In yet another shocking incident, a three-year-old girl in Kolkata was raped by a 45-year-old bus cleaner while her brother pleaded with the accused to let her go.
The boy's five-year-old brother reportedly kept banging on the door of the bus asking the accused to leave his sister alone. When his efforts went in vain, the brother informed their mother who sounded an alarm. Neighbours rescued the baby girl and rushed her to R G Kar Medical College and Hospital.
The girl was bleeding profusely when she was brought in, but doctors expressed hope she'd pull through, reports said.
"She had bled profusely but her condition has improved since last night and possibly she will survive. Signs are clear that she had been brutalised," one senior doctor was quoted as saying by Press Trust of India.
The accused, identified as Sheikh Munna, lured the toddler into the luxury bus when she went to get a ball that fell near Munna's bus.
“We saw the girl lying on a bus seat. Munna had blood on his hands and trousers. The child’s clothes were torn and she was bleeding profusely,” the child's uncle was quoted as saying by TOI.
Crime against children is on the rise, with the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights saying that there has been a 300 percent increase in crime against children in six years since 2009. Children below 12 reportedly have a higher abuse rate as they are more vulnerable, and in most cases, abusers are known to victims. Sadly, most of these cases are not reported.
In recent times, there have been numerous instances of children, some as young as eight-months-old, being sexually assaulted by adults. Although stricter laws are in place to ensure children's safety, there appears to be no significant decrease in the number of children who are abused.
