Monday Musing
[ Tongam Rina ]
Every day one gets to read about rape in India. The National Crime Report Bureau in its 2022 report said that rape averages to more than 80 cases per day.
Some states, like Uttar Pradesh, fare worse. It is safe to conclude that no woman or girl child is safe anywhere in the country.
It could happen anywhere: at the workplace, at home, or in school.
Right now, there is widespread outrage in the country at the rape and murder of a doctor in RG Kar Hospital in Kolkata, prompting nationwide protests by the doctors and others.
In Arunachal, a 13-year-old girl is reported to have been gangraped by five people in Daporijo.
In May 2024, the capital police arrested dozens of people in connection with a sexual exploitation racket involving minor girls aged 10, 12 and 15. As evident from the police investigation, those who should have been ensuring the safety of the children – policemen, health staffers, and volunteers who were part of the peer education on sexually transmitted diseases – were caught. The interstate racket was busted, but it has left many uncomfortable questions. How did it go undetected for so long, given the involvement of a huge number of people, including police personnel? While nothing scares the criminals from committing crimes, public naming of assaulters may make one pause and think before committing the crime a second time.
What has the Government of Arunachal done with those who were named by the police? Have they been suspended pending investigation? The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights had written to Chief Secretary Dharmendra, seeking action against the arrested government officers.
In yet another case, the Longding police arrested six people after one of a group of girls forced into sex work reported to the police. The case is being investigated. It appears that, if investigated well, there will be more than six people who will find themselves behind bars under the POCSO Act.
These young girls were brought to the state capital with the promise of employment.
Many tribal schoolgirls, particularly from Longding and the Puroik tribe, as well as from Chakma refugee families, work as household help in Itanagar and elsewhere in Arunachal. Many have ended up being rescued and in child welfare centres because of mistreatment across the state. These children are often sexually assaulted and emotionally scarred.
Earlier it was the Adivasi and Bodo children from tea gardens who worked as house helpers. After a series of sexual assaults, the Bodo and Adivasi organisations intervened and refused to send children to the capital region, though there are still some who are working in the same horrendous conditions.
Cases of abuse are being reported almost every week.Most do not make it to the news or surface in the public domain, but going by the large number that is reported through the police, such cases are very prevalent.
The details of each of the cases are horrifying. Once these cases are made public, either by the family or the police, it is usually followed by an outpouring of public anger and demands for justice.
Such anger should provoke action, not numbness. It definitely should not be ignored even if it involves powerful people or a loved one.
The case that has been brushed aside was one where a politically connected leader was named by two girls for several assault cases. The girls came out in the media with shocking details, but soon retracted the statement overnight. No one knows what transpired, but the Assam and the Arunachal Pradesh Police did not register a suo moto case, and nor did the women’s commission, even though the severity of the allegation warranted one. The person, given her position, should voluntarily ask the police to investigate the case, if she has not volunteered already. It would be a good chance to clear her name,as well as to find out who all were involved in the assault of these teenagers.
In a recent judgement, the Allahabad High Court held that offences lodged under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act cannot be set aside based solely on a compromise between the accused, and prosecuted the victim as it declined to quash the proceedings initiated under the Act.
A horrifying number of men in the state seem to be indulging in sexual assaults, particularly of minors and legally underaged, who are vulnerable to crimes.Why? Is it because cases of rape and molestation and physical abuse have often been overlooked and ignored not only by family members but by society at large? This may be the reason why criminals do not think twice before raping women and children. So many families have hidden the fact that workers are raped. There were no reporting mechanisms earlier,but now there is a facility that ensures anonymity of those willing to report abuse. We all know that not all homes or workplaces are safe, and that it takes the courage of just one person to stop such crimes.
On the other hand, the police and the judiciary have to make sure that these criminals spend time behind bars for a lengthy period. A rapist is a rapist for a lifetime, capable of committing similar crimes. They are a danger to the larger society.
(1098 is the nationwide toll-free number for reporting crimes related to children in India. The identity of the caller is kept confidential.)
