09/06/2015
Dolly
Dolly was 12 and a student of Class IV when she was attacked by a 25-year-old man. He had been pressuring her to enter into a sexual relationship with him even though she was a minor.
Dolly, her parents and four siblings live in a rented home at Agra. Her mother works as a domestic help, and her father is a house painter. Dolly has not yet received any relief from the administration, and all the expenses in her treatment since the attack have been borne by her family.
Dolly suffers from a breathing problem, as her nostrils were disfigured, and one of them is now closed. "Sometimes it becomes very suffocating. I wake suddenly from sleep. Not a day passes when I do not think of that incident," says Dolly.
Recalling the attack, Dolly said, "He used to work in the neighbourhood as a carpenter, and would pass lewd comments when I passed by. I told my parents about it, and they tried to reason with him. I was half his age. He got into an argument with me and my mother that day. He threw acid on my face from out of nowhere. I used to feel ashamed of my face, and of the strange stares."
For more than a year after the attack, she refused to step out of her house.
But working among other survivors at the Sheroes’ Hangout gave her courage. In a letter to her attacker she wrote “I will fight this case in court, not only for myself but for other girls, so they do not lose their courage before people like you.”
Dolly wants to become a doctor, but is struggling to raise the money required to fund her education.
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