I give it two weeks. Two weeks for it to take birth, bear fruit, dry up and be replaced by the next in line. A fortnight, which is the life cycle of this column, is what I would estimate to be the average life span of any piece of sensational news. Behaving like a horde of nomadic, foraging army ants, the media brigade devours its prey and marches forward to the next ‘breaking story’ – the next disaster, massacre, medical foul-up, honour killing or rape of child. It gives us no time to digest the news: it flings half-chewed pap at us, which we greedily consume even as our bile rises up in revulsion. It gives us no time to reflect on the news, for while reflection might lead to knowledge and good sense, impulse and immediacy provide shortcuts to profits.
By the time you read this, the violation of a six-year-old schoolgirl would have ceased to make news. Or rather, the only reason it might continue to make headlines is because the school in question is for the well-heeled. Not for barefoot children but for those who learn to roller-skate. The media brigade knows which side of its bread is buttered. Many, many years ago, a man who works with street kids told me worriedly that there were growing instances of homeless little ones being snatched from our city’s pavements. They were raped in the dead of night and then thoughtfully returned, placed beside their sleeping parents. “We’re seeing younger and younger victims because of the Aids scare,” he said. Rapists were prudently practising ‘safe sex’. Their slogan: Forget the condom, just use an infant.
That was in the previous century. The trend has since caught on. You may have read – or maybe skipped or only skimmed through – innumerable news snippets on child sexual abuse (CSA as NGOs call it). They’re usually about two paragraphs long. Because these are children, aged six or three or two or even younger, of autodrivers and domestic workers and daily-wagers. Not really your problem. You might have read slightly longer reports of abuse taking place in government and ‘charitable’ institutions for juvenile delinquents and for the handicapped. Not your problem, either.
But let CSA pierce the barrier of privilege and it immediately sets off an earthquake. Everybody is jolted – old media, new media, the government, the whole of civil society. Suddenly, CSA cases that would otherwise have been ignored or under-reported are dug up and blown up because the media brigade has decided that it’s the flavour of the month. Children are killed on the road practically every day, they get whipped and slammed and punched by adults every day, but the brigade has latched on to “unsafe city” because that’s the phrase that sells. Beware! Women and children are unsafe! Be very afraid. Let your fear grow into hysteria, and hysteria into paranoia. And when you identify an easy target for your outrage, we will be there to yell ourselves hoarse along with you.
A responsible media would help you calmly reflect; instead, it merely reflects your class prejudices. Sure, demand background checks of school staff, but only ayahs and drivers? You foolishly assume that there could be no paedophiles among those nice middle-class teachers who look just like you. Speaking of people like you, the homegrown variety of CSA rarely comes to light. Lurking in the home of the roller-skating boy or girl might be a pederast aunt, father, grandfather or family friend. You cannot catch them through CCTV cameras.
I’ll give you an example of how background checks are done in the west. The credentials of a friend of mine, an Indian professor who had just moved from the US to Canada, were being verified from scratch. His US doctorate and teaching experience did not suffice; his academic and career background in India had to be thoroughly vetted. His professor in Mysore University, where he did his MSc, had to send a letter directly to the Canadian authorities. Why, his BSc marks had to be authenticated by the Bangalore University registrar himself! I had the embarrassing task of explaining to him that he had to personally sign, seal and stamp the envelope and mail it to Canada. The principal of a local college where my friend had taught for a couple of years had to issue a certificate of “good conduct”. Would all our schools check the background of every staff member in such excruciating detail? In your dreams.
Ultimately, no degree of scrutiny can provide a cast-iron security shield for your child. Cruelty and violence are markers of the human race. Minors have been majorly abused since time immemorial, and we hear of it now only because people speak of it now. Ultimately, the best way to make your child reasonably safe is a simple one. Know what it is? Trust. Gain your children’s trust. They must feel free to speak to you about anything, anything at all, and not be met with shock, disapproval or disbelief. How many of you have the time and the patience for a long, rambling conversation with your children about their day at school? Not shooting questions like a policeman interrogating a suspect but casually, aimlessly. You have to make the effort. Far easier to shift the responsibility entirely onto another’s shoulders. Far easier to find an external target.
