Media Reporting on Child Sexual Abuse

This article first appeared at http://enfoldindia.org/uncategorized/media-reporting-child-sexual-abuse/

Upholding the principles of its role as the fourth pillar of democracy, the media has a responsibility to bring the issue of child sexual abuse into the realm of public debate. It is integral that the issue gets highlighted, is given due attention and recognized by masses as a gruesome offence against children.

Albeit the responsibility bestowed upon the media, it is saddening to see the sensationalisation that the media at large is engaging in instead of sensitive reporting, as is expected of it.

Let us look at some of the headlines from reports that have come out in the print media in the recent past.

Girl ‘raped’ by youth in Thane
11 year old rape victim gives birth to child
6 year old girl raped in crèche, owner’s husband booked
Eighteen-month-old child raped by her uncle in Uttar Pradesh
4-year-old ‘raped’, left bleeding on street
Nine-year-old critical after rape, undergoes surgeries

The news stories go on to talk about the details of the incident and at times even divulge personal details of the child and the family, in complete violation of the principles of confidentiality under the POCSO Act, 2012 and the JJ Act. These stories do little to bring the perpetrator to light, instead placing the onus of the abuse on the child, the result of which is victim-shaming.

The articles are also in contradiction of the guidelines given by National Human Rights Commission and National Commission for Protection of Child Rights stating how media should report on the issue of child sexual abuse. The guidelines explicitly specify that under no circumstances should the identity of the child be disclosed. The reporter should uphold the principle of confidentiality so as to not put the child and the family under further emotional and mental distress.

The guidelines also explain how the media must guard the rights of children as guaranteed under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, especially the principle of best interest when reporting on such issues.

The media, it appears, also suffers from an ‘adultist culture’ – the power adults have over children – wherein a child related issue is viewed from the eyes of an adult and reported from that position of power pointing towards an unequal power relations between children and adults. News media portray children in limited roles as objects of emotional appeal, victims or performers. Whereas what one needs is to respect child’s right to participation and right to expression for matters that concern them. What is needed is for them to pass the mic and let the voices of children be heard.

It is in light of these principles (as charted and guaranteed in United Nation Convention on the Rights of the Child), that the newspaper ‘Balaknama’ needs to be viewed. Balaknama is an outcome of neglect and injustice to street and working children across the world. “When children did not find space among adults, they decided to pen down their issues and glories, an attempt to change people’s perception and ensuring identity, dignity, and participation of street children,” says their website.

What is worth mentioning is how the newspaper has given the space to children to voice their experiences and not remain mere passive entities, while ensuring that their anonymity is maintained.

Following is a paragraph from their report on child sexual abuse that was published in the May-June, 2018 issue, titled “Next Door Neighbour Abusing Girl” –

Sharing her own story, the innocent girl said,

There is a man who lives on the same floor, where we live. He always tries to harass me. He, first greed me buy showing toffees or chocolates and then pull me up and try to touch my private body parts. Not only this, at night when all of us are sleeping, he cuts our cloths, which are hanging outside for drying, from the area of private parts. Everyone hates that person but our landlord does not throw him out of the building. Due to this only I am living a fearful life and afraid of getting out of my home.” She knows about the child helpline number but when she tries to talk to them and share her problem with the child helpline, her parents won’t support her. “Not only this, my family members don’t allow for police complaints too as they are afraid that, that person will hurt me or any other family member.

The paper goes on to document various other instances of sexual abuse that the children go through where they have been made to watch pornography, threatened into undressing and blackmailed into having sexual relationship with the perpetrator. The editorial urges the stakeholders in child safety, like police officers and administrators, to take action.

What the children have been able to achieve through a newspaper run by them, is a shift of focus from the child as a victim to the act as an offence. Through the accounts of many children, the report also brings into sharp focus the unfortunate every day and normalized nature of the offence. Also, giving abuse survivors the opportunity to speak out about their experiences might encourage others in a similar situation to ask for help.

There are lessons aplenty that the media houses can learn from initiatives like Balaknama. It is about time they reassess their approach towards reporting on issues concerning children, especially child sexual abuse.

While reporting sexual abuse, the media needs to keep in mind the best interest of the child, namely:-

 

• Highlight the perpetrator his/her demography, background, brutality of his/her act rather than the demographics of the victim
• Bring blame and shame towards the perpetrator rather than highlight the stigmatization of the child who was abused.
• When reporting on sexual violence against children also report on the steps taken by the authorities to address and prevent such incidents; as well as the responsibility of adult citizens in intervening and preventing abuse.
• Simultaneously run programs that highlight the fact that ensuring the safety and dignity of children is the responsibility of adults, as well as help adults learn how to teach Personal Safety to small children without instilling fear or distrust of adults.
• Follow up the case/s intermittently until the trial is completed.

