Fund to rehabilitate a 5 year old Dalit girl raped

http://www.teluguportal.net/modules/news/article.php?storyid=13737

New Delhi, Sep 15 (IANS) A six-year-old Dalit girl from Uttar Pradesh continues to battle for life nearly a year after she was brutally raped, resulting in her uterus getting damaged.

On Oct 4 last year, the victim was kidnapped while she was sleeping in her home in a village in Hamirpur district. A man from a dominant caste assaulted her near a temple.

She was later found in a pool of blood. Her medical examination revealed that her genitals and uterus were severely damaged.

Although she was operated upon immediately, doctors at a district hospital had advised more operations over the next few months, to be followed by plastic surgery.

The victim's parents, however, do not have the necessary funds and the girl continues to suffer from physical pain and mental trauma.

"She belongs to a very poor Dalit family. Her father is a landless labourer. Her family has spent more than Rs.50,000 which they had raised by taking loans from a village moneylender," said Santosh Kumar Samal, executive director of the Dalit Foundation that is trying to raise funds for the girl's rehabilitation.

While the family received a paltry sum of Rs.25,000 as compensation from the district administration, the amount was spent in repaying the debt taken for her treatment.

"Apart from the financial burden, the family is also suffering from social ostracising. No one in the village is willing to help them out except a few Dalit activists," Samal told IANS here.

"Now the doctors have advised her to undergo two more operations as soon as possible. The surgery will cost her family more than Rs.30,000. The expenditure on her medical treatment is estimated to be around Rs.100,000," he said.

Samal said the Dalit Foundation was trying to raise sufficient funds and get all that is required to take care of not only the medical treatment but for her complete rehabilitation.

"The child is not able to go to school or lead a normal life because of her present condition," he added.

--By Arun Anand