Story 17: Rape of 6 girls by a teenager
………….is a 15-year-old teenager living in Surkhet District, Panchapuri Municipality, Ward No……………… He was staying home on holiday, as he had just completed his SEE examinations.
It was the month of July, and all the children stayed at home because the school was closed due to the rainy season. As it was also the farming season, most of the community’s people were busy working in the fields, i.e. planting the crops, leaving their children alone at home. Taking advantage of the parents being absent, the teenager with Kandel surname called over six girls of age between five and six to his room with a promise of showing them a movie on his mobile phone. Among the girls, the teenage boy on the first day brought two girls and raped them in his room, and on the next day, he called over four other girls enticing them with chocolate. He later showed them porn videos and eventually raped all four of the girls. The fathers of all 6 girls who were raped are in India. Among the girls, the teenager was found to have raped one girl regularly tempting her with chocolate. The girl is currently studying in class one and is living with her grandmother as both her parents are in India.
The teenage boy has been telling all the girls not to tell anyone what he has done. The boy tempted girls with sweets as well as threatened the girls saying, he would hang them on a tree and kill them if they disclosed any of his wrongdoings. Therefore, all the girls kept quiet with the fear of being killed. One day, the mother of one of the girls brought her daughter outside to urinate at night. The girl cried saying her private part was hurting. When the mother asked what happened, the girl told her mother that, “Kandel Dai(Brother) brought me and five other girls to his room one by one with the promise of showing us a film. I am hurting because he did a bad thing with me.” The girl also told her mother not to share this information with anyone else because that teenage boy had threatened them and would kill them if he knew she shared the information with her mother. The next morning, all the other five girls were asked if what the first girl said was true or not. The information was affirmed by all five girls.
The major reason why the girls are in danger is because their fathers aren’t home and their mothers are busy with agricultural work. This has created a very dangerous situation in the community for the young children.
After the news was confirmed by all six families, they met and discussed what to do further. However, when the relatives of the teenage boy came to know everything, they argued that the issue was simple and all the girls were safe. The teenage boy’s relatives even tried to have a discussion where they said they would bear the cost of treatment if it is needed and the issue had to be sorted out amongst themselves as it was a matter of social prestige. The relatives of the teenage boy were more concerned with their prestige than the well-being of the little girls. Later, when the children from, Namuna Baal Samuha (Model children’s group) and Ekata Yuwa Samuha (Unity youth group) came to know about the issue, they contacted and informed social mobilizer Kalpana Nepali over the phone. The children from the youth groups informed that despite the severity of the issue it was tried to be reconciled just with community meetings.
After getting the information, the social mobilizer called the mother of one of the girls who had suffered more physical damage and requested the mother to come to the local police station. The social mobilizer also informed the police about the incident over the phone. Later, the girl’s mother and social mobilizers filed a complaint with the police. Police took action swiftly and went to the community and collected the bond based on the statements of all the girls and their parents.
After discussion and consultation with the parents and children in the Aawaaj, they were placed in a safe house. As the times of incidents were different, it was decided during the meeting with the district police office that six separate cases needed to be created. In coordination with the district police office, Aawaaj created six cases and registered them in the district police office. Currently, all the girls and their parents are living in a safe house. The legal process is ongoing.