Child sexual abuse- Just being Okay
Child sexual abuse- Just being Okay
Photo Courtesy: unicef.org/india
It is no coincidence that the ordinance the government pulled out of its hat did not include child marriage. Child marriage is still quite prevalent in India, and it would make orthodox patriarchs very unhappy to give a definite boot to the practice. The Khap Panchayats are bravely fighting to get the legal age of marriage lowered as some kind of fix for the rising incidents of rape, as though raping married women is fine.
Politicians, political workers, police, lawyers, teachers and parents have been accused of raping children, and politician lawyers have defended rapists in courts. Who exactly is on the side of the child in this open consensus to exploit children? A judge acquitted gang rapists of an underage girl by calling it prostitution in the Suryanelli gangrape case. Another judge questions the label of rape for underage girls who elope willingly with men. The judge appears to be more concerned with the harm done to men with sentencing in such cases. This is in spite of the accused confessing to knowing that the victim was under 16 years of age.
Children, having no votes, nor mob power, have no protection in this country.
We have daily news of children being raped, killed. But this is the tip of the iceberg. For every child ending up in a hospital or morgue, there are countless others forced into sex and silenced in the name of shame or by threat. There are countless others being seduced into exploitative sexual relationships and still others sent by adults in the name of marriage or prostitution. What exactly is the meaning of the age of consent? Is it simply about the knowing what sex is or wanting it, or is it about protecting children from pedophiles seducing them into wanting sex?
How is it that a society obsessed with honour is able to make such exceptions, when adult women have a tough time finding acceptance for partners they choose on their own? Where does all that honour go?
There is a serious question we are faced with now. Do we actually care about these kids? What does the age of consent mean?
Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Virender Bhat in a special, fast-track court to try sexual offenses does not seem to have an interest in upholding law, putting his reluctant sentencing on record as he allowed the release of a 20 year old man arrested for eloping with a girl under 16 years of age, when it was discovered the girl went with him willingly. To quote the report from Indian Express: He said the case is a “grim reminder” of the “realities of society”, and asked “why their sexual act with their lover (was called) as rape, when it is not in fact so”.
“Today’s girl of more than 15 years of age is not so innocent and numb as would be lured into the sex act by a boy. They are more mature and nubile than the girls of their age about 25 to 30 years ago,” the court said.
The Naraina resident was arrested in August 2012, and was convicted after he pleaded guilty and admitted that he knew that the girl was under 16 when they eloped.
The ASJ said the boys suffered in such situations as their “educational career is marred and they face incarceration in jail for a considerable time, when the girl with whom they enjoy sex, is equally responsible for the whole episode”.
Does the judge realise that his views amount to endorsing pedophilia as long as the child can be seduced into willingly agreeing to sex? Here we are, as a country, unable to hang a brutal rapist in the Delhi gangrape case, because he is a juvenile by a few months, but we seem to have no qualms over accepting the consent of a girl under the legal age of consent and considering her as “equally responsible” for the crime! Why not just flat out legalize child prostitution then? If kids are willingly having sex for money, let us just make it okay, yes? After all, they know what they are consenting to – often better than many virgins in their 20s agreeing to an arranged marriage. What next? If someone cons a child into giving them money from their child account, the child is equally responsible in the crime of cheating?
The utter lack of understanding of the need for protection of children from sexual exploitation and the shameless excusing of the predatory male preying on vulnerable girls, that too coming from a judge makes me want to vomit. Precedents like this will put children in grave danger and it is unbelievable that a special court set up to specially deal with sexual offenses lacks basic understanding of law.
I have advocated before that the role of consent must never be ignored in a crime. An underage girl eloping willingly with a man is certainly a lesser crime than a woman being violently raped. However, when her willingness is used to release a man who eloped with her knowing full well that she was not of a legal age, we seem to be saying that if you can seduce a girl into having sex with you willingly, it is fine. With this reasoning, we could officially become an international sex tourism destination, because poor girls could very easily be charmed into wanting to have sex with handsome golden-haired men from far away lands. They would do it willingly. So what age do we stop at? Because you could even get a three year old to give a drooly grin to a handsome stranger who wants to cuddle her in new ways which may feel good.
Where does this road end?
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