Staff members rape six-year-old girl in India school

A six-year-old schoolgirl has been allegedly raped by two staff members at a prominent school in the southern Indian city of Bangalore, police say.

The child was assaulted on 2 July, but her parents discovered it only a few days ago after she complained of stomach ache and was taken to hospital.

Meanwhile, hundreds of parents have protested outside the school, pulling down its gates and shouting slogans.

Police have registered a case, but they are yet to make any arrests.

The BBC’s Andrew North in Delhi says it’s the latest in a series of sexual assault cases that have made headlines in India.

The new Prime Minister Narendra Modi has promised a zero tolerance approach on crimes against women, but violence and discrimination against women in remain deeply entrenched in society.

The girl was allegedly raped by a security guard and a gym teacher, but as there are multiple guards and gym instructors in the school, police say they are trying to identify the guilty, BBC Hindi’s Imran Qureshi reports from Bangalore.

As news of the child’s rape became public, hundreds of parents gathered outside the school, protesting against the alleged insensitivity of the school management, our correspondent adds.

“They have handled it very shoddily,” said Vivek Sharma, parent of a boy studying in the school.

On Thursday, school chairman Rustom Kerawala addressed a meeting of the parents where he offered his “sincere apologies” and promised “full cooperation” with the police in investigation.

Scrutiny of sexual violence in India has grown since the 2012 gang rape and murder of a student on a Delhi bus.

The brutal crime led to a massive outrage in the country and forced the government to introduce tougher anti-rape laws, including the death penalty in rare cases.

But the law has failed to act as a deterrence as is borne out by the statistics – according to the National Crime Records Bureau for 2013, one rape was reported every 21 minutes in the country.

BBC