This Article is From Aug 29, 2009

Raped student recounts the horror

Jaipur: In Jaipur, a case of rape has been reported by a school student against her principal. There are now allegations of the principal also harassing other school students that's what the victim said while speaking with NDTV.

The victim Reshma, now undergoing treatment in a Jaipur hospital, told NDTV that the principal not only raped her but also beat her and threatened to kill her if she told anybody about the incident.

"Sir asked me to keep a bucket in his room. Then he caught me and stuffed a cloth in my mouth so I could not scream.  He shut the door and switched off the lights. He then opened the drawstrings of my salwar and hit me on the stomach. After that I went back home. He threatened to kill me if I told this to anyone."

The girl went to back home but when she told her mother about the bleeding, her mother sent her back to school the next day thinking she was menstruating.

Reshma was too terrified to speak about the rape but the next day when the principal raped her again she finally broke down.

The incident has now opened up a can of worms.

Children studying in that school allege the principal was a habitual offender. He would call female students into his room on some pretext or the other and molest them, but the students say they were too scared to speak out.

The victims perhaps will also never come forward because of the humiliation and the shame of being branded.

Statistics by NGO's working in this sector say that at least 60 per cent of children in India undergo some kind of sexual abuse in childhood, but most of them never speak out.
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