The Hindu : Front Page : It's an unsafe world out there

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Nov 14, 2006
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Front Page

It's an unsafe world out there

Bageshree S.

`To be poor in our society is bad, to be a poor child is worse'

TOP THIS: A boy spins a top on his palm to the delight of his companion. — FILE Photo: C.V. Subrahmanyam

Bangalore: Selva (12) and Shiva (10), names changed, were arrested in Bangalore in 2004 on the charge of stealing mobile phones.

The destitute boys from Gudiyatham in Tamil Nadu were beaten and allegedly subjected to electric shocks at the MICO Layout police station. The case was referred to Human Rights Law Network (HRLN) by the Child Welfare Committee (CWC).

The Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's court took cognisance of the offence and issued summons to the constable concerned in August 2007. The constable is being produced before the court on Tuesday — ironically, on Children's Day.

There are laws in place that make it possible to question violations of a child's safety whether in the privacy of a home or in the public sphere, says Nagaratna R. of the HRLN.

But the existence of laws alone does not ensure the safety of a child, and more importantly, they do not ensure the safety of all children in the same manner, she adds.

While a child from an upper middle-class family may feel justifiably unsafe walking to school given the traffic and pollution levels and a spiralling crime rate, the dangers that the child faces is not even comparable to the perils faced by one who lives in a slum, on a construction site, or in a poor rural setting.

"You don't need statistics to know how much more unsafe poor children are. Just walk into an urban slum and you will see the dangers to which a child is exposed," says Nomita Chandy who runs Ashraya, a child rights organisation in Bangalore. Besides unsanitary living conditions, malnutrition and lack of access to education, they have no defences against adult vested interests, including crime cartels and trafficking networks, she points out.

The cases taken up by the HRLN or the records at Makkala Sahaya Vaani, a children's helpline on the premises of the Police Commissioner's office in Bangalore, validate Ms. Chandy's views on how unsafe poor and lower middle-class children's worlds are. Sahaya Vaani gets an average of 60 new cases a month, many of which are of children who go missing from their homes.

Yasmeen Banu (12), name changed, from Kadur, who has studied up to 7th standard, came to Bangalore because, as she put it, "there is no future in the village." Her parents are landless labourers on a coriander farm. "I want to stay for six months and make some money before I go back to my village," she said.

Sujata, coordinator at Sahaya Vaani, says Banu was luckier than an average girl who comes to the centre, as she had not been sexually abused. Most girls at Sahaya Vaani come with horror tales of sexual and other forms of physical abuse. Ms. Nagaratna narrates harrowing stories of child abuse that are disturbing to hear. "To be poor in our society is bad, to be a poor child is worse," says Nagaratna.

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