UP Police locks up a 10-year old traumatised girl
The insensitivity of the police force in this country towards the most vulnerable of those that it has a duty to protect, particularly women and children, is well documented. Uttar Pradesh Police seems to have taken the situation to a new low with the incarceration of a 10-year-old girl in Bulandshahr, who alleged she had been raped. The victim and her parents had gone to the local police station to lodge a complaint; instead of registering the complaint, the police locked the girl in the station's holding pen. The video of her trying to reach out of the cage is heart-wrenching to say the least, and is indeed damning evidence of how the personnel at the thana failed to show even basic human decency. That the police personnel involved in this inhumanity were all women, only underlines how deep the rot runs. It’s good that the Supreme Court has taken suo motu cognisance of the issue, else the case would have died a natural death. It goes without saying that each one of the erring police officials must be held accountable for what is more than just dereliction of duty. For now, the two women constables who were on duty at the time of the incident, have been suspended, and the mahila thana in-charge and a sub-inspector have also been removed from their positions. But while these steps are in the right direction, they must not become the quick-fix measures the authorities often take to ward off harsh public scrutiny generated in the heat of the moment. The errant police officers must be punished to the fullest extent the law provides. But this does not mean that the buck stops with the police; the Government of Uttar Pradesh is also responsible. law and order in the State has been on a downward spiral ever since Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav came to power a little over a year ago. It is imperative that the State administration takes immediate and pro-active steps to significantly improve the functioning of law enforcement agencies.
Having said this, it is also important to understand that both the police and the Government are ultimately products of society. That the police officials at the thana thought nothing before caging a 10-year-old is a sad reminder of how awfully India treats its children. A 2007 study by the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development, that covered 13 States, showed that two out of three children in the country are physically abused and more than half are sexually abused. Also, one out of two children suffers from emotional abuse. And if that isn't enough, parents were found to be the offenders in more than 88 per cent of cases of physical abuse, while half of the sexual abuse cases were perpetrated by those whom the child victims trusted. While the situation is no better even in the developed countries of the West, in India, we have not even begun to seriously talk about the problem. What has happened in Bulandshahr is, therefore, a wake-up call for the Government and society as a whole.