School turns away E. Delhi rape victim

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Defence lawyer A.P. Singh takes on a protester heckling him outside the Saket court in New Delhi on Wednesday

The massive outrage and protests in the city against her rape seem to be just a token exercise going by what the five year-old Gandhi Nagar rape victim and her family is going through. The girl has been denied admission in a school.
Following the incident, the family had moved out from their rented accommodation in Gandhi Nagar. The girl’s father had moved in with his younger brother in a distant neighbourhood of Delhi. But when the family approached a school there for her admission, the girl’s father and uncle were told to leave.
The girl’s uncle Santosh alleged that Nirmal Bharti School in Dwarka refused to admit her. “The future of the 5-year-old is in dark. We hopes that education would make her future bright, but those dreams are shattered now.”
The school authorities did not respond to the charge.
Former IPS officer Kiran Bedi said, “It is very unfortunate that an educational institute has denied admission. Government should be responsible for the rehabilitation of the girl.”
The family has decided to approach women’s commission. “We would now approach Women’s Commission with a complaint against the authorities and school,” said Santosh.
Delhi Commission for Women chairperson Barkha Singh said that the commission would help the family by all means. She said, “What the school has done is absolutely wrong.”
The girl’s father said that she is being sent for private coaching. The government and authorities had made tall promises regarding the girl’s education after the gruesome incident on April 15.
The girl’s uncle told this newspaper that the family is bearing all medical expenses of the girl’s treatment despite promises from the government, UPA president Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Union health minister Gulam Nabi Azad and Delhi urban development minister Arvinder Singh Lovely.
“Now the officials do not even answer our phone calls,” said the girl’s uncle.
The girl’s mother is depressed. She needs counselling, added Santosh.
The girl was raped, injured and left to die with her internal and sexual organs damaged. Her father, a labourer, had moved from flood-prone Sitamarhi in Bihar to Delhi in 2010. He found work as a construction worker and earned `200 a day.
The girl came to Delhi with her mother last year when her father found regular work.