THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The recurrence of child sexual abuse cases has highlighted one thing in bold letters. There is no safe place for children. From classrooms to movie halls, there is the resonance of the cries and shrieks of kids who are assaulted with beastly immorality.
On Tuesday, the capital city woke to the macabre news of a 50-year-old man molesting a nine-year-old girl from his neighbourhood. The incident took place near Pravachambalam has once again prompted people to raise the same old, worrying question: How safe are our kids?
Fr Thomas P D, director of Childline, had a perturbed look when asked this. With his eyes glued to the State Crime Records Bureau's website which pegs the number of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act cases registered in the city as 362, the highest among other districts, he had every reason to be worried. "There seems to be no rollback now. That's what the number says," he said.
Among 362 cases registered in the district, 119 were first filed with Childline. The data compiled by Childline revealed a majority of the sexual abuse take place at the houses of the abuser or the victim. Out of 119 cases, 47 sexual assaults took place at the victim's house, while 43 assaults took place at the house of the abuser.
Contrary to the perception, it's not just the girls who have to bear the brunt of the molesters. Boys too are victimised, but only a portion of such cases are reported because the families of the victims fear social stigma. There is also a trend of glossing over the crime as many of the parents of the boys have the tendency to trivialise the issue. "They don't report the crime and this molestation of the boys get under-reported," said Fr Thomas.
Childline data revealed that boys of ages 11 to 15 are mostly abused, while among girls it is 11 to 18. Thomas said kids of these ages are more vulnerable and need to be taken care off. "The vulnerability factor is high among kids. Also, children are now too exposed to adult content, and adults find it easy to manipulate their emotions," he said.
That is the reason why friends and lovers form the biggest number of abusers due to their proximity to the kids. In about 40 cases, the perpetrators were friends or lovers, while neighbours were the second largest perpetrators with 29 cases against them. City Police Commissioner P Prakash was equally worried about the state of affairs.
“The abuse of kids is not a localised thing. It happens everywhere and Thiruvananthapuram is no different. We are treating the issue with utmost seriousness,” he said. However, he felt families and society have to play a bigger role in curbing the atrocities on children.
“There has been a pattern noticed in such cases. In houses where the parents are careless, such things are more likely to happen. That's why families and society need to play a pro-active role to save the kids,” he said.
However, societal norms make it difficult at times for the police to act. Take for example minor kids skipping classes and hanging out with their friends without the knowledge of the parents. Intervention from the part of the police might be misconstrued as moral policing, said a police officer.
The Police Commissioner too seconded this and said it is almost impossible to adopt a preventive policy. “Due to social circumstance, there is a limitation for the police to act. Lovers and friends contribute the most in POCSO cases. How can we take preemptive measures in such cases? Society needs to play their role,” he said.
Boys too are an easy target
It is not just the girls who have to bear the brunt of the molesters. Boys too are victimised, but only a portion of such cases are reported because the families of the victims fear social stigma