No Country for Children

 Reports in the media of women getting raped and further being traumatised by an indifferent system is recurring with nauseating frequency. What is more disturbing is that there seems to be a rise in the number of minors being victims of sexual abuse. Last week a 45-year-old businessman was arrested for sexually abusing his 16-year-old daughter in Gurgaon. In mid-February three sisters — all minors — were allegedly raped and dumped in a well in Bhandara district, Maharashtra. Now comes the report of a 10-year-old girl being raped by an upper-caste man in Bulandsahr, Uttar Pradesh. What makes the Bulandsahr incident glaring is the reaction of the police to the victim and her mother. While in many cases the victims are pressurised by the police and local society to withdraw the complaint, here the police women in the Bulandsahr all-women police station ill-treated the victim’s mother and locked up the 10-year-old victim. The Supreme Court has taken suo motu cognisance of media reports and has sent a notice to the state government; but the fact that the court had to intervene shows that the system is cripplingly handicap to carry out even its basic duty of protecting citizens.

That this takes place only days after the president okayed an anti-rape law shows that stringent anti-rape laws will be rendered ineffective if our police force and hospital authorities — the initial points to which victims of abuse go to — are insensitive, and worse abusive, to the plight of rape victims. No amount of sermons about uplift of women safety and safety of children will help unless the authorities are sensitised to the delicate nature of such the situation and the importance of their role in giving the victim a sense of protection and comfort. Owing to public stigma, family pressure and the related trauma of being seem as ‘immoral’ seldom do victims of sexual abuse report to the police. And when they do muster the courage and complain it is the duty of the state to give them the support and protection that is required.
The February report by Human Rights Watch titled ‘Breaking the Silence: Child Sex Abuse in India’ highlights how the government’s response to children who are sexual abused fails to protect the victims. The Bulandsahr incident reiterates the HRW observation and poses the question: what is the level of sensitisation and preparedness of police personnel towards dealing with such an issue? Sexual abuse, especially of minors, is on the rise. Anti-rape laws with stringent punishment may be on the way but unless the attitude of the authorities concerned does not change ours is no country for women and children.
(An edited version of this appeared in the Hindustan Times)