 

Oldest profession reinvented

Aakar Thai SPA

Swedish Relax.Steam

Done by female therapists.

Or

River day SPA in ECR

Satisfaction guaranteed by High profile therapists.

Next time you read these ads, spend a second longer to grasp the undercurrent of implied meaning. The advertisements seem out of place, right after the real estate section. Nobody could ever doubt its authenticity but a few calls to these numbers would leave the naive and maybe genuinely stressed customer, who had been looking forward to a nice Saturday spa, appalled and scandalised.

Organised sex trade is banned under Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act 1986 but the conspicious trade thrives. The classified section of the leading newspapers like Times of India and Hindustan Times openly advertise about massage parlours providing ‘exotic’ massages and ‘rejevunating’ you. Do not miss the word ‘Thai’.

The mushrooming massage parlours are a manisfestation of the fact the the oldest profession has reinvented itself.On the pretext of providing herbal and ayurvedic massage, these parlours are indulging in sex trade.  Some have faced police heat in the past but that has not deterred their obscure operations from branching out in the capital.

Further curiosity leads one to google “massage parlours in Chennai” .Scanning through the 277,000 results that the machine sputters in 0.57 seconds, nothing seems amiss. A list of available massage parlours and the services they providewas expected. A closer look and the cover is blown. Some of the quirky results that pop up are ‘massage body to body’, ‘body massage by female to male’, ‘female to male happy finish massage’ and one odd ‘male to male massage’. Just a slight eyebrow raised, and why not, it is harmless platforms like Just Dial and Sulekha promoting the parlours.

Websites like locanto.in and massageplanet.net gave detailed information about the ‘services’ they provide.

Some further calls to these parlours and their consistent promises to provide ‘full body massage’ with ‘happy ending’ does not require more guessing. The advertisements gave detailed addresses of places scattered all over the city. The rates range from Rs. 2000 to Rs.11000 depending on the ‘services’ and ‘hours’ you opt for. Depending on your insistence, the rates are negotiable. Only in the second call do they divulge the actual business they are involved in. They are willing to ‘customise’ the massage depending on your demands. The deal is struck and what follows is a string of explicit messages to lure the customer.

The massage parlours need to have a license to set up their business but even a license is not foolproof and there is no mechanism to monitor the activities inside the parlours. Police said these parlours’ customers cut across all sections of the society.

Though illegal, but catching the lawbreakers becomes impossible and only a tip-off can lead the police to such places and help bust the racket.

Saravana Kumar project head at ICWO(Indian Community Welfare Organisation) said, “It is not just the shady places at T Nagar,Vellachary or Egmore that have such massage parlours running, all the resorts along the ECR road have sex-workers as masseurs. It is difficult to reach those workers because the resorts do not accept it when approached.They cater to the high-class clientele like the politicians and highly placed police officers.”

In a parallel world, the government is not willing to except this profession and is putting a lid on the demands of the sex workers across the city to establish a red light area in Chennai.

Till then this form of unacknowledged sex trade would continue to exist in the sordid underbelly of the city.

 

 

 

 

 

‘We want a red-light area’

They laughed off the idea finding it amusing. “We do not mind, but the lungi wearing crowd would not like it” chorused Saro, Vijaya and Priya. The idea of ‘rights’ and ‘laws’ is utopian to them.

Unlike the GB road in Delhi or the Sonagachi in Kolkata, Chennai does not have an established red light area. After being holed up in cramped clusters, sex workers in Chennai now want a place they can be identified with – an area they can call their own. Citing increased violence and harassment as a reason, sex-workers wrote a letter to the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu to designate an area for them.

Absence of red light area pushes the sex workers to go underground and get innovative, ‘an instance of which is the rise of the mobile brothel, which wanders around Chennai making house or hotel calls’. Another consequence of sex work’s clandestine and decentralised nature is the rising number of married women taking part without the knowledge of their husbands. “My husband and kids think I go to an export factory to work” said Saro a sex-worker.

They work individually, so getting them under the purview of social security and rights gets difficult. “When their identification is not possible, how can we help them?” laments Saravana Kumar, project head of ICWO(Indian Community Welfare Organisation).

Where there is a presence of such organisations, it becomes very easy for the workers to fight for their rights and get the minimum standards they should deserve. These organisations help them fight against police atrocities. Whereas when the sex workers are scattered none of their rights are safe guarded. Dr. Samya Ray, Assistant Professor, IIT Guwahati said, “The problem with the absence of a proper red-light area in a city is that the different sex-workers rights organisation coming up all across the world, don’t get a chance to crop up.”

Many sex-workers are arrested in false cases and their release from the police custody involves lengthy procedure.In their letter to the chief minister, sex workers said having a designated area would ensure more effective policing and minimise abuse.

