Child Abuse : Predators on my Playground

The gory murder of Pradyumna has once again brought the issue of child abuse to the forefront. Child abuse casts a shadow of lifetime on individual. What are the factors responsible for this growing trend? Are we addressing the root cause of degrading values and breaking of the family institution? What are the possible remedies to make our kids safe and secure?

Divyansh Dev

The mere hypothesis of sending your young one to school only to not have him come back forever is chilling to the core.  The recent incident of a  young boy with no fault of his, being sexually assaulted and slaughtered in the school washroom by a bus-conductor—has shaken the collective conscience of the nation. This has especially come as a rude shock to parents who de-facto believed that their ward is in safe hands while in school. It has also altogether raised plethora of doubts on the private education system in India, which is known for its extra-amenities especially in lieu of considerable fees charged.
Despite strict laws such as Protection of Children against Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, a total of 14, 913 cases of child abuse have been reported in India in 2015, as per a report released by National Crime Records Bureau.  This statistics also implies that our children are most vulnerable to sexual assault in the whole world. In many of such cases, the sexual assault has taken place within educational institutions by persons who shared a rapport with the child.
This entire incident leaves the parents perplexed. They now really don’t know whom to trust when it comes to their child’s safety outside home. Sending the child to school for straight eight hours, that too without a guarantee of her protection is beyond their immediate comprehension.
Shoma Sarkar, TGT Social Science at Karaili School, Ranchi presents an interesting narrative as a parent and as a teacher. She says, “Schools should be accountable towards their responsibility towards children i.e each and every aspect beginning from security, appointment of drivers,  conductors, class four staff and even teachers”

As a parent, she shares, “Parents should regularly visit and meet the management and feel free in raising their concerns. Duty of parents doesn’t finish with child’s admission. They should train their children in terms of unwarranted touch, going alone to isolated spots in school etc in order to  prevent an untoward incident.”
Apart from parents and children, the government too should not shy away from taking a cue from this episode. A crime against childre remains a crime, and doesn’t absolve the government of its responsibility just because the school was a private school, and not a government school. The attitude of agencies appears to be over-confident of private schools and their provision for safety amenities. This is possibly the reason behind not having any efficient government apparatus to regularly scrutinise safety mechanisms at private schools and ensure its timely follow up. Perhaps, that is why serious security lapses were later discovered in the Ryan International School — where the seven year old had his throat slit in the washroom.  
Anchal Bhatia working as TGT English at Delhi Government’s Sarvodaya Girls School says, “profiteering of education is a major reason. Compare the budget of government aided schools with those of private ones and you”ll understand that private school business is a big market. Lapse in safety and security is a common phenomenon observed in many schools that are privately run, though they are charging exorbitant fees mostly as a coffer filling practice. This case was that of sheer negligence and the government should leave no stone unturned in fixing the criminal liability for the school’s management”.
This incident has sparked another question of where we as a society are headed. This is certainly not what our rich culture that gives an important role to childhood and parenting subscribes to.

Ruchi Chawla Batra, former PGT at New Era Public School, and right now a spiritual counsellor at Centre for Mind-Body-Soul says, “This case is a real time illustration of how a man when slightly instigated or under pressure, loses his humane side and gets vulnerable to his animal instincts. We have definitely reached a point where our society need an introspective revolution by looking back at our roots that has prescribed mediums to attack such social evils through compassion, love and empathy. Whatever the accused did can no doubt be counted as one of the most horrific,  inhumane and cruel acts; but it is also serving as a clarion call for an internal reflection – as to what prompted the accused stoop down to such animality”

A lot more needs to be understood at the psyche level of such molesters. Harsimran Kaur from Department of Psychology, University of Delhi says, “Pedophile is a term given to the people who abuse children. They are the ones who use child pornography prominently. Research says that people who are themselves abused as a child can find children sexually attractive. However, the offender may or not be specifically attracted to children. He/she may be using the child to satisfy the urges at that moment”.
Interestingly, Hon’ble Supreme Court in its order dated way back in 1997 has already issued following guidelines to schools to put effective security infrastructure in educational institutions. These include:

1.    All the school buses are to be painted in yellow. The driver”s name, his license number, address, owners name and address, their mobile numbers, transport department”s helpline number are to be painted and displayed outside the bus prominently.
2.    Each school will have to appoint a Transport Manager who will be solely responsible for the security of children. The buses are to be equipped with CCTV cameras and GPS system. Each bus should be accompanied by a school teacher, who will ensure children”s safety till his or her destination. Each bus has to be equipped with first aid and medical kit. The schools will have to ensure that drivers do not use mobile phones while driving the bus. The fitness certificate from the transport department has to be obtained for the buses without fail.
3.    The schools have to construct separate toilets for the visitors and the ancillary staff. The schools will also have to obtain no objection certificate (NOC) for the safety norms from power corporation to avoid any electric fault.

4. The schools will have to seek NOC from the Municipal Corporation for providing clean drinking water to students. Each school will have to maintain hygiene in its canteen. Also the boundary walls of the schools should be secured and should be made beyond reach of the intruders inside the school premises.
5.    Schools having swimming pool facilities, will have to employ a coach and lifeguard in its facility state the guidelines issued by the district administration
These detailed guidelines can elevate the security mechanisms at school, only if followed and pursued religiously. Lack of any penal provisions and lax pursual arrangements of such guided norms is an open invitation to tragedy.
The need of hour is to have serious sanction mechanism that would heavily penalise any breach in safety guidelines by the school towards the students and staff. Waking up to sexual assault and cold-blooded murder of a seven year old within school premises has been a painful reality and should be treated as a failure of private education machinery. If even the haves (versus the have-nots) are not being able to protect their children from such predators, then such fact itself casts aspersions on real-time condition of children in our nation.    (with Inputs from Nishant Kr Azad)