Rape victims are known to suffer from Rape Trauma Syndrome (RTS) and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) but in 90 per cent of the cases, they receive no counselling or medical assistance.
Over 25,000 rape cases were registered in 2012, according to statistics accessed by the National Crime Record Bureau. Cases of PTSD get heightened in the case of girl victims who are raped by family members or those living in their immediate neighbourhood.
Psychiatrist Dr Sandeep Vohra, who dealt with a large number of rape victims when he was working in Lady Hardinge Hospital, believes “Clinical treatment is one aspect of handling the victim, but equally important is to provide her and her family with counselling.” Vohra, who is currently a consultant psychiatrist at Apollo Hospital, said, “The key to a victim coming out of PTSD is to provide continuity of support which often does not happen.”
Psychiatrist Dr Monica Chib says, “The trauma of being stripped of one’s dignity and of being violated leaves victims sorrowful, angry and sometimes suicidal. What adds to their trauma is the insensitivity shown by the police who frame their questions in a voyeuristic manner which adds to the victims feeling of helplessness. For children, the situation is worse because their entire world is shattered if they are raped by someone they know.”
Dr Ranjana Kumari of CRS regretted that “Ninety per cent of rape victims continue to be left to their own devices receiving little support from their family or the state. This neglect has tremendous health repercussions especially on the vulnerable girl child.”
Describing the fate of the 20 women raped in Haryana in the months of September and October, Jagmati Sangwan, general secretary of the AIDWA, pointed out, “They suffer acute victimisation and ostracisation from the village community. If they are married, as is the case with one victim, the boy’s family refuses to take them back.” Counsellors warn that the steady rise in the number of rape case victims in cousnelling departments of government and private hospitals. Psychotherapists stress that aling with better policing, attention must be paid to rehabilitating the survivor.