Child Care Centres : Homes of perpetual hell

If there is something that is deeply traumatizing and hurting, something that is unpardonable and indigestible, then the first in the list comes Child Abuse. And when this abuse is sexual, the repercussions have to be extreme and the guilty should undoubtedly be hanged.

The inside story

The number of child care homes and institutions is on the rise, and so are the cases of sexual abuse. And what is more pathetic is, the cases that haven’t come into the limelight largely outnumber the ones that have come under the police scanner. According to the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development, there are over 640 homes across the country (child care centres and institutions) registered under the Juvenile Justice Act 2000. And over 30,000 children live in such homes. But when it comes to the number of homes unregistered under the act, the data and information is null.

Now let’s take a brief look at what actually is happening in most of the CCIs (Child Care Institutions).

The girl children are forced to strip off their clothes. There was forced abortion happening by inserting objects in their private parts. Every inmate, irrespective of their age and gender, were forced to consume liquor every night. The kids are forced to watch porn and the so called ‘caretakers’ use foul language at them.

This is just the brief, which itself is sickening. The activities and atrocities that haven’t come under the scanner are many more, and what is even more painful is the fact that a few cops are also involved in this abuse and torture towards children.

How the inside incidents spill out

The public comes to know of all such incidents only when an insider manages an ingenious escape and reports to someone, or when a rare and exceptional event exposes the sex tyrants. It has come out through many experts that for every reported case of sexual assault in a CCI, there are ten unreported cases.

The JJ Act, 2000, demands regular inspections by the inspection committee, monthly meetings of the management committees and quarterly inspections by the Child Welfare Committee members. When a home is not registered under the JJ Act, it gets the chance of escaping all this scrutiny. There are cases when the members of the inspection committee are bribed by the caretakers of CCIs upon accidental exposure of the inside activities, and the result is the innocent children losing their very chance of freedom from the hellholes of sexual abuse.

Some appalling facts

A huge number of children in our country go missing every year. Some are kidnapped, some are sold by their families in return for money, and some are lured for the promise of a better life. The following are the statistics provided by CRY (Child Rights and You)

-          About 9,000 children go missing in India every year.

-         Over 5 lakh children are forcefully pushed into sex trade every year.

-         Approximately 2 million commercial sex workers are between the ages of 5 and 15 years, and over 3.3  million are between the ages of 15 and 18.

-         40 percent of the children’s population in our country is into commercial sex working; and 80 percent of these children are found in the five metros – Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore and Chennai.

-          71 percent of these children are illiterate, that is, they are not aware of what is being done to them.

We got to think

Today’s children are the products of tomorrow’s India, but when the lives of these children are sailing on the waters of sexual abuse, we can anticipate our nation walking towards darkness. The children who have escaped from these homes of horror had put it that their lives had been extremely painful and agonizing, not just mentally but also physically. In most cases, they don’t have a chance to even interact with the staff of the CCIs. They are beaten badly in the name of inculcating discipline, insulted and molested, abused verbally, physically and sexually. Young girls are gang-raped in such homes, again and again; they are tormented and tortured to an extent where they heart-fully feel death is a better option.

Our government had produced a bill (Prevention of Sexual Offences Against Children) in 2011, but there have also been reports stating that the present legislation is not sufficient to curb child sexual abuse. We do not know how far the government is serious regarding this issue. We do not know if the government, in the first place, has bothered to bother about this matter. All we got to know is, we just can’t rely or wait for our government. To make things change, we got to move. 

The CoalGate : Our nation's shot to shame

‘The Coal-gate scam’ clearly shows our nation’s shot to shame. It has already been termed as the mother of all scams, as the black money involved here has swallowed all the other previous scams.

What has happened actually?

The CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General, an authority established by the Govt. of India, who audits all the receipts and expenditures by the central government as well as the state governments) of India, has accused the Government of India for illegally and irregularly providing our nation’s coal deposits to private and state run entities instead of auctioning them in the public. And this has resulted a loss of a whopping 1,86,000 crore rupees to our national treasury in the period 2004 – 2009. There have been estimates released by the media that the actual loss was 10,60,000 crore rupees.  And what is more sickening is, in that period of five years, all the major coal dealings in the country went right under the nose of our Prime Minister.

What is actually the problem? What is happening in the central level?

Our prime minister is inefficient. He has been the play-toy in the hands of the UPA members, especially in the hands of Sonia Gandhi. There have been a number of scams being uprooted in the past couple of years, and all our government says is that it condemns and strict action would be taken. And then, the same routine which our so called leaders follow – eat the nation’s money and pride, rip off its reputation and rape it.

