Neighbours keep rape survivors’ home fires burning

Ghaziabad: The neighbours of the Bulandshahr rape survivors’ family in the Ghaziabad colony remained sensitive to their lot and wondered while politicians continued to visit them on Thursday without any sign of actually addressing their needs.
One resident told TOI that while the neighbours were actually helping the family which is reeling under trauma and financial difficulty, politicians of different hues were dropping in one after the other.“We are helping the family while the politicians are merely paying visits,” he said.
Residents assembled outside the house said the family was in need of financial help to keep the home fires burning since the father of the teenage survivor has not been able to resume his work since the day of the horror in Bulandshahr. “We are the ones who collected money to help the family but the politicians are paying their visits mechanically and merely talking,” said Ram Dutt Dixit, a resident who owns a clinic.
On Thursday morning, when Congress leaders Sheila Dixit, Jitin Prasad and Rajeev Tyagi came to meet the rape survivors, locals raised slogans against them. After meeting the rape survivors, Congress chief ministerial candidate Dixit assured the family of help even as she criticised the UP government for not providing adequate security to citizens.
Not impressed, a number of colony residents opposed her by raising slogans such as “Sheila Dixit Jawaab do” (We need answers).
In response, Dixit said, “We are ready to admit her in the best of schools. If her parents want to send her to a boarding school, we are ready to help them do that. Castigating the SP government, she said, “Akhileshji jaag jao, apke Pradesh me gairkanooni hai“ (Please wake up Akhileshji, there is lawlessnessness in your state).”
When asked to comment on the controversial remark by UP BJP leader Swami Prasad Maurya calling her “rejected maal (commodity) from Delhi”, she refrained from responding.
Some residents believed that politicians’ visits were compromising the rape survivors’ identity. “With their publicity-oriented visits, they have revealed to the world the residence of the rape survivors,” a neighbour said.
Rajan Devi, a resident, told TOI that at the outset the family members were sceptical about whether they would be comfortable in the Ghaziabad colony and the neighbours assured them of help in making them feel at home. “Politicians’ visits must end for them to be in peace,” Devi said.