Disgusted…

How old is a two and half year old?

- Old enough to recognize one’s parents and family

- Old enough to call out to the parents

- Old enough to recognize a few basic alphabets, colors and shapes

- Old enough to express his need to go to the toilet maybe 3 out of 5 times

- Old enough to use pull up pants instead of padded diapers

 

But is a two and half year old, grown up enough

- to understand who to trust and who not to?

- to understand all people who smile and offer a candy are NOT friends?

- to understand a ‘good’ touch from a ‘bad’ touch?

- TO BE SEXUALLY MOLESTED?? 

Disgusting feels like an understatement when I think about the recent incident that happened in a play school situated in Rohini, New Delhi. What completely made me lose sleep over this incident was the fact that I was evaluating and contemplating sending my child to the same school a couple of months ago when I was toying with the idea to move to that part of Delhi.

If hearing about a two and half year old being sexually molested in the school premises by a member of the administrative staff was not appalling enough, parents of around 35 – 40 children, aged between 2 – 4 years, discovered a similar nature of urine infection with their kids who were going to the same school indicating the possibilities of a similar crime committed against their children.

This implies that about 40 helpless children were abused and molested over a period of weeks or months before this heinous crime was discovered. The school authorities in the meanwhile have been trying to cover up and refute any claims of a crime committed in their premises. The parents queued up outside the school and staged a protest and demanded a legal action against the school authorities and were beaten up by the police in order to disperse them and perhaps hush the case up.

I am at loss of words here. The world is full of sick people and they are slowly creeping up right at our doorsteps. The victims could be anyone’s kids. It could have been your child, it could have been mine. Who do we trust if not even the biggest schools in the vicinity? How do we educate a 2- 3 year old against paedophiles and creeps and unwarranted touch? How safe can one hope to be and how long can you shadow your children without stunting their growth?

It’s time an example was made out of the culprit. Personally, I would like to see him hanged in full public view to send shivers down the spine of anyone else who thought children were easy targets. Sadly, the media outcry (if any) will soon be lost in pile of election news and PM’s visit to the USA and China threatening to attack and maybe Cricket.

A friend pointed out last night that ‘soon this news will be replaced by another news of similar nature’ which narrates the sorry state of affairs that is ailing the society and people today. I don’t know of a silver bullet solution to this issue, perhaps none exists. However, on a personal note what I hope and will strive to do is to constantly raise my voice on the issue and urge friends and readers to not let the buzz die.

It’s about time we all raised a voice and make the authorities sit up and take notice.