An Indian teenager set fire to herself after a sustained campaign of sexual harassment. The 16-year-old from the village of Kalbanjara in Sanjur died in hospital after suffering 75% burns following weeks of harassment by a group of men as she walked to school. The girl’s parents initially said she suffered the injuries after a cooking accident.
But while in hospital the youngster revealed to her bother she had doused herself in kerosene because a group of four boys had been following her six miles to school each day and making lewd comments. The girl’s brother told the Indian Express: ‘She was depressed for the past two weeks. We had asked her what was bothering her but she never disclosed anything.’
Before her death the teenager made a statement to the police in which she said: ‘I couldn’t bear the humiliation. They crossed all limits. They did things I can’t even share with you.’ The teen, who dreamed of becoming a doctor added: ‘I didn’t tell my parents as I feared that my family would stop me from going to school.’
Her brother claimed that the authorities had mishandled her case. However four men have now been arrested and charged with making obscene gestures to a woman, outraging female modesty, abetting the suicide attempt of a minor, and violating the country’s Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences Act.
In April a different girl attempted suicide by dousing herself in petrol after she was allegedly gang-raped by her uncle and four of his friends.
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