Do not handle the issue with kid gloves

Child rights activists say it is high time the state formulated an Act on the lines of the Goa Children’s Act that safeguards  children against sexual predators


Child rights activists have been fighting tooth-and-nail to protect children, especially those who live on the streets, from sexual predators.

The recent acquittal of UK nationals Allan Waters, 64, and Duncan Grant, 60, and their Indian manager William D’Souza, by the Bombay High Court in the infamous Anchorage paedophilia case came as a dampener to these activists. The Bombay High Court acquitted the duo for lack of “reliable evidence”. The judges held that there was “no merit” in the prosecution case.

Child rights activists and lawyers, who have been following the case since it was exposed eight years ago, say, “It is not easy to bring such cases to the court in the first place.” “First, the disclosures come late. The children either blame themselves or are too embarrassed to come out in the open,” said Vidya Apte, founder member, Forum against Child Sexual Exploitation (FASCE). “Collecting evidence in such cases therefore becomes all the more difficult.”

Mansoor Qadri, a child-rights activist who works with an NGO called Saathi, agreed with Apte. This is not the first time that paedophiles have managed to dodge the law. Qadri along with FASCE members had helped the investigators nab Wilhelm and Loetscher Marti, an elderly Swedish couple accused of paedophilia, in December 2000.

The Martis, both in their early 60s, were sentenced by a Mumbai sessions court in 2003 to undergo rigorous imprisonment for seven years. The court had also directed the couple to pay a total fine of Rs9,000 each, and compensation of Rs5,000 to each of their victims. The couple was granted bail by the Supreme Court in May, 2004 after they assured the court that they would not leave the country. The apex court directed the Martis to deposit their passports with the trial court. But the Martis fled the country in November, 2004 and are still at large.

Qadri said most paedophiles have a strong network of people who not help them pick up their targets but also evade detection by police. “For instance, the Martis were supported by a few taxi drivers and operators from Colaba. This made it all the more difficult to catch the couple,” said Qadri.

It took the child rights activists months of thoughtful planning and meticulous execution to catch the Martis red-handed. “We studies their behaviour and travel pattern for months before zeroing-in on them,” said Qadri. “To make sure the Martis do not spot us, we took a train and reached the hotel before the couple,” he said. “We caught the Martis shooting pornographic pictures of children.”

The children were mostly below the age of 11 and poor, he said. “The Martis lured these children by offering them sweets and toys, things that these children had always fancied but never laid their hands upon.” The hotel room booked by the Martis was full of chocolates, food, toys and various other goodies. “These children were so poor that they couldn’t even afford one square meal a day. The Martis took adavantge of their poverty and showered them with gifts.”

Children cannot distinguish between right and wrong and “it was very difficult to make the children understand that the Martis should be punished”, he said.

Qadri said catching the culprits is not sufficient. Witness protection is a must to ensure successful prosecution of paedophiles. “Unless there is witness protection, or rather victim protection, prosecuting the paedophiles can be difficult. We must not forget that victims in such cases are children who can be easily lured into changing their statements,” he said. The children who were rescued from the hotel room booked by the Martis were sent to a shelter home. All the three children who were examined by the examination in the Martis case supported the prosecution.

But “protecting” the children is not easy. “In the process of keeping the children safe, one could end up violating their rights to education or say living with their parents,” said Sangeeta Punekar, a child rights activist associated with Advait foundation.

Despite that fact that the Centre signed the Convention of Child Rights and swore to protect children from all kinds of violence and abuse, reporting child abuse is still considered to be the job of a child rights activist and not the police. “The government is the custodian of children. States can frame laws that help children. This will help the child rights activists in their endeavours,” said Apte.

Child rights activists are of the view that it is high time Maharashtra formulated an Act which would deal with children more sensitively than substantive laws like the Indian Penal Code. They are also critical of the way courts have been handling paedophilia cases. “The court often intimidates the child, especially the defence cross-examination,” said Punekar. “As a result, many victims turn hostile.”

“The courts need to approach such cases differently,” said Satish Borulkar, chief public prosecutor, Bombay high court. The courts rely on the statement of a girl child victim in rape trials without any corroboration, he said. “Why can’t we use the same approach towards paedophilia victims?”
r_menaka@dnaindia.net