Child abuse is rising No stringent laws to check exploiters
Child abuse is rising
No stringent laws to check exploiters
by Sankar Sen
THE acquittal of Duncan Grant and Allan Waters in a paedophilic case has upset many child rights activists who are seeking to bring to the notice of society the severity of the problem of sexual abuse of children in India.
These two men accused of paedophilia were acquitted by the Bombay High Court due to lack of evidence.
They had been earlier convicted in 2006 by the sessions court. The sessions judge, delivering the judgment, had expressed the hope that it would serve as a warning to the paedophiles to stay away from India.
The high court, however, acquitted them and ruled that the evidence of the victims appeared improbable. The court also commented on the poor quality of police investigation.
The Supreme Court, on an appeal from an NGO, has now directed the Mumbai police not to hand over the passports of the two Britons till further orders.
The acquittal of paedophiles in a number of cases is disconcerting as the sexual abuse of children, both male and female, by tourists has become a serious problem in the country.
Unlike Sri Lanka and Thailand, this problem has not been seriously tackled or discussed openly and has remained shrouded in secrecy, making the likelihood of child abusers being caught and punished very low.
Sex tourists are often paedophiles who seek out children to satisfy their sexual urges. Some of them are usually members of highly organised networks. They are also very cautious in their operations.
Paedophiles shower attention on children in the form of gifts and other presents. Most of the victimised children hail from poor families, children from hutments on the beach, children of migrant labourers left unattended by their families.
Paedophiles also gain children’s silence by portraying the abuse as education or as a game or by use of threats or violence thus forcing them not to divulge their “special secrets”.
The phenomenon of child sex tourism has grown in size and volume because of a feeling among foreign tourists that the chances of detection are slender in the third world countries.
There is also a belief that sex with children is safe because they are less likely to have contracted STDs. Further, the governments of many developing countries with a view to encouraging tourism tend to turn a blind eye to this problem.
Running an orphanage is often a typical cover for many paedophiles. Posing as good samaritans, they set up orphanages where young children are given shelter and later on sexually abused.
In a well-known case in Tamil Nadu, Will Heum, a Dutch national, set up an orphanage called “Little Home” in Kanchipuram district of Tamil Nadu.
A number of children, both boys and girls, were housed in this orphanage. Heum used to drug these children and then subject them to sexual abuse.
His vicious operations came to light when one of the children escaped and filed a complaint before the police.
During investigations it transpired that Heum also entertained a large number of foreign tourists at the orphanage and allowed them to sexually abuse children.
Sometimes paedophiles also pose themselves as producers of films and documentaries. The Mumbai police, on a tip-off from an NGO, arrested a Swiss couple who were picking up boys and girls from streets and sexually abusing them and also filming their various sexual acts.
The police found sexually explicit paedophilic materials on the couple’s laptop. The materials indicated that the accused routinely visited other Asian countries as well.
The Swiss couple were convicted in 2003 but they left the country while their appeal was still with the Supreme Court.
It may be seen that child pornography and sex tourism are closely interlined. Sex tourists are often closely involved in the production of pornographic materials in the form of pictures and films depicting nude children and sex with children.
Trafficking of pornographic materials has become easier with the advent of internet. Hardened child sexual exploiters are often found to be producing, collecting and circulating child pornography.
Aggressive paedophiles, according to FBI expert Kenneth Lanning, “almost always collect child pornography”. They are also adept in identifying vulnerable children from broken homes.
Another study done by an NGO named “Equations” in 2002 regarding sex tourism in eastern India revealed that the victimised children were mainly trafficked from places in and around tourist spots.
In the tourist spot of Mamallapuram in Tamil Nadu, children were brought from nearby places and it was found that many of them had to accompany tourists when they visited other states.
The study also showed that the majority of children were from broken homes of families affected by poverty and debt bondage.
Most of the children had no education and were procured by people who are known or trusted by their families.
Qualitative research and anecdotal evidence suggest that child sex tourism is spreading in different regions of the world.
During the last few years an increasing number of sex offenders, particularly paedophiles, are shifting their operations from western industrialised countries to less developed countries due to strict law enforcement and increasing vigilance in their home countries.
Paedophilia is a worldwide racket which police forces all over the world are trying hard to contain. Known convicted paedophiles are listed, their movements are checked, websites monitored and so on.
In India the same rigor is missing. There are no stringent laws against child abusers in India and the beaches of Goa and Kovalam in Kerala are becoming main destinations of sex tourists seeking child prostitutes.