The search for the rapist of a six-year-old first grader in a Vibgyor High School of Bangalore has led the police to a skating instructor who hoarded videos of schoolchildren being raped on his laptop. There is an urgent need to analyse the root cause of sexual abuse against children and vulnerable women state wise. In the last few months, we have seen several horrendous crime incidences against children and women. These incidences reveal the horrifying reality that child Sexual Abuse exists in our society in greater number than we could have imagined. The frequency of these crimes along with brutality has raised a serious cause of concern. These instances have drawn widespread panic amongst the public, leading to the demand of a protected environment for children and justice to the victims. Many Internet child pornography offenders may be unnoticed child molesters, child pornography and sexual grooming provide case study paradigms of problems that society and law have sought to tackle to avoid both actual and potential harm to children. Yet despite the considerable legal, political and societal concern that these critical phenomenon attract, they have not, so far, been subjected to detailed socio-legal and theoretical scrutiny. Many men are addicted to child pornography, which is the reason why even in some cases, new-born are raped. These men have no senility or morals.
Mustafa or Munna, 30, had been training children at the Vibgyor High School since 2011. He has been caught this time but investigation should be done to find out whether he has abused other children in this school. Previous employers should also be asked why they have thrown him out of the job. The accused Mustafa is married and has a three-year-old daughter. In his laptop and mobile, the police found explicit pornographic material. The laptop had videos of school children being raped downloaded from Internet; this shows his state of mind. Now after such a horrifying wake-up call, schools in Bangalore are making big changes in their security system. I wish they would have done this earlier; so many children would have been saved from such beasts. Moreover, this six-year-old first grade student was raped on July 2 but the case was reported on 14th July. Why is it taking so much time to act against such brutal crimes? Where the world is heading? On one side, there is lots of innovation in technology going on and on another side, human values are getting degraded. There should be criminal charges imposed on previous employers for not informing the police about the incident. If they had done that many other children would not have gone through such harassment. This will also send message to other schools that they cannot just get away with mere dismissal of the staff and hushing up the issue.
The child, his victim, is the best judge and her identifying him supported by the sequence of events that led to her imprisonment and abuse is enough evidence. Moreover, there are questions about the selection of candidates while appointing by school. How the School Authorities appoint a persons in their faculty without verifying the antecedents of a person when it is a co- education/Girls school. It seems the school has committed a major crime by not verifying the antecedents resulting in the occurrence of this incident. The child was reportedly sent out of class for “misbehaving” and asked to stay in an empty room used for storing gym equipment. She was allegedly assaulted there. Her mother found out about the assault seven days later, when a private nursing home hinted that the child could have been raped. One can imagine how careful the mother is, it took seven days for her to realise her child was raped. Six year old kids need more attention from parents than anyone else. Nowadays, high-tech moms are busy in socialising or running after money than paying attentions to their kids.
School is responsible and it should accept its failure for not providing security to children. There are enough evidences against the school staff’s involvement. Action should be taken on multiple levels rather than on simplistic and emotional front. We need to be a more open and supportive society, so that children can discuss such topics with their parents without fear. We need to inculcate sex education in our kids and teach them about predatory behaviour. We need to have a robust law-enforcing police and judiciary. Leaders must openly discuss such topics and they ought to start helplines for vulnerable children. People who commit such crimes must undergo severe punishment, but also have psychiatric counseling to prevent further crimes. Lastly, management should throw off the cloak of secrecy and aid authorities in dealing with criminals in their midst. Teachers and staff ought to be educated to recognise danger signs and they have to be approachable so student can discuss such issues with them. Each school should have mandatory CCTVs in school to avoid such crimes.
As pedophilia cases are growing day by day, small kids are abused, molested and sexually harassed but that goes unnoticed. Sex abuse cases gained widespread public, in particular in India, where it was revealed that thousands of instances of child abuse went unreported. Sexual abuse of minors in the country is on rise. Generally, such crimes are committed mostly by known people, the best remedy is to keep your child under your observation and give them time by listening to their grievances. Many times, children complain against men around you but parents ignore that. India is a country of values; this should stop somewhere to preserve human lives.
