Save children: save our pride
There is inescapable public outcry against violence against women and children that demands an immediate discontinuation of the disturbing trend. There are women’s rights activists demanding justice for the helpless victims while the religious institutions are banding together to fight child abuse.
Clearly, the cry is too loud to fall flat on deaf ears!
The reports that flood the newsrooms and go on air, hint of a national disaster, which, if not curbed in time, might turn out be more atrocious than the quarter-century war, we had to fight as a nation. The fact that, even with the bomb explosions and midnight air raids, the women and children found the country a safer place then, is no exaggeration.
The women’s rights activists who recently held a demonstration urged the government to appoint community police groups in every village and implement a special court to investigate and prosecute crimes against women and children.
Time and time again, the importance of introducing rigid laws to fence criminals has been emphasized. When the grip of law is loose in the places where it ought to be tight, there is very little the people can do as a community to net the perpetrators or prevent a phaedohpile from committing a crime.
No doubt, the time when exclusive security was a privilege limited to politicians, has become a thing of the past. In fact, given the magnitude of the danger, one would even say that women and children deserve more security than all the politicians put together; for, the politicians have the power to shield themselves which the vulnerable sections of society do not seem to have.
As soon as the war was concluded, the word of victory of the head of state carried a line in which he claimed to be the proud father of all the children. With the outrageous trend of rape and abuse that has taken the country by storm, it is rather doubtful whether he can still make the same proud proclamation.
It is high time the high heads understand that those who become victims of such unspeakable crimes do not do so by their choice. Contrary to those who said women and children invite rape with their attires, no woman or child in their right mind, would want to undergo the trauma of abuse no matter which form it comes in.
The call is to save their right to be safe. It is about safeguarding their right to make choices. Women are the caretakers of the nation and children, its forerunners. As a nation, we have been investing our pride in them, so much so that the head of state swears by it.
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