Two-year-old Chin girl sexually assaulted by local teenage boy in Delhi

14 September 2013: A Chin refugee girl, aged 2, has suffered from injuries as a result of sexual assault committed by a local Indian boy in New Delhi, according to the Chin Human Rights Organization (CHRO).

The incident took place on a staircase of the apartment mid-August while the Chin girl was playing outside their rented room. Upon hearing her daughter screaming and crying, the victim’s mother told CHRO she rushed out to check on her and found her injured and in serious pain.

Two local children playing nearby told her that a teenage boy, believed to be around 16 years old, had just run away from the scene.

The mother took her daughter to the Women Protection Clinic (WPC), an implementing partner of UNHCR, to seek urgent help. Even though theirs was an urgent case, the security guards at the gate refused entry to the mother and her daughter.

The mother then rushed her daughter to the emergency department of a local hospital. Through an interpreter, she explained what had happened to a doctor on duty. The mother reported to CHRO that the doctor refused to believe her, accusing her of lying. The doctor ordered them to leave the room without conducting a proper examination.

The next day, the mother took her daughter to another UNHCR implementing partner organization, the Social Legal and Information Centre. “A doctor at SLIC checked the condition of my daughter and confirmed that she has been sexually assaulted,” said the mother. “But they just told me I should be taking good care of my daughter and didn’t offer me any proper advice.”

On a separate occasion a few days later, the girl was again physically assaulted on the staircase by a local boy, believed to be the same teenager.

The mother saw the boy dragging her daughter along the staircase. Upon seeing the mother, the boy ran away as fast as he could.  

The girl suffered scrapes and bruises on her arms. The mother reported to CHRO that she didn’t dare approach the police or any other organization for fear of being blamed for this second incident.

The girl’s mother said: “This has left me deeply affected and mentally exhausted. I expected the UNHCR implementing partners to understand our problem and provide us with proper guidance on what we can do for my daughter’s suffering.”

“But all of them, including the doctor, just blame me for what had happened instead of helping us as much as they can to ease our pain. No mother in this world will neglect her child. I take good care of my two daughters but I cannot keep my daughter inside our tiny room all day without allowing her to play outside.”

According to CHRO, Chin community-based organizations in Delhi have documented over 100 violent assaults against Chin women and children over the past three years.#