A year on, Hathras victim’s family awaits justice

Dalit girl was allegedly gang-raped by four other caste men and left bleeding in field in village

The posters of gods and goddesses that adorned the walls of the inner courtyard, when this correspondent last visited, were missing. A CRPF jawan was guarding the roof of the two-room house. Another was in the thatch-roofed kitchen, perhaps heating some eatables. Outside, mounds of dung were raising a stench. A year after a Dalit girl was allegedly gang-raped by four men of other caste and left bleeding in the field in the Hathras village, the family of the victim is still struggling to come to terms with the constant gaze of CCTV cameras and the presence of a posse of security men.

“It feels frustrating and suffocating. We know we are safe because of them, as the incident has made us even more untouchable than before in the village, but we also want to lead a normal life,” said the victim’s father. Only a Brahmin family, he said, had agreed to till our 3.5 bighas of land and share the produce.