From trouble with registering FIRs and hostile panchayats to long court delays, Dalit women face several obstacles. Sunday Times does a reality check
In January, a 14-year-old girl in Kurukshetra, Haryana discovered she was five months pregnant. She had been raped for the last one year by a group of dominant caste men. While the POCSO Act which deals with sexual offences against children guarantees her rehabilitation provisions, she was not given any counselling or a safe place to stay. “She couldn’t have stayed in the village because she was pregnant and it was unsafe,” says Manisha Mashaal from Swabhiman Society, an organisation of Dalit women that helps rape victims and survivors in North India, mostly Haryana.
“They kept her for three months in the hospital against her will in a room that was the size of a toilet and she was…