Failing to counsel rape victims : Candid and significant admission
- Sangai Express Editorial :: July 27, 2013 -

Rehabilitation of rape victims.

Obviously to the State Social Welfare Department this has not gone beyond compensating the victims financially.

A true reflection of the ignorance, correction, unwillingness, of the top officials of the Department to understand the mental and physical trauma of rape victims.

A failure to see something as sensitive as rape beyond settling it with a bundle of cash. Social Welfare Minister AK Mirabai was candid enough in admitting that she was in the dark about the provisions of the Scheme and Rehabilitation for Victims of Rapes, 2005 and it is this candidness which needs to be acknowledged.

A trait which not every political leader of the land can claim to have. However it should not end here.

Under the said scheme, rape victims are entitled to psychological, medical, legal aid, financial aid and counselling, not only for the victims but also for the family members.

In the ignorance of the Minister that counselling should be provided to rape victims, lies exposed the failure of the officials of the Social Welfare Department to keep the Minister updated on the finer nuances of the running this department.

A failure to understand that running the affairs of the Social Welfare Department is not about dealing with inanimate objects but about dealing and understanding living entities, human beings and in most cases, individuals needing the intervention of the Social Welfare Department belong to the impoverished, deprived and exploited section of the society. If this core truth has not registered in the minds of the people helming the affairs of the department then they have no business to be there in the first place.

This is all that more so in the face of the rising crime graph against women and minor girls. Counselling, this is something much more than providing a bundle of cash to the victim.

It is but about dealing and understanding the mental trauma of the victim as well as making the family members understand the mental agony that the victim must have undergone.

This is all that more important if the victim happens to be married or a minor.

Have these thoughts ever crossed the mind of the people who matter in the Social Welfare Department, is a question worth exploring in the admission of AK Mirabai that she was ignorant of a scheme that was launched as long back as 2005.

So far no counselling has been administered to any of the victims of rape or sexual assaults, as indicated in the report carried in the July 26 edition of this paper under the caption “SW Minister not updated on 2005 Rehabilitation Scheme”.

This is not how a department, which has been designated with the grand and noble term ‘Social Welfare’ should be run and managed.

If rehabilitation of rape victims is to be understood only within the parameters of financial aid then there may be other Departments which may be more suited to do this, say the Finance Department.

A case of failing to look at other aspects, other than things which involve financial transactions.

Let it be very clear. The Social Welfare Department is a department which is there to deal with human beings, not a department like say the PWD which deals with inanimate objects.

Dealing with victims of sexual assaults, dealing with minors are things far removed from building a bridge or repairing a stretch of road, though these are important under any yardstick.

The point is, a department like the Social Welfare Department cannot function in a mechanical manner. The human touch should be there.

The department certainly needs to explain to the public why it failed to keep the Social Welfare Minister updated on a scheme that was launched as way back as 2005.

Taking this fact into consideration, it would not be surprising if the head honchos of the Department have failed to keep the Minister informed of other equally significant schemes and welfare measures launched by the Government.