This slum finds it hard to shake off Dec 16 stigma

Ravidas Camp — the slum which was home to four of the six convicts in the December 16 gang-rapecase — is still trying to wipe off the stigma.

Inside the slum, people appear busy in their routine work — seemingly unaware of the significance of the upcoming December 16. Ask them about Ram Singh’s house and their faces turn grim immediately and a hush sweeps across the place, with some women even shoving their daughters inside the houses.

“We don’t know anything about the incident; you can go straight and find the house of Ram Singh,’’ said a woman, trying to avoid eye contact.

No one wants to be associated with the incident or the people involved in it. Even the relatives pretend not to recognise the convict. Ram Singh’s father, however, believes that his son was innocent and was part of the crime only after being instigated by the juvenile.

Initially furious at ‘another’ media person arriving at his doorstep, he relented after yelling for a minute, dubbing the media, government and law ‘dalal’ (paid).“Why have you come here again, what else do you want from me now, as my son is dead,’’ asks Ram Singh’s father. Ram Singh had allegedly committed suicide in Tihar jail.

Bitter that the ‘real’ perpetrator of the crime, the juvenile, will be a free person tomorrow (Tuesday), the old man claims that it was he who came to Ram Singh’s house that day with liquor and egged him to go for a fun ride.