Nagpur: 10-year-old attacked with iron rod for resisting harassment, misses month of school

The government and administration repeatedly claim that young girls get a safe environment while going to school. But a 10-year-old girl in Nagpur has been unable to go to school for the past month because Nagpur police have failed to take firm action against the boys who harassed her on her way to and from tuition classes and beat her and her 8-year-old brother when she resisted.

The incident took place in the Pachpaoli area of Nagpur. In the evenings, the 10-year-old girl, while returning home from tuition class with her younger brother, would be harassed by four local boys with no fixed occupation. Seeing that the brother and sister did not resist, the boys grew bolder and began taking the girl into the dark and touching her body inappropriately. When the girl tried to scream, they would stuff their fingers into her mouth and threaten to beat her if she told anyone. This continued for several days in August, and the girl began losing interest in her studies and refusing to go to tuition.

In the second week of August, while returning from tuition again, the boys tried to take the girl into a dark lane, and this time she resisted. Enraged, one of the accused struck her several times on the legs, waist and other parts of her body with an iron rod resembling a pipe. Groaning in pain, the girl somehow reached home. Late that night, when her mother noticed the injury marks on her body and questioned her, the girl and her brother told their parents everything that had been happening for several days. Realising the seriousness of the matter, the parents immediately went to the police station and filed a complaint.

Police registered a case, but the family alleges that only one of the four accused has been arrested. The other three have been roaming free for the past month and are seen in the same area, which is why the victim and her brother have stopped going to school altogether for the past month.

On the persuasion of her parents, the girl went to school on September 4, but she spotted one of the accused, who was roaming free, near the school. Since then, the frightened girl has again refused to go to school. This sad case of a girl's education being disrupted due to the lack of firm police action against harassment has come to light in Nagpur. Officials at the Pachpaoli police station declined to comment on the matter. Police say the victim could not identify the accused, which is why action could not be taken against all of them. According to police officials, action has been taken based on the information the victim and her parents provided when they filed the complaint on August 14.