“The government does not want it to be a legalised profession. The orthodox society of Chennai would never accept a red-light area here” said Inspector M. Geeta.

The government is not willing to accept this profession and is putting a lid on the demands of the sex workers across the city to establish a red light area in Chennai.

Till their demands are met, this form of unacknowledged sex trade would continue to exist in the sordid underbelly of the city.

 

 

Where innocence lasts

A file of students in neatly tucked red and brown checkered uniforms march down the corridor towards the ground for their PT session. While the teacher unlatches the door at the end of the corridor to let the students out, Sulekha, lost in her own world, starts running back to the classroom, shouting.

Another student Siddharth looks into your eye, confidently shakes your hand and mumbles something incoherently.

The teacher says “He cannot say complete words, he just acts like he can talk.”

Another teacher tries hard to pacify Lokesh, a student who is in a ‘bad mood’. He rolls on the floor, kicking and punching the walls. Exhausted, he sits down in a corner, weeping and clapping.

R. Sindhu , Principal of Sankalp Learning Centre, says with a smile: “They are very volatile and small things can tick them off. Their strengths today might become their weaknesses tomorrow. What works today might not work tomorrow with the kids.”

Lokesh and Sulekha are among the 110 autistic students at the institute. Autism is a disability that impairs social and communication development of a child. This disability adversely affects education.

It is not a mental illness nor is it caused by a trauma. The symptoms can be greatly reduced by early detection and timely intervention. There is no cure for autism. But treatment may reduce symptoms and help autistic children function better. This is precisely what instututes like Sankalp and various therapists across the city strive to achieve.

Lakshmi Krishna Kumar, Sulata Ajit and Subhashini Rao started Sankalp under the SANKALP TRUST – a non-profit organisation in 1999. The children are grouped in different classes not according to their age but their academic capability.

Sindhu  said  “We have seven-year-old kids studying with kids of age 12 in the same group.”

Sindhu sees an ‘alarming’ rise in the number of kids with autism. Where earlier the ratio was 1: 1000 it slowly rose to 1:500 and now, surprisingly, is 1:90.

“And we sadly are not well-equipped to deal with the mounting numbers.”

“I have been dealing with autistic kids for the past 10 years. People are more aware now about the disability ,yes, but that alone does not justify the increased numbers”

Social exclusion, according to Sindhu, aggravates their condition.

A.Sundar,audiologist and speech language pathologist, who has been providing speech and occupational therapy to toddlers, agrees. “The cause of autism is still unknown. But behaviour of the society towards these kids does not let them mix with the rest and pushes them in their cocoons.”

Sindhu recollects how during a trip to a mall, almost everybody peeped out of the stores to catch a glimpse of the ‘mental kids’.

Schools running inclusive programs, wherein students with special needs are taught with non-disabled kids, have infact resulted in further isolation of autistic kids – ironically, a situation they set out to overcome .

Sarita Kiran, Eeshan Sharma’s mother said, “ They send Eeshan home two hours before the school’s official timing saying it is for his own good as he has low tolerance level. We object to this but can not do anything about it. He is excluded and I think he feels it.”

Eeshan’s therapist, Lily Sundar says,“Still his parents forcefully send him to school. Eeshan has severe autism, which can not be completely cured. But his mother refuses to believe it. He is five and still has not started chewing his food or learnt how to brush his teeth.”

“ Most of the parents do not accept that their kids have autism,” she said, returning to her session with Eeshan – “ Eeshan! Say aa…Apple.” Eeshan shakes his head restlessly while his eyes dart all over the room.

Three year-old Rosemary’s mother quit her job as a teacher in a government school to look after her.

Sumitra Shailesh at the Sankalp school was a practising Chartered Accountant before she realised her 10-year-old son Kartish had autism.

The parents’ routine now revolves around the various therapy sessions of the children lined up for the day.

“ She is God’s gift to me,” says Rosemary’s mother while her daughter flashes her toothless smile.

“ He gives me happiness” says Sumitra with her eyes on her son struggling to catch a basketball.

Lily Sundar says that these kids are different than the rest because they can not restrain their emotions; they exhibit what they feel openly.

She says, “ There is no pretence ; if they are sad they will cry, if they are angry they will shout, if they love you they will hug you. They do not know how to lie  and that makes them extraordinary. If we train them properly, they will grow into human beings with unmatched qualities.”

The bell buzzed loudly at 2:45 pm.

“Say bye” said the teacher with a stern and loud voice.

“Say bye” echoed the class and broke into a run towards the gate where the anxious parents stood waiting for them.

Where faith still heals

Choti dargah at Erwadi

 

Some 10 kilometres away from the main town of Ramnad, the line dividing rationality and belief gets blurred.

In the grounds of the main Dargah in Erwadi, mentally ill patients sit with their families, some with their legs and hands tied with a rope, some talking to themselves or some in a trance staring blankly at the passers-by.

