A fight for dignity - 5 lakhs for rape

"How far do you live from here?" About 25 minutes driving time, was my answer. "Twenty five minutes is enough for you to get raped." I was taken aback. "Would your family abandon you if you were raped on your way home?"

She sat crouched with her kalidaar lehnga encircling her being. Quiet.

Close to Lacho, who bears the scars of gang rape. Laugh lines spread from the edges of her crinkled eyes. Wrinkles interlaced with life's chequered play. A calmness conceals the inner turmoil. She is a village woman.

Uneducated. She lives in a land where a daughter-in-law, raped by her father-in-law, is directed to marry him.

She lives with far greater equanimity than 13-year-old Rukshana's mother who rejected her daughter after she was raped in East Delhi. For her rape does not mean "all is lost". She is Lacho's mother-in-law. One lady who can put her urban counter parts well-educated, biological mothers to shame.

What is her claim to fame? Nothing much. Just that she loves her daughter-in-law as much as she loves her daughter. Lacho was gang-raped in her village, Katkar, (Karoli district, Rajasthan), where she was training as a 'sahyogini' under the ICDS, Women and Child Welfare department, on December 30, 2005.

Solid support

Lacho's husband and his mother sit close to Lacho, each by her side, smiling at her, their silent eyes constantly reassuring. Gentle smiles that spoke of unconditional love. She spoke in muted tones to Lacho, "Don't worry about the children, she (sister-in-law) will take care of them.

We have to get your bayaan done before the Magistrate, we cannot weaken now." Her fragile face belies the steely grit in her eyes. I thought to myself, "she is so beautiful, must have been a... But then it is the inner warmth of being a good human being...yes, that is just it."

"She is the mother of my son's children." She looks at Lacho, "She's been living with me for eight years, how can I give up a daughter like her? Will you hate your daughter if she gets raped? It was no fault of hers. I wanted her to do something worthwhile for the community, so she was training to be an *Anganwadi* worker. My son and Lacho, both have studied till the eighth grade. We cook, tend the fields together."

"On the night of December 30, Dayawati, from the same department called Lacho to the Ram Vilas marriage hall. She was drugged, gang-raped by three supervisors of the department and left in a local hospital for the next two days.

We did not know she had been raped since she was put under heavy sedation. Soon as it hit us, my son tried to lodge an FIR but was denied. That is the common story of our country. The first FIR was lodged amidst much hue and cry by NGOs and social workers on January 20, 2006."

Lacho was brought to Jaipur in a semi-comatose state? anything to prevent her from revealing the truth. "Her eyes would flutter in vain to remain open. They tried to declare her as a psychic case. She couldn't, for that reason, identify one of the alleged rapists who remains free till date."

"Her medical reports had big words like `reactive depression and hypothyroidism but why wasn't `victim of sexual assault' highlighted? I think of Bhanwari Devi; her determination to fight it to the last keeps me going.

Admirable devotion

We got the Visakha Judgement because of her. Why are men being given positions of managers in a department like this? Why are the "saathins" across the country quiet? Why is there no country-wide protest at the grass root level against atrocities like these?" Her eyes more eloquent than her tone. Even while crouching, she sat tall.

In Lacho's husband I saw invincible devotion. "She wanted to buy clothes, we bought this flaming orange odhni , the matching "lehnga" is getting stitched." Education or no, he seemed far more `literate' than most men. It boils down to balanced upbringing and internalising humane values. Lacho's 'bayaan ' was recorded before the Civil Judge and Judicial magistrate under Section 164, Criminal Procedures Act in the first week of February and two of the five accused are in custody.

Cut to July-August, 2006. Lacho has two sons. She was still breast-feeding her young son till the day she was raped. The child passed away on August 10.

Lacho had to be present in court that day before the Additional Sessions Judge, who, in spite of being informed of the tragedy, closed the evidence on her case. What will she do now? Her family is her only support. They live in the shadow of the trauma. Every single day, the rape continues.

She faces the trauma of reliving those hellish moments each time she has to make a statement, go to court, answer the summons. She has to hear the customary barbs by "enlightened" citizens of society.

"There goes the `masterni' who sold her 'izzat' for a Rs. 500 job." "Why do you have to get involved in a court case?" "Why can't you accept the offer of Rs. five lakhs, change your statement and forget the case?"

Her mother-in-law may have fainted on hearing of her tiny grandson's death, but "we will not cow down before such pressures." I see no need to name this lady, I wish every woman to be like her.

She mocks at `educated' suggestions: "Will five lakhs cure the scars Lacho bears on her soul?", thumping her hand on her chest. "Will it make her forget she was an innocent *anganwadi* worker and that another woman was responsible for tricking her into being alone with her rapists? Forget that under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, Lacho is entitled to Rs. one lakh as relief (Rule 12(4)), of which only Rs. 25,000 was paid to her at the time of lodging the FIR and that money was filtered away?

Relief money?

Forget that she has given in a written application to the Collector, requesting for the remaining amount to be paid up, which has been ignored? Forget that the it is the Tehsildar's duty to ensure that she gets the relief money?

Forget that her case was a clear-cut case of prima facie under Section 3, since she is a Meena but that it was conveniently dropped from her case? Forget that on July 31, when she and her husband were headed towards the court to answer the summons and give further statements, a constable stopped them at the bus stand in their village, delayed them by more than two hours and then to be told that, "you are too late, your date is not today?"

The force of fury

Her voice is soft but the words come pelting down with the fury of a heart that seemed to be crying out loud. We must not forget that this is a rural, uneducated family from the back roads of Rajasthan, with an income of Rs. 60 per day.

We must not forget that this is an iconic family living by an inherent wisdom and large hearts. We must not forget that Rs. five lakhs combined with social and political pressure is "not" the price that will compensate for the horrors of rape. That the dignity of womanhood does not come so cheap...

(The Hindu)