Protect the Minors More Effectively

editorial:-
What began recently as a disturbing revelation of a primary school teacher having allegedly molested a student in a school in rural Sikkim, snowballed into a much larger fear of the accused having similarly abused more children. It took some sessions of sensitive counseling and what must have been therapeutic recovery for the shocked students for more of them to have opened up and shared their trauma. The case will now be processed and tried and even as the law takes its course and delivers justice, it is important for the rest of Sikkim to return more resolutely to its responsibility towards its children safe. The present case from a school in rural East Sikkim, it is important to realize, even though it is shocking and disturbing, cannot be considered an aberration since reports of the young and the very young being so abused surface too often to be considered rare anymore. And because the young need to be protected more effectively, it is important that Sikkim addresses this issue more often and in more earnest.
When one is told that child abuse is not normal behaviour, it is not the social contempt alone that people are talking about. Child abuse is obviously deviant behavior. In the accused [in the present case and all other incidents], it could have manifested much earlier and he always had access to minors, given his job as a teacher. One can understand the violent reaction of parents and sympathise with them, but as a society, Sikkim needs to learn more from the episode and make more demands than just punishment for the accused. As mentioned earlier, this is not the first time that a minor girl-child has been molested in Sikkim; there have even been cases of rape of minors reported in the recent past. What is scary for every parent is that for every case of molestation that gets reported, there are countless others that get swept under the carpet. This could be for two reasons. One, the child never confides in anyone out of fear and even guilt, and two, the elders refuse to recognise the signs of abuse even when it stares them in the face. In most cases, a child suffers in the hands of someone close, someone they and their families trust. It was a teacher in the present case, but more often it is relatives and sometimes even neighbours and family friends. Disturbingly, festivals, the season of which has now begun, is the most traumatic time for victims since it increases access for their tormenters.
There is little that the society can do to identify all pedophiles in advance. What our children deserve, however, is our full interest in their lives. Parents have to speak to their children, look out for warning signs that they might give out and tell them what kind of behaviour [by elders] is acceptable and what sort of touching is wrong. This, every parent needs to do. And more importantly, they need to take up for the child when s/he musters the courage to report abuse. What is also required is for professional counseling for all victims of child-abuse, molestation and rape. Just booking the culprit is not enough, we need to also heal the scars that the children bear.