WUNRN
INDIA - DR. V. MOHINI GIRI - LEADER
FOR WOMEN'S RIGHTS, PEACE, JUSTICE - ATTACKED WHILE TRYING TO PREVENT A GIRL'S
STREET ASSAULT
Dr. V. Mohini Giri of India is a
social worker and activist for women's and girls' rights in India and
throughout the world. She has been longtime Chairperson of Guild for
Service, a New Delhi-based social service organization. Mohini Giri founded War
Widows Association in 1972. She was Chairperson of the India National Commission for Women
1994-1998. Dr. Mohini Giri has received global recognition for her leadership
for peace, human rights, justice.
By Dr. V. Mohini Giri
After a very tiring day on 23rd August
2014, Saturday, when I felt too tired, I decided to have fresh air outside my
office premises, SHUBHAM, C-25, Qutub Institutional Area. I opted to take a
route on the pathway of Sanjay Van in my car which was driven by my driver.
As I started for the drive and had reached just
the corner of the office building, I saw a sight that was just beyond the moral
and humanist value of an individual. What I saw was a shameful assault of a
girl by a gang of young boys. As I went closer to really understand the
situation what I witnessed just shook me to the grounds. They were trying to
molest her by tearing off their clothes and beating her sideways. I immediately
tried to shield her by my own body. Within a minutes time a PCR van just passed
by, I tried to stop the van. The driver came down and saw the whole situation.
To my surprise he went back to the van to report to a higher official already
sitting in the van. I was told by the driver then, that “Sahib ko kahi jaldi
jana hai abhi main aapki koi madad nai kar sakta.”
Suddenly I saw a woman in her mid 30’s coming
towards me. She came closer to me and started punching me hard from left, right
and centre. Being a 76yr old widowed women and being on the medical support, I
was hurt very badly with the internal as well as external injuries. There were
about 50 onlookers. None of them including my driver could come to the rescue
of a 76yrs old former Chairperson of National Commission of Woman. Rather they
were mere spectators and cheerful audiences witnessing this irony of an old
woman. The trouble of the girl was now the trauma of an old woman. Again I saw
a PCR motorbike coming. I tried stopping it. Upon stopping, I told the police
officials to stop this fight and take the boys and everyone along. Very
rapidly the policeman started yelling at me addressing me ‘Budiya’, and
mentioned if I have any serious grievances I must report to by filing an FIR at
the police station. This raises one question in my mind, who will rescue any
one in this country if we have to face such harassment?
I went straight to my son’s place. He provided
me the first aid and a sorbitrate medicine. Till now after two days of the
incident, I am suffering from the trauma of the hard punches and the effort to
tear off my clothes. What country do we live in? Where is law and order? How
& when will the police reforms come? How person who rescues is safe guarded
in the biggest polity of
In my medical checkup the ECG was abnormal and
now I am proceeding to my cardiologist.
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