BHOPAL: Rape and murder of a minor girl in the city on Sunday has rattled people not just in the city but also across India. This case is the latest in the sudden spate of crime against children in last few days. Incidents in Ujjain and another in Aligarh has pained and stunned them equally. Cross section of denizens: social activists, psychologists, psychiatrists and theatre artistes told Free Press that that the Aligarh Twinkle murder case should not be given a communal colour because a criminal has no religion or caste.
They also said that besides police and government, society and family are also responsible for these kind of incidents. “We do not give importance to children and their issues,” they said.
Archana Sahay, director, Child Line, Bhopal said that criminals have no caste or religion. They are sadists. She also said that such crimes are unplanned. Children are soft targets. Sahay said that the new law prescribing death penalty for rape of minor children had only led to a situation where the rapists are killing their victims. “Earlier, they left their victims alive. But now they kill them,” she said. Sahay said that child is the last priority for everyone, including the police, politicians, bureaucracy, judiciary and even the family.
Prarthna Mishra, director of NGO Sangini said that those who are giving communal colour to the Aligarh incident are taking society in the wrong direction. She said when we observe strange behaviour by young boys or men around us, we do nothing.
“Hamein kya karna, is the attitude”. She said that there is need for opening counselling centres for males too. Mishra blamed cheap mobile phones and the availability of inexpensive data for young boys getting addicted to watching pornographic videos etc over the internet. She also blamed the capital punishment law for murders of rape victims. “Has the new law stopped rapes? Has it brought down the number of rapes? No, it has not. In fact, more rapes are being committed and in most of the cases, the girls and women are being murdered,” she said. She also said that it was unfortunate that Commission for Women was non-existent in the state.
Theatre director Sarfarz said that it was wrong to associate crime with any religion. Whosoever is guilty should be punished. “Such incidents do not happen suddenly. In fact, we need to go into the root of these crimes. We need to study sociology and psychology,” he said. According to Sarfaraz, unlimited access to internet and silence of society are responsible for such crimes. “I don’t know why our government is not blocking access to porn sites”, he said. He said that though capital punishment has been awarded to many persons found guilty of rape and murder but not a single one of them has been executed. “We need to become more sensitive,” he said.
- Smita
Children and women are the easiest targets for anyone wanting to take revenge. And that has been for ages. Women are the main victims of war crimes. Criminals will always be there in any society. Punishing them after they commit a crime is okay but we should also focus on preventing such crimes. Right from the age of one year, children should be taught about good and bad touch and about how to react when they find someone’s behaviour unusual.
Dr. Ruma Bhattacharya, psychiatrist
Both collective aggression and individual aggression are on the rise in our society. That is why mob lynching and Aligarh like incidents are happening. At the root of growing aggression are inequality, discrimination and financial and other problems. These incidents fall in the category of psycho-pathological behaviour and socio-pathological behaviour. Internet has reduced our public life space and increased private life space. That is leading to all sorts of problems, including sexual frustration. Moreover, our society is feudal and patriarchal. And that is why; women and children are prime targets.
Rahul Sharma, psychologist
