Save the children

Laishram Shyam Kumar Singha *

The most recent news of sexual abuse is as recent as yesterday when a seventeen years old Indian film actress ZairaWasim brought us the news of the harassment she faced through a co passenger during her flight from Delhi to Mumbai Vistara flight on 10th December 2017.

It is learned that the sexual offender who was later identified as VikashSachdev is a 39 years old business man from Mumbai. The molester who was seated behind Zaira rubbed his foot against her back and neck while she was half asleep.

Another incident which occurred hours before this high profile incident is that of a six year old girl in Hisar, Haryana who was found with a wooden stick inserted to her genitals and rupturing her intestine.

The post mortem report confirming rape and torture. Sheer brutality inflicted on a child who was first abducted from her house at the night and then raped and killed in the most gruesome manner which is unthinkable.

Can any one of you even imagine or visualize the pain, torment and the agony she had to go through? She was just six, for god sake she was a kid.

My heart bleeds and mind is filled withso much of anger that I can hold it no more and feel the need to come out today to question each one of us, 'Why are we allowing them to kill our daughters? What kind of present and future are we ensuring for our children? Why are we allowing these incidents to resurface repeatedly in one form or the other?'

My baby just turned three yesterday and while it is wonderful to see our children grow and develop day by day, but such incidents which are happening rampantly across the country in cities, towns and villages scares me a lot. It would be a lie if I'd said that I'm oblivious of such incidents.

You don't have to necessarily be a parent before you could realize the fear and the insecurity that there is which is caused by such offences happening on regular basis. I am sure that such violence towards our children is surely impacting the psyche of a lot of parents if not all.

When I say 'if not all' I mean those who have the power to deliver and act yet they don't. What good has law and order, the judiciary system, the police and the government done over the years to ensure that this doesn't happen again.

What happened with Zaira was an act of inflicting mental agony which would not be easy for her to forget and move on. But the matter could have been worse if she was supposedly elsewhere and the molester had found himself alone with her in some secluded place.

As a society why are we allowing these incidents to reoccur time and again? What are we doing to cease it for once and for ever? It makes no sense to rely entirely on the agencies and the politicians to come to our rescue.

History is a living proof that these so called police, the so called representatives of the people and the politicians have only jumped in to twist the situation to suit their needs and for their selfish benefits.

The Ryan School incident in Gurgaon is still fresh in our memory where seven years old Pradyuman was murdered in broad day light in his school. We know how the Haryana Police worked towards the investigation and ended up wrongly implicating a poor school bus conductor for the murder.

It was only later when the Central Bureau of Investigation team took over the charge and a new story surfaced where a class 11 student from the same school was held responsible for the murder. We'll see where does it take us and if there will be justice done for the parents who lost their child. The shoddy police investigation could clearly be understood to aid the rich and powerful and could be politically motivated as well.

The police in Hisar has now formed a Special Investigating Team to nab the accused who raped and murdered the six year old girl. But remember this is the same police who botched up the Ryan school murder case. I personally am not upbeat about their findings that they will be producing sooner than later.

These cases of rape and murder of our children makes for a big news but I still think these are not big enough to make it to the ears of our ministers in the government. One of our ministers would go gaga when a Pakistani patient is permitted to be treated here for free of cost, but if a live infant is wrapped in polythene, do you think that is okay.

As a parent, I am more concerned about the safety of my child rather than what allegations has one political party made to the other. I don't really care a bit whether Ram mandir will be constructed exactly at the same spot where the Babri masjid stood. I also do not care what religion Rahul Gandhi follows.

Madness has swept our society in general and our media channels in specific when the talk of the town are such news which has no directions to move ahead and which only divides us more as a society.

I want to question to the government as a tax payer, that if the government can provide a VIP security to Hardik Patel who I'm sure won't get raped by any chance, then can't the same government provide similar sense of protection and security to our children and girls.

Are we left on our own to fend for ourselves? Is the establishment challenging us for a revolution that will change the face and behavior of the society and the country forever?

This non responsiveness to our plight is nothing but the government rubbing its foot against our back and neck.