The predator is just next door

Pranitha, a working mother, took all necessary precautions to not let her daughter have the same nightmare as she did. Pranitha was abused by her own cousins when she was only nine years old. The abuse however didn’t stop there. “…They (cousins) continued sexually abusing me till I was 16. It’s sad that my own cousins did this to me with the threat that if I reveal, the abuse would get worse,” says Pranitha.
It’s this nightmare that she lived for years that made her determined to protect her daughter in every possible way. “When my girl was born, I told myself that I will never let something similar happen to her. I ensured right from the beginning that she was made aware of the good and bad touch, to never open the door to a stranger, or even to a known ‘man’, to always be aware of her surroundings just so that she would be protected. But I couldn’t…,” says a distraught Pranitha.
Her daughter was only 13 when she was almost molested by a man known to her. “This happened five years back and the perpetrator was a 35-year-old man. We had an emergency electrical problem at our house and since I knew the electrician (he was the apartment’s resident electrician), I gave my daughter permission to open the door so that the work could be attended to, and I left for work. A few hours later, my daughter called to tell me that the guy tried to molest her and that she slapped him and pushed him out of the house. I rushed home, held her close and promised to punish the man. Since the work was not done in the morning, he returned in the evening, probably thinking that my girl would not have the guts to report it to me. Believe me, I have never hit a man as badly as I did that guy that day,” shares Pranitha.
The above mentioned cases are not in isolation as data points out that in most cases of crime against women, the perpetrator is someone known to the victim. According to police, 81 cases of rape, 172 cases of molestation and 64 cases of abduction were reported in the city last year and these cases are a tad higher compared to the previous year. “In almost each and every case of rape and molestation, the accused is a person who is known to the victim,” says G Eliya Sagar, ACP at CCRB (City Crime Record Bureau), adding, “Beware of people whom you trust as in most cases the abusers are people whom you have trusted.”
Niharika, a young student from the city, shares her story of abuse at the hands of a 40-year-old man who she called “uncle” and who has a son almost her age! “My father passed away when I was in the IV grade and ever since, I have been brought up by my mother. As I grew up, the absence of a father figure also made me someone who had to get things done on her own. In 2013, an uncle from my neighbourhood got acquainted with me. His wife was a tailor and I visited her place to get my clothes stitched. That’s how this uncle met me. I always saw him as an elder person who came across as caring whenever he spoke to me. I never ever thought that he had other intentions and that he was a pervert. He would speak to me whenever I went to get my dresses stitched. Later, when I got my mobile phone, he took my number. I didn’t read too much into it because I saw him as an uncle and so far, he hadn't done anything to me. But would call me sometimes and even visited me at my hostel a couple of times. Like I said, he came across as an elderly caring person and I didn’t see anything wrong in it. However, soon enough, he started calling me often and then stalking me. He would call late in the night too. That’s when I realised something was very wrong. That's when I decided to give it back to him and warned him that I would tell my mom and lodge a police complaint. Later, when I shared this incident with one of my friends, I was surprised to know that he had harassed her too,” Niharika shares.