SOCIAL WORK

5 months on, healing still eludes rape victim Arun Sharma

Tribune News Service

Panchkula, March 15

A rape victim, found near the Mansa Devi temple today morning, was admitted to the Civil Hospital in Sector 6. Volunteers of Jeevan Mukt Nishulk Vidyalaya, Panchkula, spotted the woman and took her to the hospital. It was then discovered that she is a patient there and has been admitted to the hospital for more than five months.

According to Mansa Ram Ahuja, president of the NGO, the woman with plaster on her leg, spent the night in the open and was inconsolable when some women approached her offering help.

The victim was earlier found raped near Ramgarh, in a state of shock with multiple injures and a fractured leg on last October 24. After that, the victim was given psychiatric treatment as well, but with very negligible recovery, as she was not able to talk much. She could not be identified by the police as she did not reveal much about herself. However, when a reporter gave her a pen and paper to write her name, she wrote her name as Ranu Bala Bosumotary from Borpata in Assam. She wrote Sri Laskman Bosumatary as her father.

Hospital authorities said the local civil hospital was an open hospital and cases with psychiatry complication should be treated at psychiatry hospitals where trained medical staff are available to handle them.

The victim is so depressed that she has already damaged the plaster on the leg four times, informed the authorities. It is not advisable to keep a patient with such symptoms in the hospital as it could be detrimental not only to her safety but for other patients as well, added the authorities.

The woman is still under shock and does not speak to any one even after five months of the incident. She does not interact for long with other patients admitted in the same ward, added the staff. However, she whispered a few words which others found difficult to understand, said the paramedics at the hospital.

Both the deputy commissioner and the superintendent of police, Panchkula, were urged to take remedial steps in this direction, but nothing was done, rued the authorities.