uttar Pradesh, about 800 kms away from Ballabhgarh, left for college, excited and looking forward to completing admission formalities into her third year of B Com, but she returned home, injured, in shock and nearly unconscious. Her family rushed her to the hospital, but Sweta died on the way. She was allegedly gang-raped. The case has reached the courts of law, the accused are in jail and the police have assured the family that the culprits will be punished. 

Struggling with the irreparable loss and the horror of what happened with her sister, Rani is also bracing up for a tough road ahead, not just for herself but other girls too, who may be dreaming of an education in schools, colleges and perhaps a career.  

“Now girls will be educated just enough to be married off, and not because they need to secure themselves a future. As it is the girls in the village hardly get a chance to get out of the house and after such incidents, there will be more restrictions,” she feared. When I go out, people will point out and say, ‘there goes the girl whose sister was gang-raped’. We will always be judged,” Rani told Gaon Connection.

“Although it is not their fault, the blame for rape and molestation, are always pinned on the girls,” Smriti Singh, Lucknow-based expert on gender and women issues, told Gaon Connection. “Girls do not report incidents of harassment and molestation at college or coaching classes because they know and fear their studies would be stopped. Let alone colleges, the girls are not safe even at home. Unless the mindset changes, gender issues are brought into popular discourse, and immediate action is taken against the accused,” she added.

As per the 2011 Census, the literacy rate of women in India (64.64 per cent)  was 16.25 per cent lower than men (80.89 per cent). This gap widens in the rural hinterlands. The number of girls being educated reduces steadily from the primary, through middle and high school to matriculation and college, as compared to boys. Smriti Singh agreed that the girl students’ drop-out rate increases as they grow older. “Although there may be a healthy presence of girls in the city colleges, the actual ratio in rural areas is quite skewed. The major impediment to the girl child’s education is her safety or rather lack of it,” she reiterated.

As per the 2019 report of the National Crime Records Bureau (page 212), a total of 4,977 rapes were reported of girls below 18 years of age in the country (144 girls below the age of six, 428 girls between the ages six and 12, and 1648 and 2757 girls between 12 and 16 and 16 and 18 years of age respectively).  

The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) of 2017 had also expressed similar concern that about 39.4 per cent of adolescent girls in the 15-18 age group are not attending any educational institution. Poor economic conditions of her family, social outlook, lack of school facilities, lack of awareness and most of all the safety of the girl child are compelling reasons why the girl child is losing out on an education. 

According to a 2019 report by the non-profit Child Rights and You (CRY), titled Educating the Girl Child, 25.2 per cent of school dropouts across the country happen because of the distances the child may have to travel to reach her school. The fear of the untoward happening overrules the desire and will of girls to attend school.

The fear is not unfounded. In May 2019, a 15-year-old girl, Poonam (name changed) living in Hardoi district of Uttar Pradesh was allegedly gangraped on her way back from school.  Her family struggled to file the first information report (FIR) that was registered only three days later. It took two months, 164 statements and a medical test of Poonam, before the accused were apprehended. However, they are out on bail now and the court case is underway.

Ever since, Poonam’s studies have been discontinued and she lives confined within the walls of her house. It has meant the end of her education and future prospects. Poonam watches her friends coming or going to school only from behind the wooden doors of her house. “When I used to study in school and have holidays, I used to get bored sitting at home. But now I don’t go to school anymore,” Poonam told Gaon Connection. “I don’t feel like studying anymore. Everyone knows that I have been raped. What would I say if someone asks me about that day? I am not even sure if anyone will talk to me,” said Poonam, her voice choking up.  

“I want to go to school and study and play with my friends. I really miss going out of the house but I cannot step out anymore,” Neha (name changed) told Gaon Connection. The 15-year-old was raped when she was 12 years old and was studying in the fourth grade. She kept the fact hidden from her mother who eventually found out but it was too late to do anything about Neha’s pregnancy. She gave birth to a son at the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in Lucknow on December 30, 2017. Neha remained with the child for three months in Balika Gruh (shelter for the girl child). She was then sent back home while her child was put in a government shelter home. The accused has recently been set free and Neha does not know of her child’s whereabouts. There is no question of her continuing school. 

Neha’s house is a prison for her where she lives confined, friendless and without any education. She only steps out with her mother and dreads the possibility of conversations with people she may encounter. “I fear people asking me all sorts of questions. Everybody will want to know what happened that day, or what had happened to the baby” said Neha, burying her face in dupatta to hide tears. But the biggest heartbreak Neha says is that while she was once a beloved sister, now her older brother has stopped talking to her.

According to a news report published in Satyagraha in the year 2016, as many as 50 girls from Class VI-XII of a village in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, have dropped out of school fearing molestation and sexual violence. Forty girls from a village in Rewari district of Haryana, too withdrew from school due to similar fears. Out of these 40 girls, two were state level Kabaddi champions. In 2015, about 200 girls in 12 villages of Mirganj tehsil of Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh left school fearing sexual violence by local youths.

As per the National Crime Records Bureau data for the year 2019, of a total of 89,292 cases of molestation registered across the country, 12,157 cases were registered in Uttar Pradesh alone. Odisha followed with 11,318 cases,  Maharashtra with 10,512 cases, Rajasthan registered 8,807 cases, and Madhya Pradesh recorded 5,607 cases.

As per the report of sample registration system’s baseline survey 2014, about 16 per cent of girls in the age group 15 to 17 years had dropped out of school. In Gujarat, 26.6 per cent of girls aged 15 to 17 had left school while 84.1 per cent girls in Jharkhand, 79.2 per cent in Madhya Pradesh, 79.4 per cent in UP and 75.3 per cent in Odisha, had dropped out before Class X. 

“The crime against a woman in our system and society is not considered a crime at all unless she is murdered,” Seema Samriddhi Kushwaha, a Delhi-based lawyer associated with both the Nirbhaya and Hathras case, told Gaon Connection. “Criminals who harass girls should be punished within a period of two months. Only if the law is enforced in such a way, will there be any change,” said Kushwaha.  

Hundreds of cases of molestations and rapes go unreported because the girls and their families feel they will not be taken seriously, or that there will be societal repercussions if the matter is made public. “If such crimes are taken seriously at the police station level, incidents of rape would be considerably reduced. Prompt police action upon the complaint of one girl will also encourage other girls to come forward with theirs, ” pointed out Kushwaha.

“Beyond the physical injuries, the scars of crimes such as rape or molestation lead to much deeper mental trauma,” Yogesh Narayan, a sociologist and guest faculty at the department of social work, Banaras Hindu University, told Gaon Connection. 

“A woman’s modesty is inextricably linked to pride in our society and the victims of sexual violence are made to feel as if their entire life has lost its meaning. Their schooling, education and subsequently, their entire career is thus decimated,” added Narayan. Even if there are a few parents in the rural areas, who will reach out to the police and report the matter, the victim is often offered no psychological counselling which leaves them mentally disturbed, he observed.

Read the first part of the series ‘Who’s Responsible?’ here.