The horrific rape and murder in Kolkata have once again placed the spotlight on women’s safety. As in the past, we will discuss women’s safety, but eventually no substantive changes will happen. Maybe a scheme is launched amid publicity and fanfare, a few speeches are made but, on the ground, nothing will change. Women will continue to be left to fend for themselves from molesters, stalkers and rapists.
Domestic violence is deeply entrenched in our society and sometimes spills onto the streets. Images are captured on CCTV cameras in cities and circulated far and wide, as a clip to watch and then what thereafter? We read of cases in which a girl rejects the advances of some male and he takes out his anger by sometimes killing her. Just a couple of weeks ago, a girl in Rajasthan was pushed in front of a running train for rejecting a proposal on Friendship Day. She was only 15. In June this year, a teenaged girl was killed in Mathura because she refused an offer of friendship on Facebook. There are any number of such cases, but only some get reported and once in a while, society raises a hue and cry.
Murder is horrific, undoubtedly, whether the victim is an adult as in the Kolkata case or a teenaged child in Rajasthan or Mathura. Sexual assault on minor girls or children, in my opinion, is equally horrific. The more recent incident of sexual assault in Maharashtra in a school in Badlapur on children aged 3 and 4 years is more than shocking, to say the least. Thousands of people have taken to the streets venting their anger and protesting against inaction by the police and the school administration.
Crimes against children
Crimes against children do not make headline news unlike crimes committed by children. We are shocked when a class 10 student in Udaipur stabs his classmate over an old enmity. Are we equally shocked when an adult kills or rapes a child? Yes, we are shocked, but how many such crimes ever get reported or discussed? Statistics of crimes against children, made available by the National Crime Records Bureau publication Crime in India 2022, will startle you.
There are two categories of crimes against children. First, cases under the Indian Penal Code and special and local laws. This is a staggering 1,62,449 cases in the year, an increase of 8.7% over 2021. This includes murder, kidnapping, human trafficking and so on. Second, cases of sexual assault under the provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO Act). That year saw more than 62,000 reported cases of sexual assault on girl child. This translates into one sexual assault against a girl child every 10 minutes on an average. What are we, as a society, doing about this terrible state of affairs?
I must add a word of caution about these figures. They include cases of elopement by teenagers. The number is not very large, but such cases do happen every once in a while, and call for a separate discussion.
Special Courts have been established to deal with crimes under the POCSO Act. But, since there are thousands of cases pending before these courts, the justice delivery system is unable to cope with them and decide them quickly enough. The NCRB data suggests that about 3,00,000 cases are pending in the courts. When will they be decided? Two basic questions arise: (1) When will the perpetrators of these crimes be convicted and appropriately punished? (2) When will justice be given to the children and their families? In one sense, justice will never be done to the survivors since the trauma will remain with them for life. So, while we discuss women’s safety, we must also focus on crimes against children, both IPC crimes (now Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita or BNS crimes) and crimes under the POCSO Act. This is critical.
Some possible solutions
There is a need to spread awareness of the extent of crimes against children. Many assume such crimes (other than cases of sexual assault) as something that happens and do not take them seriously - no they are not routine cases, but heinous crimes. Murder of a child or kidnapping a child for ransom or otherwise is a crime that should not be tolerated.
Infanticide, more particularly female feticide is murder and as heinous as can be. Do we prosecute such murderers? Sexual assault of a child, sometimes 3 or 4 years of age as in Badlapur, trafficking of children for sexual pleasure are also heinous crimes. We need to acknowledge and discuss these issues and bring them into focus as grave societal problems. The time for speeches and schemes is long over.
The justice delivery system needs an overhaul, particularly when it concerns crimes against children. The system is too slow, and court delays is one of the grievances voiced by the protesters in Badlapur. Special Courts have failed us, as also Fast Track Courts. We have to find ways and means to introduce case management systems in justice delivery and time-bound disposal of cases if we have to give justice to the thousands of women and child survivors of crime. It is meaningless to describe women as mothers, sisters and daughters if we cannot give them justice in time. Similarly, it is meaningless to talk of children being the future of the country if we deny them justice and relieve them of their fear and trauma.
Finally, lets keep politics out of the discussion. A heinous crime is a heinous crime and politicising it will not make it more or less heinous. Why should there be politics behind a crime committed against a child who is yet to grow up? Why should politicians try and score brownie points when a heinous crime is committed? It is better for society if they expend energy in improving facilities and opportunities for children and improving investigative practices and justice delivery rather than indulging in empty criticism of one another.
(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer. The facts and opinions expressed here do not reflect the views of ETV Bharat)
