# If Goanet stops reaching you, contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] # # Want to check the archives? http://www.goanet.org/pipermail/goanet/ # # Please keep your discussion/tone polite, to reflect respect to others #
##########################################################################
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------ Crime Against Innocents ------------------------------------ About a year back the then director general of police, Mr Seva Dass had observed that crimes against women were on the rise in Goa. But within a year the nature and character of the crime seems to have undergone a change; it is no more only 'love rape,' but the rapists have been targeting minors.
The new DGP, Mr Amod Kanth in a statement said that 50 per cent of the rape cases reported in the last year involved children. During the last two months not less than a dozen of rape incidents against minors have taken place. Though the police officials claim that they have been prompt in taking action to nab the culprits, the numbers indicate that rape, the most heinous crime against women in any civilised society is on the rise in the state.
The minors are innocent, helpless and not so vigilant as adults. They become easy victims to the rapists. It is significant to note here that while in most of the adult rape cases the accused happened to be known to the victims, in the case of minors it was different. In their case, most rapists had no relation or close familiarity with the victims.
There is still another difference between sexual abuse and exploitation of adults and that of the minors. While incidents of adult rapes are reported to the police( although even in these cases, many go unreported), a majority of cases in which minors are victims are hushed up since the family does not want to bring the matter out in the interest of the girl's future.
It must be underlined here that rape of the minors has registered a rise in other parts of the country as well. According to nationwide crime figures, cases involving minor girls constitute about 50 per cent of the rape cases. And during last couple of years instances of child rape have outnumbered the number of adult rape cases. The minors suffer because they are vulnerable and ignorant. They can easily fall into a trap.
The primary responsibility lies with the parents to provide the minor girls security and care and escort. The decline of the joint family system could be contributing in its own way to the rise in the crime against the minors.
We are living in times when parents, whether from the poorer strata or the middle class, keep themselves preoccupied with the activities of their livelihood or profession, ignoring the questions of protection to the minors. It is time parents learnt to find time to provide protection to their minor children.
In one of the rape cases that took in South Goa, the rapist took the girl away from her home, telling her that his wife badly wanted her company to cheer herself up and then committed the heinous crime. Couldn't her parents been more wiser and careful not to let her go.
On March 7 last, a 10-year-old schoolgirl was gang-raped and done to death in Betul in South Goa. Unable to bear the agony and pain, her father also killed himself in his home in a case of self-immolation. On the fateful day, she was alone at home. Her father went to bring lunch from the shop his wife runs at the village jetty. On his return from the shop, he could not find his daughter. He and his wife were devastated later to discover her body in the crumbling shed outside. Had the father taken care to take her along or put her in the care of somebody in the house, the gruesome incident would not have happened.
While the age group of victims is changing, there is a change in the age group of rapists as well. Until a few years ago, the average age of rape offenders hovered around 40-45 but now it is less. In 2003 across the country, 90 per cent of the people accused of rape of minor girls were aged between 18 and 30 years.
It is also a fact that sexually explicit materials, accessible via internet and television, instigate younger people to sexually abuse and rape minors. The trend is no different in the state. Often the accused is found remorseless after having committed the crime. The reason behind the sudden spurt in cases of minor rapes is the culprits find it relatively easier to get away. It is easier to rape a minor since a child is vulnerable. A child can hardly resist a rapist, unlike an adult woman.
Even the psychologists are of the view that the culprits often take advantage of the child's age factor as they are unable to narrate such experiences coherently.
It is the duty of us all parents, relations, neighbours, community, school authorities, civil society organisations and police to stem the rising gory tide of minor rapes.
Above all, parents must always remain vigilant and must take the factors of vulnerability, innocence and insecurity of the minor children into account when they plan and carry out their professional and daily activities; and so should other members of society. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Editorial in The Navhind Times 6/10/04 page 8 -------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------- GOA CIVIC AND CONSUMER ACTION NETWORK --------------------------------------------------------------------------- an initiative of GOA DESC RESOURCE CENTRE to promote civic and consumer rights in Goa --------------------------------------------------------------------------- GOACAN Post Box 78 Mapusa, Goa 403 507 Tel: 2252660 mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] website: www.goacan.org ---------------------------------------------------------------------------