Some time back, I volunteered for a couple of hours at P’s school. Being a typical under-funded organization, the school normally asks the parents for any sort of help they can give to assist in the smooth running of it. Parents are regularly urged to devote some of their free time in counting vouchers or peeling carrots or do any one of its zillion jobs. Feeling quite self-righteous, I rolled up the driveway earlier that morning and presented myself for an hour and half worth of odd jobs. I was promptly given a form that will help me undergo CRB clearance – the UK’s standard check for anyone working with children or confidential data. Not only were they looking at a gift horse in the mouth, they were making sure the vet got a good look at it before they let it in!

Quite right, too.

As always, things of this sort make me wonder about the state of affairs at the homeland. Earlier this summer, whilst enjoying the parents’ hospitality in the maternal home, I was shocked to hear about the girl who got assaulted at school. This grim incident happened at the Kendriya Vidyalaya school, Ashok Nagar, Chennai. Apparently, a seven-year old girl had been sexually assaulted in the school premises by one of the school’s laboratory technicians. What’s more, it was alleged that one of the teachers played a role in luring this child to her molester. As if this wasn’t enough, it was rumoured that the parents of this child were cautioned not to approach the police in this regard or else. When other parents came to know of this, they apparently blew the whilstle on the matter and called in the cops.

Of course the school denied every single thing and the investigation was still going on when I returned from my trip. But everyone I spoke to on this subject stated that the rapist will get away with a minor sentence and will shrug it off soon enough. What a disgrace if that happened! If that is the maximum punishment for a heinous crime such as this, then it is no wonder it is not enough of a deterrant to others thinking of doing the same thing!

A child of seven, I ask you! My son is five and I can only recoil in horror at the implications of this. We trust our children to be safe and sound when we send them to schools and as such, have every right to believe the school would make sure our children can come to know harm. So why is it that news of this incident doesn’t seem to surprise most parents? Isn’t it a truly dreadful state of affairs when nothing shocks us anymore?

So what is to be done to ensure the safety of our children? And more importantly, why is it that they don’t merit more stringent measures to keep them safe? Don’t our young don’t warrant any serious protection? Or is it a case of ‘there’s plenty more of them so let’s not fret too much’?

As published in Desicritics.org

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