With cases of sexual assault and rape on the rise, how safe are our children?

It’s a common enough sight across India—anxious parents, grandparents, maids waiting expectantly outside their colonies or homes for the school bus to reach, whereupon a smattering of toddlers emerge, running to their respective caretaker. Each day a new day, a new fear, and each day, increasingly, parents look for tell-tale signs that might suggest something amiss.

For increasingly, also, cases of sexual assault, even rape of minors have been on the rise, with children often most vulnerable at schools, most of which now refuse to take any liability for a child’s safety on the premises.

In July 2014, Bengaluru was rocked when it emerged that a six-year-old child had been sexually assaulted at the prestigious private school Vibgyor and that the school had allegedly tried to cover it. Both the teachers were reportedly on contract and were not school employees. 

Earlier this month, a special court in Mumbai sentenced a school peon to 10-years’ rigorous imprisonment for sexually assaulting a three-year-old at a western Mumbai suburb in September 2014, only months after the Bengaluru incident, bringing to the fore again the fragile safety that children have at our schools.

On Thursday, Maharashtra Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao directed the Devendra Fadnavis government to take urgent steps and stop deaths and sexual assaults on girls in tribal residential schools also known as Ashramshalas, following a report by an inquiry committee.

The Salunkhe committee, constituted to probe the deaths of 1,077 kids in tribal schools over the past 15 years, has found that in two-thirds of cases, the cause of death was unclear. Since about half of the deaths were of girls, the committee suspects sexual exploitation in tribal schools

Other cases of sexual assault of children are on the rise across the country, raising serious questions about the safety of students in what is supposed to be a ‘safe’ environment, especially given that most of the perpetrators are in some way employed or associated with the school. “Children are the one’s who do not spill the beans if threatened and hence they are more vulnerable towards such criminal action or force expended by people,” says Special Public Prosecutor Pradeep Gharat.

The POCSO Act effect

Gharat also points out that the number of cases of sexual assaults on children has been on the rise is more because of better reporting rather than any actual increase in such crimes.

This, he says, is on account of the stringent Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO Act) that was passed in 2012.

Among its many strictures, the one that stands out is that it also makes the non-reporting of sexual assault against children a punishable offence. Thus, a person who knows of such an incident but fails to report it faces a fine and/or up to six months in jail.

The POCSO Act 2012 also makes it mandatory to fast-track such cases and dispose of them in an year’s time.

The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has also made the POCSO e-box available on its website for children to complain anonymously, besides asking schools to advertise it among students.

Some schools have been inviting non-governmental organisations to create awareness of personal safety education, while others have started getting police verification of all their staff done before hiring.

Kavita Sahay, vice chairperson of the Vibgyor group of schools, which has a national network of 24 schools, said they have adopted a new hiring process that includes a background check and police verification for those who are on contract.

“Even (for) our old staff background check is done,” she said. “On the other hand we have CCTV cameras placed everywhere in the school premises and near washroom the lady attendants are kept for younger children. We also sensitize our staff of bus about safety of the children and how to handle them.”

“Since 2015, we have started a workshop for school children and all staff, from peons to teachers and bus attendants,” said Sangeeta Srivastava, principal of KES SVPV Vidyalaya, Kandivali. The workshop, conducted by NGO Arpan which works on children’s abuse issues, also included training for the children on personal safety skills.

“There is a child protection policy in place in our school for all school staffs from teachers to school bus attendants, “ said Rohan Bhat, chairman, Children’s Academy group of school. 

“Also, school bus attendants are instructed about child safety in which they are told they cannot touch a child in such a way that the child feels awkward or suspicious about their behaviour or feel unsafe.” In addition, the police verification of all staff, including attendants, is also done.

“We are taking all the measures for the safety of our school children. Students are also given lessons on good touch and bad touch,” he said.

After the ‘bad touch’

Understand the need of the hour for the kid and act accordingly, is what Assistant Commissioner of Police Rashmi Karandikar recommends. 

She says most victims are just normal kids who fall prey to acts of violence from either their guardian or people they know, or from the people whom they are not acquainted with, thus one should never expend pity towards these kids. But they should be encouraged to live a normal life.

Karandikar points out that the most difficult cases are the one involving children with special needs, especially the ones at so-called shelters, where they were abused by adults who were supposed to be their caretakers as well as those visiting the institution.

“When I investigated, their state was very much vulnerable. The kids could not speak the language which could be understood by a normal person,” she says. “ We tried communicating with the kids with the help of the interpreter and psychologist and only after gaining their trust, they started opening up. However even then it was difficult as these kids never opened up entirely, but we had to understand them through their actions.”

But the key to avoid post-traumatic depression is to make sure children are not made to remember the crime, says Karandikar. “The kids also go through a lot of post incident depression, thus extreme care should be taken by the child’s parents to protect the mental health of the kids,” she says.

“The post-effects of the sexual abuse which the children go through after court proceedings are very serious in nature and in no way should be ignored,” says Mumbai-based psychiatrist Dr Harish Shetty. “It is the responsibility of the parents to ensure that the child is heard every time and is understood, so that the parents get apprised of the situation and can take required steps to make the child safe.”

Shetty says his own philosophy is to first heal the child and not going after what happened. “We bond with the child and always focus on the healing therapy … we never focus in the revelation of truth. Once the healing process starts and the child’s trust is gained, the truth comes out automatically, without even hurting the child,” he says.

“These memories are not good memories which one would like to cherish, but children want to get rid of them and hence on poking them time and again with the set of questions, they tend not to support the case thoroughly. Thus is very important for the agency to understand the gravity and act accordingly with the kid,” he cautions, adding that it is also very important for the parents to allow the psychiatrist to close the topic, thus helping the victim get rid of the trauma.

Among states, Maharashtra has the worst record in offences against children, full-year data for 2015 from the National Crime Records Bureau shows. The state accounts for 14.8 per cent of the national figure such crimes. A total of 13,921 cases were registered in the state against people for committing crime against children, including rape, assault to outrage modesty, sexual harassment, assault with an intention to disrobe , voyeurism, stalking, other assaults, and insult to modesty, among other POCSOA sections.

However, police officers claimed they had arrested 36,886 men and 416 women in POCSOA cases in 2015. Of the arrested people, 29,264 men and 374 women were charge-sheeted. 

According to NCRB data, however, only 2,134 men and 10 women were convicted under the POCSO Act’s provisions.

Gharat has an explanation for the low conviction rate, though. “If the case takes long to start, the intensity of rage or anger which the victim’s family has against the accused gets mellowed down, and thus the case is not pursued ahead the way it should have,” he points out. “While considering the legal hassles, minute details about the crime are asked. The more the case gets older, there are more chances that the accused might get acquitted of the charges.”