This story is from September 17, 2021

Nightmare continues for Hathras family

Nightmare continues for Hathras family
HATHRAS: A year since the Dalit girl from Hathras, 19, was allegedly gang-raped and murdered by four upper caste men in her village, her family is trapped in its quest for justice. They have been under security cover the entire time, don’t step out unless they have to and have faced so much hostility that they sent the victim’s six-year-old niece to be brought up by her uncle in Firozabad.
While they try to put the pieces of their lives back together, a part of the compensation, a job and a house — promised by the government — are yet to come their way because of a “misunderstanding”.
“Sending our girl to school is not safe here anymore. We did not want her to grow up in this environment. There is too much hostility and stigma,” said the younger brother. Upper caste families of the four accused wield considerable influence over the village and seem to have garnered support for them. “It seems as if it is our fault somehow,” the brother added.
Eight of them are left at home now — the victim’s mother, father, grandmother, two brothers, sister-in-law and two nieces. No one in the house has had a job in a year. “I can’t work with a six-man security detail around me all the time,” the younger brother said. “There always was caste discrimination. It is worse now,” the brother added. “We are the ones in detention.”
“She used to love knitting,” the victim’s sister-in-law said. In a corner of the house, colourful door mats she had knitted — the last thing she made — lie exactly where she had left them. “We have not immersed her ashes. We won’t until we get justice,” the sister-in-law added. “The government has fulfilled none of its promises except the Rs 25-lakh assistance.”
There was also a job and a house the government had promised. DM Ramesh Ranjan told TOI, “As far as I know, the family had told the administration it doesn’t need any support.” That statement, their counsel said, was taken out of context from a court hearing. “They had told the court they wanted nothing but justice. The district administration seems to have taken it literally,” she said.
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