Years have passed, yet the memory of that incident still sends chill down our spine. The more we think about the time we saw our daughter at the Safdarjung Hospital on the night of December 16 four years ago, we become numb. It becomes so difficult to go through the day whenever that memory pops up in my mind,” said Badri Singh, father of Nirbhaya.
Four years after a 23-year-old physio-therapy student was brutally gangraped by a group of five men in a moving bus at South Delhi’s Vasant Vihar area in the chilly winter of December 2012, life came to a standstill for the parents of Nirbhaya. Sitting in the drawing room of their Dwarka Sector 19 house, Badri Singh and Asha Devi recall how December 16, 2012, the doomsday, changed not only their lives but brought about a significant change in the way women expressed their concerns over the safety and security in the national capital.
Talking to the Pioneer, Asha Devi shared how she and her family have only one aim and that is to get justice for the brutality faced by their daughter. “I do not want any girl or woman to face what my daughter underwent at the hands of those wretched men. I will keep fighting till I see the culprits face the harshest of the harsh punishments.”
“Year after year, the death of our daughter is remembered. Through this, we get to relive the day that altered our lives. Even though a lot many politicians promised to bring change in terms of introducing infrastructural policies in the city to endow a much safer environment for the young girls and women. Delhi has not changed. As a parent, my only wish is to pray that justice is delivered to us. We have full faith in the judiciary of the country. Although it has taken time for the case to reach the Supreme Court, we will continue our battle against the injustice done to our daughter,” said Badri Singh to the Pioneer.
Apart from the lives of Nirbhaya’s parents, life of the younger brother of Nirbhaya (the name given to the December 16 gang-rape victim) has undergone alterations.
Not at home at the time of the interview, Badri Singh shared that the life of Nirbhaya’s brother has evolved for the better in the aftermath of the horrific gangrape of his then 23-year-old sister. Singh said, "He is pursuing further education.”