According to police statistics, the number of child rape cases registered across 11 police stations in Goa has reduced from a staggering
150 in 2012-13 to a scant 19 in 2013- 14. Panjim station that ranked highest last year with 40 cases has registered only four cases this year, similarly Ponda, where 19 cases were registered last year, had none this year. If accurate, these statistics are very heartening. However, local NGOs believe that it is not the number of cases that have reduced, but the number of pople reporting it, especially when
the perpetrator is a family member or someone close to the family. Sangeeta Parab for example was being
sexually abused by her 21-yearold brother, even though she is a minor. Sangeeta tried several times to tell her
mother about the abuse, but she refused to take her seriously, even accusingher daughter of “misunderstanding”
her brother’s affection. It
was only when her mother herself witnessed
the abuse that she decided her
son needed a warning.
Yet the case did not get reported
“because the mother convinced the
victim not to make a big deal of the issue.
The girl was sent to her uncle’s
house for a couple of weeks to keep
her away from the brother,” says
Sabina Martins of Bailancho Saad
who’s handled this among many other
such cases.
Then there is the recent case is of a
34-year-old Bicholim man, originally
a native of West Bengal, who has been
booked for raping his daughter for two
months. The case would have been
swept under the carpet as a ‘family
matter’, if not for the timely intervention
of the NGO.
In many cases, victims are usually
intimidated and silenced into submission
by the family with the warning
that going to the police or an NGO with
a complaint will ruin the family
“name”. But Martins insists that in not
reporting such crimes, the survivors
are only sending out the message to
perpetrators that their actions are not
wrong and even acceptable.
For South Goa activist-lawyer Auda
Viegas, protecting the child and going
by her version is central to all such
cases.
“When dealing with cases involving
children, I think it is best to pay more
attention to the child. In most case,
they are at an age where making up
such heinous crimes are beyond them.
So going by ear, I listen to the child
without the parent because in most
cases that I have worked on, women
tend to protect their husbands rather
than pull them up for their mistakes,”
she states.
Citing an example, Viegas speaks
of a woman who had many live-in
partners. And a victim of this lifestyle
was her three-year-old daughter,
born out of wedlock from one such
partner. The girl was shifted from her
aunt’s house to a boarding school and
was finally in the mother’s custody
by the age of 10.
On days the mother had to work late
at the construction site, the daughter
would be sent home after school. The
“home” in South Goa, was unfortunately
where the mother’s partner was
also residing. With no one else in the
house, the man took advantage of the
situation and abused her on many occasions.
The girl had had enough and
ran away within a couple of weeks of
the abuse.
Viegas got a call from the South Goa
Police five days after a missing report
had been filed for the girl. “She was
crying bitterly and didn’t want to go
home. After I gained her trust, she told
me everything that happened to her.
But the mother outright denied it. The
man, however, admitted to having
committed the crime,” she says, adding
that women are shy and ashamed that
their men can commit such crimes.
The accused was arrested after a
formal complaint was filed with the
police. He was eventually convicted
and is now serving jail time. The girl
did very well in her SSC exams, but is
in need of constant supervision.
Such situations are common for
Childline’s Susan D’Souza.
“It is extremely difficult to get the
child to open up about a crime that
has happened to them. In the many
cases I have handled, even if the child
gives a statement to the police, they
are forced to withdraw the case if a
family member is involved. The child
is pressurised to keep quiet,” she says.
Institutions such as the notorious
Apna Ghar are the government’s answer
to rehabilitate an abused child.
But in a place where juvenile offenders
reside with victims of abuse, rape and
violence, the end result could be disastrous.
NGOs working with child abuse
cases say the government should
make use of its scores of other shelter
homes around the state to house children
of abuse.
The long tedious medical examination
process is also something that
needs fine-tuning. As per the Protection
of Child from Sexual Offences Act
2012 (POSCO), a child’s medical examination
can be conducted even if a
first information report (FIR) hasn’t
been filed at a government hospital or
local hospital. But in many cases, especially
in South Goa, the victim is
made to travel to Goa Medical College
(GMC), Bambolim for a medical test.
Viegas, who has in many instances
used her own vehicle to transport the
child, says the procedure is exhaustive
and traumatic for the child.
“As it is the child has suffered trauma
and is then being made to travel long
distances for a medical examination.
The victim has to be given the least
amount of stress, but here it is the opposite.
Margao has the infrastructure
and faculty at Hospicio, but they refuse
to do the test,” says Viegas.
She suggests a mobile van with a
gynaecologist, a counsellor and technicians
that can go to where the offence
was committed to help ease matters
for the victim. The medical test is
a time consuming process that needs
to be dealt with quickly, yet sensitively,
says Martins, who has proposed that
a database of repeated sexual offenders
also needs to be created to keep
tabs on them.
Sexual abuse is not restricted to the
migrant community alone. “The migrant
community live in homes made
of plastic walls or thin cardboard while
the middle and high class have concrete
walls. But for children who face
abuse the threat exists anywhere or
from anyone,” she says.
What needs to change is the way Indian
society looks at these issues.
“Many people say that if it is not happening
in my house, it’s not my concern.
A child’s life is at risk here, and
that should be reason enough to intervene,”
says Viegas.
