Thiruvananthapuram: The media is sometimes insensitive. A girl who braves odds and survives is nicknamed the victim when in fact she is the survivor. However, for some, the struggle for survival is unending, raising questions of victimhood. Cut back to 1997 when the Pandalam sex scandal broke out. Three college lecturers and their friends sexually exploited a girl student of final-year degree course at NSS College, Pandalam in Alappuzha. The police took up the case after her father, a national award-winning schoolteacher, registered a complaint. One of the lecturers committed suicide during trial.
It was a torture for the girl to complete her degree in the same college under police protection. Her family had to fight the powerful mafia who had links with the sex rackets in West Asia. She later graduated from the Law Academy in Thiruvananthapuram and got married. But her dreams were shattered as her husband started harassing her with tales of the past and got separated. She soon lost her child and parents. Prof. P. Geetha, who wrote the book, ‘Anyayangal’ (injustice) on 10 sex scandals in the state, tried to contact her but could not. She believes “the ultimate survivor” must be working as a lawyer somewhere in Kerala.
