Kerala   

Vigil against child abuse Law & order

A recent incident where a nine-year-old girl was subjected to sexual exploitation and smothered to death at Payyoli in the district calls for more vigil against sexual predators in neighbourhoods and campuses.

Senior police officials and academics say parents have a greater role in educating the children against child sex abuse. School authorities also appoint student counsellors to check such tendencies at the institutions.

“Society should accept the fact that child sexual abuse exists. Parents usually laugh it off or ignore it when students report the matter,” said Anup Kuruvilla John, Commissioner of Police, Kozhikode City.

A study commissioned by the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development on ‘Child Abuse in India’ in 2007 found that 53.22 per cent of children reported having faced one of more forms of sexual abuse and most children did not report the matter.

In the Payyoli case, the accused, V. Mayankutty, strangled the lower primary student when she told him that she would tell her mother and teachers that she had been sexually molested. The Class V girl had gone to the house during recess at 11.15 a.m. to drink water. She was found missing when the classes resumed.

The body was found hidden in a sack inside a shed on the terrace of the house of Mayankutty at 12.30 p.m after local people carried out a search.

The police said there have been incidents where teachers have been accused of abusing children.

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