Women are not safe, individually or in groups, in India. This is exactly what 93 schoolgirls travelling on a train from Patna to Dhanbad found out on Sunday.
The girls and their three women teachers from Carmel School in Dhanbad and Digwadih in Jharkhand, were molested on board a train when they were returning from Patna after attending a two-day environmental camp.
Their ordeal, which lasted for nearly four hours, began on Saturday at 10 pm when the group reached Patna railway station and found that their reserved seats on the Ganga Damodar Express had been occupied by a large group of men who claimed to be examinees of the railway recruitment exam.
The men refused to vacate the seats and just after 11.40pm, when the train left Patna junction, the men began harassing and molesting the girls.
The teachers who tried to stop them and protect the girls were reportedly assaulted by the men. Their ordeal ended at the Koderma station, four hours later, when the men got off.
The teachers are expected to lodge a police complaint on Monday.
