While the Nirbhaya, Kathua, Mandsaur and many other rape cases grabbed headlines, rape is a reality that half of our population lives with every day. The fear of a rapist lurking in the fields, on the way to school, when they go to relieve themselves or even in their own homes is omnipresent for women and girls in rural India. Rural Connection launched a campaign to highlight these cases – which failed to become headlines or hashtags – and in doing so, bring out the larger issues raised by so many individual cases. Join us in our campaign, Raktranjit – Bloodstains

In 2012, when a young physiotherapy student was gang-raped in a moving bus on the roads of the national capital, it shook the nation out of its apathy. The incident, later dubbed the Nirbhaya case, itself was enough to turn anyone’s blood cold, but what added to the horror was the brutality shown by the rapists.

In fact, it was the youngest rapist who was the most vicious. Though the rapists are likely to be hanged on January 22, 2020, the incidence has left so many Indians with the feeling that justice has not really been done.

This was because one of the accused — the youngest, who had inflicted the maximum violence on Nirbhaya — got away with just three years in the Majnu ka Tila Juvenile Observation Home. All because he was a few months short of turning 18 on December 16, 2012, when he committed the gruesome crime. This aspect of the case has led to several judicial amendments. But still, for a clever lawyer, finding the loopholes is an easy task.

Uma (name changed) lived in Lohiyapur village of Barabanki, a district close to Uttar Pradesh capital Lucknow. She belongs to a dalit family. Her father is no more and she lived in a small house with her mother and younger sister, eking out an existence by working as a labourer and doing odd jobs.

Next to their little home lived the family of Sooraj, higher in caste and economic status. Often, Sooraj’s bhabhi (elder brother’s wife) would call Uma to their home to help out with household chores. On one such day, Sooraj chanced upon Uma. In one swift move he grabbed her from behind with one hand, while muffling her scream with his other. He dragged her into an empty room and raped her.

After the act, he threatened to kill her if she disclosed the crime to anyone. Fearing for her life, Uma remained silent. She was only 11 at that time. And thus began a series of rapes whenever Sooraj got the opportunity. The matter came out in the open three years later when Uma, now 14, complained of several stomach pain and her mother took her to the doctor. When the doctor told Uma’s mother that she was pregnant, all hell broke loose.

“That day my mother beat me so much. She hit me with everything that she could lay her hands on — shoes, pots, a stick. For two days Amma (mother) did not give me anything to eat,” recalled Uma, as she sits in court, nursing her child, born out of rape.

“I considered him like a brother. I would call him Sooraj bhaiyya (elder brother). But he raped me in his house whenever he got an opportunity,” said Uma. Uma’s mother went to Sooraj’s family to complain, but was turned away. She was a widow of a low caste. They were thakurs.

The next recourse was the police. On August 4, 2017, Uma’s mother lodged an FIR (first information report) against Sooraj. Sooraj and his father were arrested, but only for a short time. While his father was released in a few days, Sooraj never went to jail as he claimed to be a juvenile. He was sent to a juvenile correctional home in Faizabad. He was out in five months. Today, he is free on bail, but Uma is an unwed mother. She and her family have been forced to leave their home and village because of the stigma and pressure from the other villagers.

At a time when she should be playing with toys herself, Uma became a plaything for a rich, high caste youth. Her quest for justice has run foul of the system. As the matter drags in court, the accused, Sooraj, is able to benefit from a corrupt system.

Sooraj is trying to evade punishment by claiming to be a minor. Uma’s lawyer Kismat Ali, however, said: “The age certificate is wrong. Sooraj’s Adhaar card, made on August 3, 2011, states his date of birth to be February 3, 1997. But the family of accused is relying on a school leaving certificate dated September 1, 2017 — after the FIR was registered — to prove that his date of birth is  February 3, 2000.”

Talking to Rural Connection while waiting for their hearing in the district court, Uma’s mother Kamleshi recalled what they lived through. “As Uma’s pregnancy started showing, the taunts kept increasing. It became impossible to even walk in the street — people would point and pass comments. I then decided to leave the village and we moved to a rented room in another village,” she said.

Uma also underwent immense trauma and humiliation. “The day amma told the school authorities that I was pregnant was the last day that I went to school. I was able to study only till class five. When the baby was born, my haemoglobin had dropped to 4. When it was time to get the baby’s birth registered, we were again in a fix as to what to write in the column for father’s name. On the advice of the doctors, I have written Sooraj’s name. It is painful whenever someone asks for the baby’s father’s name. Once when he was sick, the doctor kept asking for his father’s name. I had no answer,” said Uma.   

Uma’s battle to get justice for herself and her baby continues even as the accused hides behind a loophole his lawyers have been able to find in the law. It remains to be seen whether Sooraj will get away like the youngest rapist convicted in the Nirbhaya case.