PANJIM: Crimes against children have to be treated on par with organized crime, offenders should not be given bail and there should be a central hub for information protocol sharing of contacts. These were some of the issues highlighted by Christine Beddoe and NGOs such as Childline, Children’s Rights in Goa, Jan Ugahi, Goa, Vikas Samvad from Madhya Pradesh and Equations, Bengaluru.
According to Beddoe, between 2011 and 2012, 66 Britons were arrested for child abuse with a number of them holding teaching/volunteer positions when travelling abroad. Another trend is the setting up of orphanages, where the child sex offender first builds a good profile within the community and once trust is built, they begin abuse. These orphanages are often set up on the fringes of tourism destinations but attract the friends/acquaintances of the offender. Beddoe also spoke about the problems of prosecuting travelling sex offenders, citing cases of British sex offenders travelling to India.
The interaction, put together by the Centre for Responsible Tourism, a church-backed organization saw Beddoe, who is presently serving as Special Adviser on children to the British Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Modern Slavery Bill, emphasized that “most of these cases against paedophiles fall flat because of the time taken (to prosecute them).” She said “every single case involving foreigners involves a flight risk and under no circumstances should bail be given.”
Suzana de Souza of Childline, CRG’s Nishtha Desai, Aditi Chanchani of Equations and Fathima Balambid of Jan Ugahi too shared their viewpoints.
