Culprits of crime against children run free

In the hospital lobby, she fumbles with her figures and mumbles with herself as her mother waits her turn at the doctor.

Nazima, 16, a tall, fair, chubby girl has no light in her eyes, no gloss in her cheeks which is expected of her age.

She has been receiving treatment from a local psychiatrist for over three years now according to her, her condition has improved a little.

At the age of 11, Nazima was sexually molested by her cousin who lived at their place, and the fear didn’t allow her to talk about it for nearly 3 years.

Even today she fears the sight of any man hesitates to talk to strangers, has lost interest in school and seldom talks. Such crimes have a deep impact on their personality, some recover others don’t. Nazima is improving on a steady pace, but thanks to her family who in the first place admitted the crime and decided not to punish her.

The trauma of that event has deeply impacted her personality and left an unforgettable scare on her mind. Right from doctors to faith healers, her parents have tried all the ways to cure their daughter. She never talks about the event.

Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) is a very growing aspect of societies that lays more attention to books rather than moral education or sex education.

In a society like ours this kind of thing is not even talked about leave alone reporting it at police or hospital. Families hush up these cases and with the result there are nearly no cases registered, whereas the actual number is glaring piling up.

The roots of this problem are people who have disrupted personalities and innocent children become victims of their crimes.

The perpetrator walks away free as the poor child is yet to understand what happened to him/her.

Children and parents need to bring down the curtail and start talking about it. They need to know about good and bad touch only then crimes like these can be prevented.

Just like Nazima, others can be prevented from by educating them on right time.

As a journalist from the region I can say with authority that these cases don’t see the light of the day which is like hiding the culprit under the big ego of a primitive society like Kashmir.

I have pledged to report and get as many cases as possible and unmask the darker side of the society who claim to be modern, educated and moral.