As many as 28 mentally ill patients were charred to death after a fire broke out on August 6, 2001 in a ‘faith-based mental asylum’ in Erwadi.

“The inmates were bound by chains at Moideen Badusha Mental Home in the village so they could not escape when the fire engulfed the thatched sheds,” reminiscences Samusa Nacchiyar Bevi who was 28 when the incident occurred in her neighbourhood.

Not much has changed though. The incident, instead of discouraging superstitious practices, has led to more patients thronging the place. The only change is that patients are now not abandoned at Erwadi; the family members accompany them and stay with the patients till they recover.

As per the district collector’s order following the incident, the Dargah at Erwadi was banned from extending its ‘treatment’ programs beyond the Dargah. So the ‘power of faith’ is exercised from within the guarded walls of the Dargah.

On the surface nothing seems amiss at the Ameer Abbas Manthuri Shaheed Dargah or the choti Dargah. Leaning against the wall in the courtyard of the Dargah, a group of women with a thick layer of turmeric on their face sat muttering to themselves.

“I am in a black vault. I have shaitan (devil) inside me.  My sister-in-law practised black magic on me. I lost my husband and son because of that. Baba would treat me and take the devil out of me,” says 60-year-old B. Naguramma.

Patient at the dargah

People from all over the country come to Erwadi to seek the blessings of the ‘Baba’ at the Dargahs. The Baba is not an entity of flesh and bones handing out medicine or counselling the mentally ill, but a ‘presence’ in a shrine. The shrine is the grave of Mujavir Mohamed Ibrahim Shahid Waliyullah, the king of Medinah who came to India 850 years ago.

“There in that building sits Doctor Hakeem. He gives medicines for severe medical problem like cancer,” says Abba Makkar Siddhiqui, the information officer at the Ameer Abbas Dargah.

Guarded behind the grills is the shrine of ‘Doctor Hakeem’ on whose feet rest the bottled ‘holy water’ believed to have magical power to cure all kinds of ailments.

Words like black magic, evil- spirits and possession feature the tales of everyone at the Dargah. The conviction with which each person narrates his/her experience makes one doubt one’s own reasoning.

The Dargah compound is abuzz with activity. “This is nothing. Come at 7 in the evening when the doors to the baba’s shrine open. You would not get place to even stand here,” Siddhiqui said.

Pointing at a woman rolling on the ground of the main dargah, Abdul Sameed Ali, the trustee of the Dargah says, “Right now she is connected to the Baba directly and is following his command. She shall be fine in an hour.”

Patient at the dargah.

Ali is one of the 260 shareholders managing the Dargah. The Dargah runs on the donations from generous followers after the baba fulfils their wishes.

“Amma (Tamil Nadu’s Chief Minister Jayalalitha) is fond of Erwadi. So the government too helps us in our finances,” adds Ali.

Apparently, nobody at the dargah has any knowledge about the healing process of the Baba. Ali says he has no intermediary role to play in the treatment of mentally ill patients; ‘the spiritual treatment is a secret between the baba and the pained.’  The entire plot is foreseen by the patients in their dreams. The duration of the treatment depends on your faith in the Baba, said the patients at the Dargah.

“Baba comes in the dreams of all the mad men. It is in the dream that he reveals the entire plot. It is only after the Baba gives his divine command that the patients go back home. I can tell you all this because I too dreamt about it all,” says Siddhiqui, who claims to have been cured of his ailments at the choti Dargah. According to him, while he was ill, he gave up eating for a month and roamed around in the streets of Kaserpur in Kerala till the Baba directed him to Erwadi.  After two months of ordeal, he got cured. He has not left the Baba’s side since then, he added.

“They are not patients. All the people that you see here have already had a visit to the doctors. The doctor runs a scan, takes blood test; in short, robs them of their money.  He sends them back saying that nothing is wrong or terms it as cancer or something. The truth is that the doctor does not know what is wrong. Baba knows everything,” says Ali while he chases a violent patient with a stick.

District Collector K. Nandakumar said, “People from all over the country come to Erwadi not because they want to get medicines; it is because they believe that staying at the Dargah would cure them.”

“ Dawa-Dua, a clinic that we opened to treat the mentally ill at the Dargah, is our first attempt to extend medical care but in a way that does not undermine their beliefs- hence the name Dawa- Dua, treatment with faith. The clinic has produced good results since its inception three months ago.”

Ali rubbished the idea of patients suffering from psychological diseases likes schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or epilepsy.  Ali looks at the clinic, shakes his head; he pauses to let the screams of a woman emerging from the compound to die and continues talking. He says, “They (people who visit the Dargah) trust the Baba more than the doctor that the government hospital sends for two hours in the morning.”

It might take more than just a clinic to dismantle the practices that have a strong hold over Erwadi.