Child Sexual Abuse: What About the Enemy Within?

Madras High Court says castration is an apt solution to tackle child sexual abuse.

In June this year, the nation that prostrates itself before the prophetic Mother Goddess woke up to the horrifying reality of a 45-year-old man arrested by the Navi Mumbai police on charges of raping his daughter for six years since she was seven years old.

The accused, a fruit vendor, had earlier sexually assaulted his 17-year-old daughter as well, the police claimed. The victim, all of 13, told her teacher about being sexually violated, after attending a counselling session on child abuse in her school in Vashi, revealing in a letter to the class teacher, her gory ordeal.

“My father raped me and my mother is not helping,” the letter that was flashed in Mumbai’s local newspapers was ironical not just because of the scars she would probably carry all her life, but also because her mother had shielded the perpetrator.

Whenever my brothers weren’t at home, my father would take advantage of the opportunity and rape me inside my house, in front of my mother. After this, my mother would offer me some pills. He has been raping me since I was seven years old. Despite complaining to my mother, she refused to help me.

Victim’s Letter

Recently, the Madras High Court decided on castration as the one-word solution for curbing skyrocketing sexual offences against children.

“Barbaric crimes should definitely attract barbaric models of punishment,” Justice N Kirubakaran declared in a recent order against a British national, recommending castration to achieve “magical results” in preventing child abuse.

When the law is ineffective and incapable of addressing the menace, this court cannot keep its hands folded and remain a silent spectator, unmoved and oblivious of the recent happenings of horrible blood-curdling gang rapes of children in various parts of India.

But what about sexual predators at home? What about mothers who feign ignorance when a child complains about being touched inappropriately? What about a nation that is sickeningly squeamish about its own lustful perversion – a nation that can’t even say the word ‘vagina’ or ‘penis’ out loud or talk about sexual intimacy as perfectly natural?

What about a nation that makes out in parks and behind shadowy monuments and has extra-marital affairs, while retaining a facade of marriage, just to save face? A society that forbids a menstruating woman from entering a temple threshold, the same way it restricts her entry into the kitchen?

What about parents who never touch one another, let alone explain the critical difference between good and bad touch? Schools that depend on silly stick figures? A culture of cover-ups and cheap camouflages, that jerks off on Sunny Leone and Savitha Bhabhi, but always in cloistered secrecy.

Barely two years ago, in December 2013, a 50-year-old man, Ibrahim Shaikh was arrested for allegedly raping his daughter for nearly 11 years and fathering a child with her. Shaikh was arrested after the 26-year-old victim claimed in her complaint that he was the biological father of her eight-year-old daughter.

Realising that her father was even preparing to tie the knot with her, the woman had mustered courage and approached police along with a social worker.

“On the pretext of teaching her human anatomy, the accused raped his daughter on several occasions. He thrashed his wife when she objected, after she got wind of his activities,” the police claimed.

In 2007, a government-supported survey of 1,25,000 children in 13 states revealed that more than half (53 per cent) of the children interviewed said that they had been subjected to one or more forms of sexual abuse.

Over 20 per cent had been subjected to severe forms of abuse. Of those who said they were sexually abused, 57 per cent were boys. In 2013, The Human Rights Watch Report Breaking the Silence portrayed a grey picture of child protection in the country, particularly when it comes to preventing sexual abuse of minors within homes, schools and institutions.

And what about safety measures of those manning kids – guards, bus drivers, nannies? In August, this year, the headmistress of a private school in Bengaluru was arrested after a 3-year-old was molested; the police arrested a security guard.

Bengaluru, considered India’s Silicon Valley, reported a series of chilling crimes against young girls in city schools last year. After that, the police had asked schools to ensure that security cameras were installed and working, along with daily verification of identity cards for adults who collect students from school.

But what if the rot runs deeper? What if rape is now something we are immune to? That creates headlines, but fails to challenge the system? What bachpan? What beti? What #Selfiewithdaughter? Whose soul must be saved?