Kurseong: Scores of people braved inclement weather in the hill town of Kurseong to protest against the gangrape of a teenage girl in faraway Hathras, Uttar Pradesh
The protesters came from all walks of life and they held a candle light protest march October 2, the 151st birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, to mourn the death of the 19-year-old Dalit girl who was gang raped by four upper caste men.
She died September 29 in a New Delhi hospital two weeks after the gruesome incident. Her assailants also broke her spine and punctured her tongue.
In Kurseong, men, women and children, holding candles and banners, walked through the roads of town, situated some 4,000 feet above sea level, to challenge the politicization and communalization of the sexual slavery.
“It was a genuine demonstration of solidarity looking for prompt and befitting discipline and punishment for the culprits,” one of the girls watching the protesters from the Kurseong railway station, told Matters India.
Sneha Pradhan, one of the protesters, who demanded justice for the young woman, regrets that India is no longer safe for women. The country has become more dangerous as it protects rapists from upper caste communities. “A rapist is a rapist and if justice is not given and the accused are not hanged, the public will revolt until justice is not provided,” she told Matters India.
Surabi Gurung, another woman protester, said, “There is no action taken against the guilty and now everyone wants to shut down the voices of the protesters. This is a shame, the rapists should be hanged within a month.”