Compassion for kids makes a great city

Many years ago, I wanted to visit the Children’s Remand Home in Dongri. As a result, I spent two weeks going everyday to the offices of the Juvenile and Welfare Social Board offices to get permission.

I picked a different time each day but I still never found anyone there. The office was either shut or the relevant people were missing. Finally, my editor called someone who called someone and I got the official entry letter, completely bypassing the department. Was it fair to assume from this that the board constituted to look after forgotten, abandoned, homeless children, was least bothered about them?

I cannot lie and say that the condition at the children’s home was awful. It was sad because of their condition but there were many happy stories. The more horrifying tales came from experiences in private orphanages — many sadly run by religious organisations — where so-called “social workers” used their powers to abuse children to fulfil their sadistic urges.

The past few weeks have brought some of the horrors faced by forgotten children in our city to the forefront - but with remarkably less public hysteria than for instance the “insult” felt by a golfing coach who was asked to remove his turban as a security check at an international airport. What is it about the idea of children suffering that makes it easy for us to close our eyes to atrocities against them? After Slumdog Millionaire’s success, many people were outraged that the film showed children as a prey for unscrupulous torturers. Whatever ivory tower you live in, just open your eyes at traffic signals and tea shops to get a more realistic picture.

The news that the two paedophiles in the Anchorage orphanage case are being sent back to jail by the Supreme Court comes at the same time as reports that the government is planning to clean up the children’s remand homes and orphanages in the city. This comes on the heels of reports of an orphanage where the children were repeatedly raped and sexually abused by their caretakers for years. There have also been reports of mentally retarded children being ritually abused.

I’m not going get self-righteous about the Indian capacity for sanctimony and self-congratulation when it comes to all that is great about our great nation. But any society which condones or ignores abuses against its children - whatever its excuse - has to stand up and take the criticism. If we continue to maintain our delusions about becoming a world class city, then we have to start with a little compassion towards the less fortunate and a better system of accountability when it comes to the care of the helpless and hapless. The few changes that have come are through selfless work by activists. It is also true that government officials responsible have to be more aware of possible abuses and must be “sensitised”. But these efforts will be fruitless unless society as a whole accepts its shortcomings and is open to change.

Making Mumbai great is not just about more infrastructure. It is about a sustainable society which looks after the less fortunate with as much vigour as it caters to the needs of the privileged.