Drawing parallels between two ill-fated toddlers in the district in two separate incidents separated by just eight days leaves one with eerie similarities.
Both were baby girls of somewhat similar age and were victims of broken families. Their custody was a matter of dispute between parents and were brutalised while being in the care of families that were supposed to take care of them.
The girl admitted to a private hospital at Kolenchery with serious injuries allegedly inflicted by her mother and grandmother in the early hours of February 28 had to be initially put on ventilator support. She was lucky enough though to survive and celebrate her third birthday on Wednesday, when she was discharged.
The other victim, a one-and-a-half-year-old girl, rushed to a private hospital in the city by her grandmother in the early hours of March 8 was not that fortunate. She was declared brought dead, allegedly drowned by her grandmother’s friend.
“The institution of family has undergone drastic change in our society and hence the cultural determinant of child being safer with the family needs to be revisited. In a warring family, children are often made targets to prove a point against each other. Yet, there is a fight for children’s custody winning which is perceived as a badge of victory rather than ensuring their well-being,” said noted psychiatrist C.J. John. He also called for revamping the prevailing system for evaluating the safety of young children and better facilities for their sheltering.
Children from broken families and caught in custody battles were found to be more vulnerable to exploitations. Particularly so in the case of girls.
“Denied of parental care and having no idea about the dignity attached to love, they can be easily manipulated by a cosmetic show of love. Getting introduced to drugs through such suspect affairs is also common. It takes months-long counselling to get them out of that rut,” said Joseph Parekkattil, director of Nirmal Nikethan Mukthi Sadan, a de-addiction centre for girls.
Also, there is a greater probability of such children straying to the world of crimes. Dangerously, many of them get trapped in the vortex of drugs.
“A majority of the accused in drug peddling are youngsters from broken families. In their constant battle, parents lose their moral authority to advise or confront their wards when they go wayward. Victims of drug abuse approaching our Vimukthi de-addiction centres also have far from ideal family backgrounds,” said P.V. Aleyas, Deputy Excise Commissioner, Ernakulam.
Criminologists view children from broken families turning to crime as reaffirming that there are no born criminals but only the products of social constructionism.
“The frequency of barbaric incidents involving families in our society points to a general fall in social morality. Apart from cosmetic reactions to an incident, the government and its agencies are hardly doing anything to create social awareness to prevent their recurrence,” said Ajitkumar Varma, a noted criminologist.
Schools often bear the brunt of the emotional turmoil of children from broken families with violent behaviour and confrontations with teachers being the hallmark of many of them.
Recently, a school in the city seized the mobile phone of a boy under the care of a single mother abandoned by her husband. Despite his tantrums, school authorities declined to return the phone. The next day, his mother and a bunch of people claiming to be her relatives created such a scene in the school that the authorities had no other alternative but to return the phone.
“In many cases, the school authorities are not even able to verify the credentials of people claiming to be parents and relatives. With no guidance, children go wayward and unruly, leaving teachers with little control over them,” said Mahitha Vipinachandran, a school counsellor with the Women and Child Development department.
But the opaqueness surrounding family background often foils attempts by schools to give special care to such children. For instance, a father recently admitted his daughter in a city school with a warning that teachers better not ask about her family, as his wife had eloped with a friend. Such preconditions severely cripple efforts to evaluate children’s problems and devise potential solutions.
The frequency of incidents involving little children from broken families has made the district Child Welfare Committee (CWC) revisit the philosophy that institutional care is the last resort and family atmosphere is better for children. The need for enhancing the number of shelter homes for children aged below five from the present three is also being felt.
“The CWC can intervene in custodial disputes over children so long as family courts are not involved. In such cases, we mandate an inquiry of the family by the district child protection unit, and where safety concerns are involved, seek a report from the special juvenile police as well. Based on these reports, the children are rescued and moved to shelter homes or families, or the special juvenile police are asked to produce them before the CWC,” said Binu Sanathanan, a CWC member.
Similar studies are done where grandparents make a claim for the custody of children. Childline also makes home intervention when alerted about children in broken families.
“Apart from visiting the families concerned, we also talk to the ward members, ASHA workers, and anganwadi workers to get a clearer picture before submitting our report to the CWC,” said Arun Thankachan, district coordinator, Childline, Ernakulam.
In an ideal world, the lesser the child care homes the better, as it indicates children are safe with their families. But then the world is turning far from ideal for children going by the recent turn of events.
