A 17-year-old girl in North-24 Parganas who secured third division in the state secondary examinations, Madhyamik, got a last-minute admission to Class XI of a school in Basirhat on June 3.

There is nothing special in the teenager’s story until you consider the circumstances she was pitted against. Her return to books is a story of triumph, a feat worth celebrating.

She was allegedly abducted, confined at a hotel in Bongaon and raped by at least two men in October last year. The alleged tormentors were about to take her to Mumbai before a police raid foiled the plan.

When she came home, the village turned against her, calling her a “bad influence” on other girls. She reached home four days before her Madhyamik and took the exam against her family’s wishes.

Even after she cleared the exam, her parents wanted her to quit studies and get married. They were even willing to accept divorced, much older grooms. But the girl was determined to continue her studies. With the help of a local NGO, teachers at her school and the panchayat, she was able to persuade her parents to abandon plans that they were firm on.

Finally, on Monday, she got admitted to the arts stream of the same high school in Basirhat where she has been studying since Class V.

The family lives in a village in Basirhat, around 85km from the heart of Calcutta, not far from the India-Bangladesh border. The girl’s father is a barber.

“We tried to talk to her parents multiple times. But they were not willing to let her study. Her teachers also tried to persuade her father. Finally, the panchayat members stepped in and threatened to get the father arrested if he got her girl married before she turned 18,” said Bikash Das, secretary of the Basirhat Initiative For Rural Dedication (BIRD), a local NGO that works with trafficking survivors.

The girl was allegedly not allowed to bathe in the village pond, lest she “influenced” other girls. Even neighbours she called aunts would call her names — as “someone who was looking for some fun with men”.

Nirupama Das, a member of the local panchayat, said: “Instead of blaming her tormentors, people are going after the girl. It is shameful.”

The panchayat members led by Das spoke to her father. But he was not ready to budge.

“Then, the panchayat pradhan visited her home and warned the father against ruining the girl’s future. This time, it worked. We will support her. This is the least we can do,” Das said.

The girl wants to become a nurse, one of her teachers said.

“She is a mild-mannered girl. She wants to get enrolled in a good nursing college,” said a teacher at the Basirhat school who also spoke to the girl’s parents.

The girl did not return home from tuition on October 17 last year. A frantic search by her parents — who filed a complaint at Basirhat police station on October 18 — led them to a man who had been trying to befriend the girl for the past few days.

The man is said to have taken the girl to a hotel in Bongaon. She was allegedly raped there multiple times by more than one man. She managed to secure help from a hotel employee who contacted her parents.

The police raided the hotel on October 19 and rescued the girl. The man, who was present there, was arrested. The cops found tickets — for a Howrah-Mumbai train — in the room.

The police complaint was later turned into an FIR. The accused — a second man was arrested later — have been charged with IPC sections 363 (kidnap) 365 (wrongful confinement) and 376 (rape) and relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act.

“We have petitioned the court to add trafficking sections to the FIR. We have evidence to believe that the men were planning to take her to Mumbai,” said Das.

Many survivors like her return to a hostile environment, where they have to fight stigma from family members and neighbours.

“She has shown great resolve,” said her schoolteacher.