Meenakshi Kumari (right and inset), 23, has been sentenced to be raped along with her 15-year-old sister, from the village of Sankrot in Uttar Pradesh (left), India. Both are terrified to return to their home village for fear that the punishment will be upheld. Meenakshi and her little sister were with their family in Delhi for a wedding when a neighbour called and told them not to return to their village. One of two sisters Meenakshi Kumari, 23, has described how she has been unable to sleep or leave the house for fear of the village elders – who sentenced her and her 15-year-old sister to rape – sending someone to deliver the punishment.
‘I can’t sleep, I’m very scared,’ she said from a secret location in Delhi, 30 miles from their village Sankrot, in Uttar Pradesh, central India. How will we ever return home or to our village? If we ever return they will harm us or rape us. If not today then in the future.