UP Minor Sets Herself Ablaze After Alleged Harassment, Suffers Severe Burns

UP minor burns self after alleged harassment: A 15-year-old girl set herself on fire Tuesday at a village in Hamirpur, Uttar Pradesh after allegedly being harassed by a boy. The self-immolation left the minor with severe burns and as per reports, she has been rushed to a Kanpur hospital for treatment.

The survivor's family said she had been pestered by the 16-year-old accused on multiple occasions. The alleged harassment had left her troubled, leading her to pour kerosene on herself and catch fire Tuesday morning. She made her statement about the case to a magistrate before travelling to Kanpur for treatment, as per NDTV.

The girl's family has reportedly refrained from making a police complaint. Narendra Kumar Singh, Hamirpur SP, however, said the family beat up the minor boy for allegedly harassing their daughter.

UP Minor Burns Self: Rising Crimes Against Women In The State

As per latest reports from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), crimes against women in India has noted an increase of 7.3 percent in 2019 over 2018 with 4,05,861 registered cases. While ‘cruelty by husband or his relatives’ accounted for the largest share at 30.9 percent, ‘assault on women with intent to outrage her modesty’ was at 21.8 percent and ‘rape’ at 7.9 percent.

Uttar Pradesh led numbers by state, accounting for 14.7 percent of the total crime rate against women. Cases under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act were as high as 7444.

Even in a post-Hathras and Unnao world, two cases that rattled the national conscience as regards crimes against women, the state of Uttar Pradesh has seen no respite from repeated incidents of rapes and harassment directed at women.

Earlier this week, two men were arrested in the case of gangrape against a minor in Kaushambi. Three men meanwhile were sentenced to 20 years of prison earlier this month for gangraping a minor in the Mahoba district.

Another shocker that came from UP was in February when a college-going woman was found naked and burnt near a highway in Shahjahanpur. She alleged three men had set her on fire after a failed gangrape attempt. Married women too face risks to safety, exhibited by a recent case where a man in Rampur sewed his wife's privates as a 'loyalty test.' Read about it here.