Last two years have been very depressing. Depressing for me and the likes of me who are news freaks . Courtesy - the frequency with which the cases of kidnapping, sodomising, molesting, raping and worse brutal murders of minors were reported and kept surfacing and resurfacing in the daily news. Hardly had the serial kidnappings and subsequent rapes and murders of minors in Kurla ceased than another spate of similar happening surfaced recently in South Mumbai. In between news of a minor being kidnapped, raped and clobbered to death amidst Ganpati Immersions and several such tragic news kept pouring from all over and importantly from all sections of society and then gradually melted away. More disturbing than the news was the indifference of those in power and the general public towards these incidents. And as the resultant depression crept from the newspapers to the dining tables the best we could do was to stop discussing the issues altogether and better stop reading newspapers !
But then for how long? How long can we, especially those living in the nuclear families where both the parents work, go on reassuring ourselves on unfounded beliefs that our child would seldom be a victim of such a vice? In the second episode of Aamir Khans television series ‘ Satyameva Jayate’ dealing with Child Sexual Abuse (CSA), stress was laid on the little known facet of the issue – passing a strong bill to deal with vice. Passing a bill that will effectively deal with child sexual abuse will not only empower the Government agencies and legal bodies to deal with the vice sternly but even act as a deterrent. One of the reasons of developing nations like India fast becoming favourite destinations of paedophiles and those indulgent in child pornography is the existence of this lacuna in our system. But we must remember that this not as much about booking the guilty as much as it is about saving the innocent, unsuspecting and vulnerable and importantly the future of this country. With every second child having been subjected to sexual abuse of one form or other it would be a farce to believe that a traumatised, abused and shattered child would one day grow up into a normal healthy youth. And it would be least shocking if one of these silent victims turn out to be a serial killer or even a child abuser himself! It is in such events that we want that legal proceedings should move at a faster pace and justice be delivered at the earliest. But wouldn’t it be wiser if we lay more stress on striking at the roots of the vicious tree that seems to be growing leaps and bound every coming day rather that keeping on chopping the shoots? Pushing the Government to pass a bill to deal with Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) would indeed be striking at the roots of this vice.
Another important aspect of Child Sexual Abuse is to atleast identify if not book the culprit. It is quite likely that one’s close friend or a cousin may confide in him about his vicious sexual exploits and may even convince him that the act was not only consensual, enjoyable on the victims part but even initiated by the victim himself! The worst part of all this is that we buy his arguments fully aware that in no way is this act justifiable on his part! And even if what he says is true doesn’t the child need help? So in any case the best thing to do would be of course letting the guardian know about it and more importantly convince both the guardian and the victim that the child is absolutely not at fault. Our hesitancy to identify the culprit would only embolden the culprit and who knows his next victim may be your own child or a child from your house! Every time our child plays in public gardens or goes to tuitions or travels by school bus we expect the elders around to be vigilant and keep an eye on the child. But for someone reluctant to do as much as to identify the culprit known to him isn’t it a bit too much to expect from others?
Supressed or compromised sexual freedoms, our reluctance to recognise an adults sexual needs as his natural basic needs, worse labelling them as sins and those indulgent in it as sinners are the facts at the remote root end of the of the Child Sexual Abuse issue resulting in the same natural urges manifesting itself in such an abnormal and gruesome form. Hopefully we will respond to this wake up call and as we surge forward to make legal provisions and empower the Government agencies that will hopefully deal with the menace effectively, we will also not forget to retrospect and change the way we look at or have been looking at things and issues and make space for a view that is much broader and matured wherein a great deal of emphasis will be laid on education and effective communications.
Bhushan K. Sarmalkar (JAI), May 2012, Mumbai.
