Child rape prompts India outrage

Campaigners say Indian girls are vulnerable

Campaigners in India have called for the government to protect children after the "horrendous rape" of a 12-year-old in Haryana state.

The girl has given birth to a premature baby boy in Delhi and doctors say they are worried about his condition.

Campaigners say the young mother has been traumatised by her ordeal, and that rape of minors is becoming increasingly commonplace in India.

Government statistics say one woman is raped every hour in India.

"It is a classic case of how minor girls fall prey to such predators in villages," said Reena Banerjee, an official of the Nava Shrishti (New World) Non-Governmental Organisation.

"What is important now is that the government takes strict action against such people and the media highlights such cases so that the lives of more girls are not also wasted."

Stomach pains

Campaigners say the girl was raped in her village in Haryana.

He threatened to kill my family if I spilled the beans, so I kept quiet Rape victim, aged 12

They say she suffered great pain before and after the attack, and is too young to understand fully what has happened to her.

The girl told police that she was taken by a man to a remote part of the village where she lives and was brutally raped.

"He threatened to kill my family if I spilled the beans. So I kept quiet," the girl said in a statement.

Correspondents say that cases involving minors being raped are not uncommon in India, and that the girl in the latest attack would have died if her father had not sought additional medical advice.

Police say that the man they want to question in connection with the rape has absconded.