No Justice For Geeta? Three Months On, Delhi Madrassa Rape Victim Struggles For A Seat In School  

It’s been close to three months since a 10-year-old Delhi girl was allegedly kept confined in a madrassa for a night and gangraped. The case rocked the city and led to a spate of protests and demonstrations demanding the culprits be hanged and the madrassa sealed. Hashtag #JusticeForGeeta trended on social media for days, and high-profile political leaders landed at the family’s humble residence in Mayur Vihar in solidarity.

But all this seems to have done little to either ensure swift justice to the survivor or to help her get on with life with dignity.

Geeta (not her real name) is struggling for even a school seat. It’s July, and while students all across Delhi have resumed school after a long summer break, Geeta is being turned back from one school after another because of what has “happened with her”.

The girl’s maternal uncle, who has been standing with her like a pillar and doing all the talking to the media since the incident took place, told Swarajya earlier this week that they were turned away for the fourth time by a school. “The management told me they don’t have enough resources to ensure her security. You tell me, what does this even mean?” the uncle, a resident of Amethi in the adjoining state of Uttar Pradesh, said.

He narrated the episode: “We approached the school about two weeks ago through an organisation that has been trying to help my niece. Everything was going fine. We even deposited the admission and advance fee for three months. But on Monday, they called us to the school saying they want to talk. I was away from Delhi and asked my sister (the girl’s mother) to go. She was shocked when the management returned the money and told her, politely, that they have just learnt about the case and cannot give her admission.”

“They made the excuse that they do not have enough resources to ensure her security. But I know what they mean, I have heard it before. Nobody wants to deal with a rape victim,” he said.

“Please write that I am thankful to the organisation for their help. But they can only do so much. It’s up to the schools to take the final decision,” he added.

The uncle shared that it was only in the latest case that things even reached this stage. In earlier three cases, he said, the managements said ‘no’ in the beginning itself as they had been apprised of the matter.

Geeta quit her previous school after the family moved from Ghaziabad’s Arthala area to a locality in Delhi’s Mayur Vihar, some 20 kilometres away, in April. Geeta had just cleared her Class V. The crime took place two days after the family shifted to their new home on 19 April.

“The entire month of April was wasted in trips to the police station and courts. We neither had the time not the mental state to run around for admissions then,” the uncle said.

He said that by the time the family got time off the police case to focus on Geeta's admission, most schools had closed the process. Thanks to the aid organisations, whatever positive responses they are getting now are because of the references provided by them.

He said that Geeta has an interview at a school this week and, as in the previous cases, they are hopeful. "Let's see what happens," he said. "She (the survivor) is getting bored at home and is excited to join a new school. We also want her to resume a normal life as soon as she can."

The unfortunate episode speaks a lot about the rotten state of the education system. What is expected to be progressive, displays a highly regressive mentality that still blames the victim.

But, one also wonders what have all the high-profile visits and promises made by the people in power delivered except for photo-ops. The truth be told, the case attracted the attention it did from the political class because it followed close on the heels of a massive outrage triggered by the Kathua rape case, where a minor girl was allegedly kept confined in a Hindu place of worship, and raped and killed. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), particularly, was left with egg on its face after some of its leaders in Jammu participated in a rally demanding an accused in the case be released. The group was of the view that the accused had been framed by the crime branch and false charges were levelled against him, but the impression that went out in the media was that they were all shielding “rapists”. Whether the rally was defending, "rape" and "rapists" is debatable, but the image of BJP certainly took a hit.

No wonder then that it was particularly the Delhi BJP leaders who were seen in solidarity meets with Geeta’s family. Among others, BJP Delhi chief Manoj Tiwari, Union Minister Harsh Vardhan and BJP MP Maheish Girri met the family and participated in marches. They also promised the family all kinds of help.

Asked if they received any help, a relative of the girl said the family never heard from any leader again. The relative, who did not wish to be identified, shared a particularly bitter experience: "A man who introduced himself as a representative of the Centre visited our house. He left a contact who he said was the personal assistant of Smriti Irani ji and could help. But when I called up that contact, the man on the other side told me he can get my niece a school seat only next year. The man also refused to let us talk to or give an appointment with Irani ji,” the relative said.

“Why did they promise help in the first place? Only to humiliate us?” he said.

The relative said they want the Delhi or Uttar Pradesh government to help get Geeta a seat in a school.

Meanwhile, the charge sheet in the case was filed in June. It says that the minor was gang raped in a madrassa in Ghaziabad, very close to where the family lived before shifting to Delhi, said a report by The Indian Express. The accused lured her to the madrassa and kept her in a room overnight, gave her sedatives and raped her along with another accused who is absconding. He also broke the girl's phone in order to destroy the evidence.

The police have arrested the main accused and booked him under IPC sections 363 (kidnapping), 376 DB (where a girl under 12 years of age is raped by one or more persons), 201 (disappearance of evidence of offence) and Section 4/6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, according to the report. The police have also booked a cleric under POSCO as he allegedly knew of the incident but did not alert the police.