Can We Do Something About Child Abuse This Children’s Day?
14 November, the birthday of Jawahar Lal Nehru is celebrated every year as children’s day nation wide. There are programmes and events organised in various schools of the country. This year even multinationals like GOOGLE organised a doodle competition of the young artists.
This certainly doesn’t seem enough. Organizing competitions at school or national level or declaring it a holiday would only give children some happy moments. It however ignores the happiness of those who are constantly deprived of it.
Poverty in the country has lead to many things, one of them being the exploitation of children by the foreigner. The nude pictures of poor children are often uploaded on the Internet for the pleasure of the pedophiles. Not only this there have been instances when people from abroad adopt homeless Indian kids and then sale them in the markets pedophiles.
The most disheartening thing is that we cannot blame people from outside alone. In face, they represent a very small number of culprits. Most of the children are exploited by their own father, close relative , neighbour or employer. They are often attacked by those who are there to protect them. Unfortunately, the kids are both vulnerable and terrified to disclose the reality.
Sex is a taboo in India and when it is forced, the victims often resort to silence because they know they would get no support from the traditional Indian society. In most cases they are subjected to such objectionable acts continuously. It eventually destroys their state of mind. They abhor many things that remind of their childhood past. Even after becoming adults they are haunted by their disgusting childhood nightmares.
If children are the future of the country then we have a responsibility to protect them. And if we can’t protect, we even have no right to celebrate Children’s Day.
Distributing sweets in schools will give children pleasure but framing a law would protect them.
The only laws that remotely address to these problems are sections 376, 377 of Indian Penal Code and some sections of the Information Technology Act, 2000. But there is no specific law that can punish pedophiles or can compensate the victims of such events.
