Pinky’s father passed away in a road accident when she was only 6 years old and her younger brother was 4 years old. Her mother started working as a cook after the death of her husband but she was not able to take care of all the household expenditures. After about one year, her mother remarried. When Pinky was 9 years old, her stepfather attempted to rape her one day when her mother was at work. He also threatened to kill her and her mother and brother if she disclosed anything about this incident. The threat worked and Pinky never mentioned anything to her mother.

However one day her mother walked in on her husband attempting to rape her daughter. Subsequently, she left him and took her children away. Her husband apologized and asked them to come back. He also promised to not do such a thing again and she relented and retuned home. After a few days, one afternoon, while everyone was sleeping, Pinky’s mother saw her husband pulling down Pinky’s underwear with his foot. She stood up and started shouting at him following which he beat her and locked up Pinky and her in the room. However she managed to escape and went to the police station with her daughter, where registered a FIR against her husband.

The Police approached HAQ: Centre for Child Rights for their help with this case. The team met the girl and her mother and the girl was in severe trauma in the beginning. When the team would discuss the case with her mother, the girl would suddenly start shivering. Since then, the counsellor has been working with the girl and trying to reduce the emotional distress she was experiencing.

After regular sessions, the girl started to cope with what happened to her and she was able to narrate the entire incident to the counsellor. The advocate from HAQ worked consistently with the girl and her family to prepare her for the long and complicated legal process that lay ahead. After a few months, the girl went to court to give her statement and she courageously told her story in court without a single mark of fear on her face. After the statement the girl was extremely relieved and elated. Throughout the daunting process, she never once gave up and in this journey to get justice, and we salute this brave girl.