It has been in the news that in this five year period (2004-2009), 142 coal fields were illegally allotted to the private and state run entities, instead of being auctioned. Yes, they are ‘Coal Fields’. One of the richest natural resources of our nation; which, now has landed in the hands of the corrupt leaders.

Earlier this year, our Prime Minister had made a public statement that he would hang his life if found guilty in the Coal Scandal. But reports say, that the coal scam had come out in such a way, that it indirectly benefits the PM himself, and at the same time keeps him floating on safe waters; i.e, he won’t be proved guilty, but he would be enjoying the scam share. The 75 year old crusader, Anna Hazare too has been stressing on the same words.

It has been very much evident that our leaders never encourage development or focus on issues like eradicating corruption, which has been tearing off the dignity of our nation. Our leaders don’t want a clean government or a clean nation. In their eyes, social activists and crusaders are evil minds. They have been so lost in the luxury of money and power, that they don’t bother to even ravage our nation and kill its honour.

 The political reaction

The Coal-gate had given BJP a chance for a straight hit onto the Prime Minister. The party had stalled both the houses of Parliament this morning and forced an adjournment. The BJP leaders had strongly put that they are least caring about the PM’s statement on the scandal, and want him to quit.

How is the common man affected?

Coal mines are the gold mines of our nation. Coal amounts to 56 percent of electricity production in our country. In the December of 2011, over 300 million Indian citizens lacked access to electricity. To add to the bitterness, over one third of our country’s rural population sunk in blackouts, and so did 6 percent of the urban populace. All this had badly disturbed irrigation and the manufacturing processed across the length and breadth of the country. What is more painful is, despite our country being the fourth largest energy consumer after USA, China and Russia, it presently suffers from acute shortage of electricity generation. The IEA (International Energy Agency) had drawn out estimates and stated that India needs an investment of around $135 billion in order to provide 24/7 power supply to its entire population of 1.2 billion. Yes, $135 billion, still less than the loss acquired because of the Coal scam.

Let’s question ourselves once. Shouldn’t these leaders be kicked out of our nation?

The road to a Political Marvel

And finally, the time has come for Indian Politics to change. The time has come for the system of filth and vermin, of delayed justice and atrocities, of broken laws and failed ideals, to get cleansed in the sea of CHANGE. The thought of Anna and team joining politics itself has created fear in the minds and hearts of the corrupt and the unlawful. And I, as a man who desires a 'developed' India, am fully ready to support the 75 year old crusader. 

The 16 month long fight has ultimately inspired a thought; a thought that would lay a new road in the history of our country's being, the road to a political marvel. This sixteen month long journey has been everything but smooth for Anna and his team. There had been baseless rumours and senseless remarks; there had been times of struggle and humiliation, but the team has withstood everything and stayed firm and determined. Hats off to their tenacity. And hats off to all of us who had supported Anna all the way. 

Change is not easy. It doesn't require something that is smooth or effortless, but rough and painful. Anna and his battlers have been epitomes of Change, and let's promise ourselves that we would pour in our heart and soul and render support to these fighters for change. 

Not just the initiators of change, but also its supporters can make marvels happen!

Go Anna Go!

NO to sports, but YES to medals

Four years ago, we won a medal at the olymipcs, and the nation celebrated. Now, we have three in the medal tally, and we are celebrating.

What I want to bring out here is, what is so big in winning just a few medals? A person winning just one olympic medal is given rave publicity across the nation, but has that strengthened our nation's sport-stamina in any way? There are countries where people who had won tens of medals are just treated normally; but why is it that in our country alone, a single medal is given that much of importance?

An instance from this year's olympics happening in London says that when asked what was the number of medals they aimed to win, the king-nations of olympics like China and USA gave big numbers, while what we had dreamt of was one gold. Yes, just one Gold. That was all we had dreamt of. We talk about aiming big and dreaming big. We always share such quotes and messages; but why don't we actually implement them? 

And yes, there is one more thing which I would like to talk about. We never want our children to become sportspersons, but we want our nation to win medals and matches. We criticize our government and our nation in regard to the shameful performances in sports, and at the same time never encourage our children to  pursue a career in sports.  All we want is marks and grades, and then we want our nation to rock at the olympics! 

We watch cricket matches, and tend to throw tantrums at our players if they don't perform well. We declare that India can never be good at football and olympics. And then, we out and out refuse to support our children when they show interest in sports. Why is it that we are so badly addicted to words like 'education' and 'jobs'? When is it that we understand that education has got nothing to do with success? 

One thing is certain; unless sports are encouraged from ground level, unless there is equality between the field of education and sports, unless the stupid notion that education fetches more success is eliminated from our minds, we can never go big in the field of sports.