This story is from March 26, 2015

Villagers stand by the rape survivor in Varanasi

Most natives of Sajoi village have stood up in favour of the brave girl, who mustered courage to refuse the dictate of elders for compromising and marrying the alleged rapist.
Villagers stand by the rape survivor in Varanasi
VARANASI: Most natives of Sajoi village have stood up in favour of the brave girl, who mustered courage to refuse the dictate of elders for compromising and marrying the alleged rapist. Her bold step motivated people not to succumb to such pressure any more in future, and stand firmly by the survivor.
“It was wrong to pressurize the rape survivor to marry the accused.
The girl’s refusal to follow the dictate of community panchayat is appreciable, and we stand by her,” said a local native requesting anonymity. “In fact we had supported her to go to police instead of bowing down before the rapist,” he said. Like him there are many others who denounced the act of exerting pressure on a rape survivor to marry the accused.
It may be recalled that a rape survivor at Sajoi village in Jansa police station area not only refused to tie nuptial knot with the accused on the dictate of community elders but also compelled the police to arrest him on the day of wedding on Tuesday (March 24), over a month after she was allegedly raped. The accused was booked under section 376 of IPC and sent to jail.
“Some community people of both sides wanted to marry them off, but we are against such a solution that humiliates the dignity of a girl,” he told TOI adding that several panchayats of community people were held to sort out the matter, but the boldness shown by the girl proved costly to the accused. “Humlog kannon ka sahara lenge agar phir kabhi aisi koshish hoti hai,” (We will take help of law if such any attempt is made in future), he said.
Sajoi, a nondescript village about 15km from the district headquarters in the Araziline block on Varanasi-Bhadohi route, has a mixed population with Muslims, Rajbhars, Patels, and Dalits. While most Muslims are engaged in weaving, other communities are involved in other occupations.
Some of them were of the view that it is the result of increasing level of awareness among people particularly in Muslim community. “It is a good sign that Muslim girls shedding their veils are coming forward to promote literacy and eliminate backwardness in the community,” said Jamaluddin, who is associated with an NGO
Human Welfare Association (HWA) working in the area.
The girls like Tabassum Bano, Tarannum and Rubina of Sajoi village have been working for the promotion of literacy particularly among girls by running informal school for over four years. There is a government primary school in the village, but majority of the Muslim boys and girls are away from the mainstream education. They had to go door-to door to convince the parents to educate their children, and today they are happy that people are sending their children to them. They believe that they are fortunate that they could complete education up to intermediate level, as most of the elders and youngsters, especially women and girls, are still illiterate in their community. They not only teach the kids but have also joined a technical institute for vocational training. “Definitely the increasing awareness among people will help greatly in putting a check on such things,” said HWA director Dr Rajni Kant.
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