------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Documented by Goa Desc Resource Centre Ph:2252660 Website: www.goadesc.org Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Press Clippings on the web: http://www.goadesc.org/mem/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ----------------------------------------------------- Paedophilia - A Shame for Goan Society ----------------------------------------------------- by Nandkumar Kamat
There is a lot of awareness in our state about environmental pollution. There is some awareness about cultural pollution. But the society is not fully sensitised towards the giant iceberg of moral pollution which may sink it like the Titanic. For many years, we were led to believe that paedophilia is a practice indulged in only by some perverted foreign tourists.
After the notorious Freddy Peats case, which could happen in front of unsuspecting Goan neighbourhood, this belief was further strengthened. The Goan paedophiles must be then having a good laugh. They could get away with their horrendous crimes because their modus operandi was perhaps better than Hannibal Lecter (character from Hannibal and Silence of the Lambs).
Domestically bred Goan paedophiles maintained a low profile. Perversion and especially sexual perversion and sexually deviant behaviour has been exhaustively studied for the past three centuries. No culture is free from it. It is a very complex issue and many sexual perverts behave like Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. In a liberal Goan society it is difficult to suspect that a familiar personality, shorn of the social mask, could be actually a weird and sexually perverted person.
Initially, the police had taken the Peats case so lightly that he could have easily escaped if journalist and child rights activist, Ms Sheela Barse were not to pursue the case and compel the police to reopen it. The focus of public attention and even the activism against paedophiles in the post-Peats period has been on the foreign paedophiles. This must have encouraged the Goan paedophiles. As compared to the foreigners, the local paedophilic rings might be much more dangerous than what we could imagine.
Paedophilia does not depend on the age, gender or relationship. There could be two types of paedophilia-incestuous and non-incestuous. Incestuous paedophilia is common in Goan society but we prefer to keep a tight lid over it because talking about it is a shame.
There are so many real life stories involving real people that I am forced to impose a self-censorship in order to avoid social trauma. But I am compelled by my conscience to narrate a single eye-witness account, of an incident which happened 20 years ago.
I had been invited by a much respected Goan writer, a septuagenarian. I was sitting in front of him sipping tea. His eight or nine year old granddaughter came and sat on his lap. The next thing that I noticed was that this gentleman began fondling her private parts. It was going on for some time and the poor child did not know what the grandpa was doing to her. It was an awkward and shocking experience for me. These were the days before the term paedophilia had entered the lexicon of activists. The gentleman is dead now but he left an unerasable black mark on my mind. Whenever I happen to write something good about him that black mark constantly appears in front of my eyes. I was told that this person had turned senile but senility does not give one license to engage in incestuous paedophilia.
Unfortunately, I have heard that such acts have become relatively very common in Goa and perversion does not weaken with age. Innocent children have become easily accessible sexual toys in the hands of the paedophiles. Sometimes, they exploit the economic weaknesses of the parents. The number of sexually traumatised children in Goa may be substantial but there is no way to know because such acts of shame are not openly discussed. Nor such discussion is approved and tolerated by the Goan society.
But the social lid over moral decay has been finally blown up by the exposure of the paedophilic ring in Mapusa. This particular case seems to have involved mostly poverty-stricken non-Goan children totally vulnerable to abuse. Even then the evidence so far presented to the police shows a far sinister design.
We have to wait and see whether the police would reach the bottom of the pit. What has been revealed so far does not give a character certificate to the Goan society. The fact that some perverted Goans are involved in this case shows that elsewhere such cases might have gone undetected because our society closes the eyes and shuts the ears when the evil appears.
Goans strongly believe that if we look the other way the evil would automatically disappear. The Mapusa case, on preliminary analysis shows that there was a degree of social sanctity or tolerance despite knowledge of the people familiar with the routine of the suspect. Perhaps they must have thought that the non-Goan children victims or so-called ghantyachi poram had no dignity.
Things would have been different if the Goan kids were to be molested. But I am not so sure. The paedophiles do not distinguish between the victims. They are sexual predators. They are smart and take utmost care to hide their tracks. It is not easy to build a strong legal case in the Mapusa incident unless the state government comes down with a sledgehammer.
The laws are still weak. The punishment is not very severe considering the horrendous nature of the crime. The police have to maintain a preventive surveillance to detect the paedophiles and other weird, deviant and perverted characters. There are many perverted characters who frequent markets, bus stands and gardens where plainclothesmen need to be employed.
Paedophiles travel in the city buses in Panaji and make school girls their targets. Some persons have hired palatial private houses in villages like Saligao, Anjuna where a lot of movement of non-Goan and especially children of the lamani labourers has been reported. The police need to investigate whether these 'child welfare' activities are permissible.
There are notorious stalkers like one 'RA' who prowl in Mapusa chasing and harassing the women. Interestingly, RA is married, has a family and runs a successful business. But he is a proven pervert, a sadist, a compulsive eve-teaser and despite warnings from the police has continued with his perversion.
Such deviant and perverted characters are on the prowl in our state and the government need not be soft towards them. Only a fraction of the actual crimes, including those involving paedophiles gets registered with the police.
Parents need social support, security and guarantee and the sexually abused children need psychiatric counselling, love and care. Without such reassurance, very few victimised parents and children would come forward to expose the paedophiles and other perverts.
The bell is tolling for the Goan society. No child would be immune from the perverts on the prowl if we do not wake up now and act. ------------------------------------------------------ The Navhind Times 27/10/03 page 10 ------------------------------------------------------
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