Rising Cases of Pedophilia in Kashmir: A Call for Urgent Action and Societal Awareness

Ghastly and deplorable incident is not merely a case of sodomy or unnatural sex does not capture the gravity and enormity of the crime. Pedophilia can be defined as a psychiatric disorder where an adult is sexually drawn to young children. There is no known cure for pedophilia except perhaps deterring it through rigorous and strict punishment. Pedophilia besides being an evil and bad act by itself causes incalculable and lifelong psychological harm to the victim. Pedophilia is usually carried out by people who are known to the victim and a relationship of trust exists between the child and the perpetrator. Pedophilia is a serious crime and it should be treated as such. It is not well recognized in our society but, it is about high time that we understand the import and gravity of the crime , deal with it in a way that minimizes if not eliminates its incidence and help victims deal with it. We owe this to us, society and our children.

343 cases of child sexual abuse reported in Jammu and Kashmir between January and November 2020, according to official data from district Child Welfare Committees, accessed by India Spend. The Union Territory has seen a spike in reporting of child sexual abuse cases in the two years since Jammu and Kashmir enacted its own Protection of Children from Sexual Violence Act (Jammu and Kashmir POCS Act) in December 2018, after a furore following the gangrape, torture and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua, Jammu, in January 2018. There was a more than five-fold increase in reporting of child sexual abuse cases in the Kashmir division in 2019, compared to average cases over the four previous years.

Restricted movement in Kashmir caused by first the security clampdowns after Article 370 was abrogated in August 2019, and then by the countrywide lockdown to control the spread of Covid-19, would likely lead to more cases of sexual abuse of children, child welfare experts. Kashmir has seen a further spike of 52% in reported child sexual abuse cases by November in 2020, compared to 2019. The central government’s Child Protection Services Scheme (formerly the Integrated Child Protection Scheme) was extended to Jammu and Kashmir in January 2018, in the immediate aftermath of the Kathua case. The Child Protection Services Scheme is aimed at providing a secure, protective environment for vulnerable children, including those in situations of abuse. With the revocation of Article 370 in August 2019, the Jammu and Kashmir POCSO Act was repealed and replaced by the POCSO (Amendment) Act, 2019. The increased reporting of child sexual abuse cases in Kashmir is attributed to both the new Jammu and Kashmir POCS Act, 2018 followed by the POCSO (Amendment) Act, 2019, and improved monitoring and tracking systems after implementation of the Child Protection Services Scheme, experts told us.   Child welfare experts attribute the increased reporting of child sexual abuse cases to improved monitoring and tracking systems, virtually non-existent till the Jammu and Kashmir POCS Act and child sexual abuse scheme were implemented.

The POCSO (Amendment) Act, 2019 stipulates that a child sexual abuse case must be disposed of within one year from the date the offence is reported. Two special POCSO courts were accordingly established, one each in the Jammu and Kashmir divisions, which has made it easier to track cases. Between 2015 and 2018, the reported numbers of child sexual abuse cases in the Kashmir division were 30, 25, 30 and 35, respectively, data shared by district Child Welfare Committees with India Spend have shown. In 2019, 162 cases were reported – over 350% increase from 2018.

From January to November 2020, another 246 child sexual abuse cases have been reported in the Kashmir division, an increase of 52% from 2019. Another 97 cases have been reported in the Jammu division in the same period.

Apart from the new laws, restricted movement in Kashmir before and during the nationwide Covid-19 lockdown would also have led to increased child sexual abuse cases, experts told India Spend. “Back to back lockdowns and restricted personal spaces of children within the social ecology of Kashmir [have led to increased cases],” said Rashid. “[Child sexual abuse] is the least reported crime in the world but due to the clampdowns in Jammu and Kashmir, the abuse must have increased.

Reporting just a fraction of actual cases

In Kashmir, there has long been a culture of silence around child sexual abuse, especially when family members are involved, say child welfare experts, while pointing to increased reporting of child sexual abuse cases as a sign of change. There is a tendency to either disbelieve or disregard children who complain against teachers, neighbours and family members, and inadequate reporting mechanisms. If the reported cases are high, in a situation of clampdown and then lockdown, then the actual situation on ground is worrying. Rashid said, “Kashmiri families are not ready to reconcile with the fact that anyone close to the family can do this.” Our community is still well-knit and there is a neighbourhood concept where we trust neighbours and community members with full faith. This influence enhances perceptions that neighbours or community members cannot do something like this that makes children more vulnerable. This silence is not unique to Kashmir and more than one in two of 12,447 children surveyed in 13 other Indian states in 2007 by the Ministry of Women and Child Development reported having faced one or more forms of sexual abuse, and half of all cases of abuse were by persons “known to the child or in a position of trust and responsibility”. Most children did not report the abuse to anyone, said the survey, which pointed to “a conspiracy of silence around the subject”. Among the 12,447 child respondents to the ministry of women and child development survey, 48% of boys and 39% of girls reported having faced sexual abuse. The situation in Kashmir is equally bad for boys as well as for girls. “Our society denies the fact that boys too can face sexual violence.” Even the focus of law and other social organisations is only on the protection of girls. There should be a robust action to stop the crimes against both boys and girls &  strong campaigning is needed so that families and survivors report such cases.”

THE QUESTION

How can these crimes which scar individual victims for life and which reflect ungainly psychiatrist disorders among people be prevented?

THE ANSWER

The sad answer is that total prevention is well impossible but the incidence of these ghastly crimes can be reduced which raises the question how? & the answer is “multipronged.”

• First, society must admit that there are perverts and psychopaths out there who can adopt respectable avatars and under the guise of this commit atrocious crimes like pedophilia. This collective admission needs to be followed by measures that can limit the crimes. One obvious step or measure here would be to make young children aware of the potential of abuse; they need to be educated about perverts and perversion and how to protect themselves. Third, is the issue of Imams. While not all Imams should be tarred with the same brush, but prudence suggests vigorous screening tests and methods be employed that allows to identify people with bad behavioral traits and even criminal records. It may be stated here that perverts and people with psychopathological traits are, sometimes, intelligent people who can obscure and hide their disorders quite well. But, in the least, a screening mechanism can help weed out these people to a large extent. This screening becomes all the more important given that we have now even started importing Imams. This practice, ideally, should stop, but in instances where there is no choice, imported imams should be subjected to even more stringent screening mechanisms.
• Last, stringent punishment should be devised by the state and then implemented with vigor or even zeal to deal with Pedophilia crimes and criminals. This could be followed by total ostracism and exclusion by society if the perpetrator is at all released at some point in time. The pedophilic criminal must find no place to hide under the sun, so to speak. Both the state and the society have to be on the same page regarding this. Another key and important facet of the this crime is that victims of pedophilia need counseling, , familial and societal care and assistance. They should be made to feel normal and helped to live their lives normally.

It is unfortunate that a wider section of the media here is more or less preoccupied only with the politics but is not as involved with social, moral and ethical issues. In terms of pedophilia and its occurrence and incidence in our society, the media downplays it especially when supposedly holy men are involved. Given the reach of the media, alerting and educating people about pedophilia and other related crimes and pathologies, the media’s role becomes critical.

Authors can be reached at naqeebrajaaa786@gmail.com