For a child, the two safest places should be the home and the school. Alas, there is a hiatus between precept and practice. Studies during the Covid-induced lockdown found that children, especially girls, were vulnerable to sexual attacks by their own family members. What happened in Badlapur in Maharashtra’s Thane district where two girls, aged three and four, were sexually molested by an attendant of a pre-school is macabre, to say the least. The police should have immediately swung into action, arrested the culprit and other school authorities, but instead, they preferred to play footsie with the law. Finally, when the parents of the children and others, shocked by such a shameful incident in a pre-school, protested, the police were compelled to take action. The Bombay High Court took suo moto cognisance of the crime and initiated a hearing on it. The Opposition has called for a bandh on August 24.
The state government feels content that it has arrested the culprit, taken action against the school management and issued an order making it mandatory to install CCTV cameras in all schools across the state. It claims that the protest is politically motivated, disregarding the fact that the High Court could not have been falsely motivated to take action. The suspension of the police officers happened only because there was a public protest. That there was no CCTV on the school premises is surprising, given its utility and the fall in prices. In such cases, the attitude of the authorities is to cover up because they fear it would damage their reputation. The authorities need to react, not as custodians of someone’s reputation but as justice providers. There should be zero tolerance for sexual harassment wherever it happens. The state should lead by fast-tracking the trial to ensure that the guilty are punished.
