Neglected Victims

We need to give up on our individualistic lifestyles and bring ourselves to a more responsible social level where we can see homeless children and instead of viewing them as `dirty little things` actually feel some mercy and love for them and try to incorporate them into our social web.

I agree with Seema Kurup that the responsibility for rehabilitation rests equally with adult citizens and individuals. However, it is the NGOs who need to publicise the cause and take the lead. Indiviudals will be more than willing to get invovled and support. Frontline repsonsibility for resettling the boys at the Anchorage should have been taken under the guidance of Childline, by ac ouple of NGOs who were so vociferous in condemning the abusers. If shown the lead, a large number of socially conscious citizens would have come forward to support the cause.
Shridhar Naik

dear shridhar

your article definitely made for an interesting read. it raises quite a few pertinent questions and provokes individuals working on child rights towards putting in a response...

i understand and identify your anguish at the way the boys have been or not been rehabilitated. though i feel that the article does not look into the other aspects of rehabilitation processes, which require a sustained, continued and steady stream of support from all sections of society.

i feel the article very comfortably rests the burden of responsibility of the care and protection of neglected children on NGOs and to some extent the govt. it clearly excludes the other citizens, adults of the state from being stakeholders in the life of the child.

it means that i as a citizen can stand at a distance and cluck sympathetically, maybe even ``feel`` tremendously for children in need of care and protection. though, not do anything at all.

that means i the citizen, (read not a ngo/govt worker) should be a part of the exploitative system that abuses the child, and say, ``why doesnt somebody do something to help out this poor child``?

that is why organizations like childline, apart from the thousands of supportive calls, also get calls from people saying, ``there is a child lying here in a pool of blood. he has met with a serious accident. please come and help him.``

as you rightly say, the efforts of the ``few`` concerned ngos and activists are mere drops in the ocean. that is because, it is bereft of a larger social support from people. like this article, people too feel that it is the responsibility of ngos to identify, voice, struggle, demand, bring about change ...

ngos are a part of the social system, they are not here to take over the role of the government. they are not substitutes for the government.

they are more of catalysts in change processes. their role is more of giving a pace and direction to development processes.

you ask what can be done. beginning from you, since you write so strongly on issues related to child rights, i think that an increased interaction with people who work on child rights will support your writings. and consequently add to the growing awareness on the rights of the child.

thanks again shridhar for a good read.

Re: # 3
ThanK you for responding to the article. What do you feel could be a solution to the problem? this case came to light largely because of the persistence of some volunteers at the Anchorage and lawyers, NGOs, Child Rights organisations.So may cases go unnoticed,and the effect is quite harmful. A large section of abused children grow up to become abusers and gays, some o them also suffer psychological trauma. I would be interested in having yur views.
SHRIDHAR NAIK

This article deals with a widespread problem which few wish to acknowledge. The number of people willing to deal with it is even smaller. Perhaps the NGO`s should be doing more than they have been - but the way I understand it - many of them are highly limited in their resources.

Besides, NGO`s are also a part of the larger society with the same attitudes and shortcomings.

Children can not complain for themselves - they do not have the ability or words and few advocates. Necessity is the mother of all inventions and poverty is the mother of all evils. If the family and perhaps the immediate community can not (or will not) do much, how much can an NGO do.

Child abuse is also repetitive. Many abused children will grow up to do the same if they get a chance. The flesh-trade from Nepal is another manifestation. There are many other forms of exploitation, too.

Paedophilia
Shridhar Naik
It is a brave gesture on your part to bring this subject up on Chawk.

In the Sub-continent and the Asian region in general, there is a culture of denial that paedophilia exists at all. Yet it is rampant under the carpet.

In many of the established Religious institutions, particularly where celibacy is touted as a virtue, they turn a blind eye and accept the practice as a small price to pay for the path to heaven. Some accept it as a cultural deviancy, but shameful never the less.

Amongst Muslims, particularly emanating from central Asia, the calumny has been advanced few step further in that, I assume in order to legitimise their paedophilia, the compilers of Hadis, have ruthlessly dragged in the exalted personality of Prophet Muhammad by claiming; contrary to Qurnic injunctions, that he had married a baby called Ayisha at the age of seven, some kindly say “no, no! she was NINE”. Some concession to cultural deviancy!

In many of the third / even developing world , poverty is the main driving force behind the deviancy(That is why the rich flock to them). With improved economy of the countries, one hopes that the practice of child molestation will one day stop. But when a religious bent is given to any mal-practice in society, that hope just evaporates in thin air.
Rashid

Why are children allowed to be abused by religious brainwashers?

Anyone convicted of taking children to a mosq should be fined (for first offence; subsequently their children should be taken into state custody)

Not to mention physical and sexual offences
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4831876.stm


But the most violent is the psychological indoctrination of ridiculous beliefs in the name of spirituality.