London: The bereaved father of the 23-year-old Delhi gang-rape victim has said that the horrific assault on his daughter has "brought an awakening" to the Indian society and appealed to the nation not to turn a blind eye to attacks on women.
The father said that although he knew that his daughter was "in a bad state" after she was attacked by six men in a moving bus in Delhi on December 16, he still believed she might recover after she was taken to a hospital in Singapore.
She died on December 29 at a Singapore hospital where she was shifted to from Delhi`s Safdarjung Hospital in an extremely critical condition.
"When we went to Singapore she was not conscious but she had tears in her eyes. Then I realised she was in a really bad state," the father was quoted by the British ITV1 channel as saying.
"I couldn`t think what to do at that time, I was like a bird without wings, I was neither here nor there. So when I thought she might get better, I used to get filled with some hope. When I was told that she might not get well and might have to have an operation I felt uncomfortable," the father said.
"It was difficult for me, but when she was put on a ventilator it gave me some hope that she would get better. I thought she might get better and she would live," he said.
The father of the victim said that his daughter`s death 13 days after the horrific attack has "brought an awakening" to the Indian society and called for his country to no longer turn a blind eye to attacks on women.
The father said that he would like to see a new law or a hospital named after his daughter, the Daily Mail reported.
Describing his daughter, he said: "When she was born my aunties and uncles always used to carry her around, those were really lovely days."
"Right from the start her ambition was to be a doctor. Her main aim was that our family wouldn`t have to suffer any more, she wanted to put the difficult life behind us, wipe out our poverty. She also wanted to make sure I didn`t have to keep working hard late in life," he added.
The channel posted the father`s picture with his name. It also revealed the victim`s name.
The Indian media has refrained from naming her.
Indian law forbids revealing of the name of a rape victim unless her family agrees to it.
Since her death, the girl`s family has retreated to their village Ballia in Uttar Pradesh.
PTI