Protect Children Better

Editorial:-
The accused in a case of sexual abuse of a minor was taken into custody on Tuesday in Gangtok. The crime is nearly a week old and came to light late. It was however not too late, and the accused was nabbed. Now comes the question, what next?
Legally, child sexual abuse is a rather grey area. Our laws dealing with sexual offences do not specifically address child sexual abuse. It is disconcerting but true, the India Penal Code 1860 does not recognise Child abuse. Only rape and sodomy can lead to criminal convictionon sexual assault charges. Anything less than rape, as defined by the law, amounts to ‘outraging the modesty’. It goes without saying that sexual molestation of a minor does more damage than just “outrage the modesty” of the child in question. The Indian Penal Code [section 376] seeks to provide women redress against rape, but it is rarely interpreted to cover the broad range of sexual abuses [particularly of children] that actually takes place. The ongoing Tehelka incident will hopefully lead to this aspect of the law get debated and discussed on a much wider scale. But that distracts from the topic at hand, the abuse of children. The word ‘rape’ is too specific [in extant laws] and the prescribed laws do not include abuse of ‘boys’. Most of these forms of abuse are sought to be covered under Section 354 of the Indian Penal Code as a violation of a woman’s modesty. Offences under Section 354 of the IPC are cognizable offences but are also bailable, which has its limitations in that it allows perpetrators the chance to intimidate families of the victims into a ‘compromise’. Child abuse then becomes an offence which does not necessarily always attract a strong enough punishment [even though there can be no doubting the deposition made by a minor].
What do we do then? Protect the children as best and as effectively as we can. Child sexual abuse typically occurs in three ways: incestuous abuse [i.e. by family members of victims], sexual abuse by strangers, and child prostitution. In the first category will also fall neighbours and family friends. In most societies, the first form of abuse is unlikely to be reported to the police because of fear of social disgrace. Families often choose to ‘resolve’ the issue privately because they view it as not a criminal matter. This has happened many times over and was dragged to the public domain recently when a father beat up the perpetrator, not because of the sexual abuse of the child but because the punishment of social ‘boycott’ worked out by the ‘family’ was being lifted too early. People tend to overlook that from the victim’s point of view, incest [including abuse by family friends] may be more traumatic than rape by strangers, because such behaviour may be continued over a period of time and the victim remains helpless to protect him/herself from such abuses. In addition, it may have long-term psychological effects. The victim develops an inner sense of guilt and depression, which may have long-lasting effects on her personality development. Pedophilia is rarely something committed at the spur of the moment; it is a personality flaw in the individuals which leads them to prey on minors. Even the accused in the present case must have revealed his tendencies in the past, but because most people tend to ignore even the possibility of the presence of a pedophile in their midst, no one obviously noticed.
One is not trying to foment mass paranoia here, but we do need to accept that children are not always safe. Since their safety is our responsibility, we have to do our best to protect them. The government, civil society and concerned citizens also need to be prodded to play a more active role in promotion, respect and appreciation of the rights of the child. Once we start respecting the rights of the children as a society, we may even start protecting them better.