Kale Singh runs to the workshop of the Nevedac Prosthetic Centre and returns with an artificial limb with its new naughty-girl black shoe. Prito lifts her salwar to bare her leg which was chopped off below the knee. Kale helps her with the new limb and she stands up leaning on his shoulder. Then she takes a stick and walks a few steps herself into a new phase of life where it is not all fear and gloom.

Just two months ago, Prito had lost all hope. Ill and close to starvation, Prito felt death was the only way out. But today she is rebuilding a life shattered by the worst kind of violence, rape and mutilation followed by threats and social pressures to not seek justice.

``Go for a compromise, they told me. But I said that there could be no compromise on honour,'' says Prito.

It has been a long nightmare for this Rai Sikh couple, who earned their living as casual farm labour at Mohar Singh Walavillage near Ferozepur. On August 14, 1996, Prito was alone in her house when two brothers, Kulmeet Singh and Gurmeet Singh who were distillers of country liqour, forced their way in and raped her. After a two-year legal battle, the sessions court sentenced the accused to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment. However, the convicts jumped bail and told their acquaintances that they would ``teach the woman a lesson''.

The police failed security for the couple though the convicts were at large. For two days, Prito and her husband took shelter elsewhere having sent their 17-year-old son to relatives in Haryana. On the third night, Gulmeet and Gurmeet barged into their house and chopped off Prito's left leg below the knee and took it away.

Prito and Kale's tribulations continued but some hope came when veteran Communist leader Vimla Dang took up the issue and forced the police into action. The rapists were rearrested. However, the couple could not work and the hospital expenses mounted. Then, Veena Kumari, memberof the Punjab Human Rights Organisation, took up her case. She filed a public interest litigation with the State Human Rights Commission, Punjab. On September 1, 1998, the Commission recommended to the Principal Secretary, Home, that an interim relief of Rs 25,000 be given to Prito and an artificial limb provided to her. The interim relief is yet to reach her.

Meanwhile, activists were able to raise funds to keep the kitchen fire ablaze. Though the police refused to admit to negligence on their part in protecting Prito, R.C Prasad, Inspector General of Police, (litigation) raised Rs 10,000 for her on humanitarian grounds. And Lt. Gen J.L Malhotra (retd), who lives in Panchkula, came forward to sponsor the artificial limb at the Prosthetic Centre. Malhotra says: ``The courage of this woman in fighting wrong was tremendous. And one is grateful to people like Veena Kumari who fought her case. My own contribution is small.''

The road ahead is not easy for the couple. ``My husband and I used to earn verywell transplanting paddy and picking cotton. But I will never be able to do that work again,'' says Prito. But she is confident that she may be able to do some other work and live to see the wedding of her son.

When asked if she has any regrets about filing a case against the rapists, which resulted in the second attack, she says: ``No, even if I had been killed there would be no regrets.'' Her husband nods.