Call 1098!!!

For all you know, smiles can be deceptive. A person with the most pleasant smile may snuggle in his heart the fiercest of torture she might have experienced. There is more there out in that highly hypocritic world than meets our naked eye. Even scrutinizing through a magnifying lens doesn't cover all. A child's life can be heaven as well as hell. Starting from his getting out of his womb, he is surrounded by various hideous intentions with the humans she interacts. The least angle she expects to be hurt by, she is hurt the most.

A normal child is expected to wake up at her mother's warm beckoning; get ready while day-dreaming of his wildest charming fantasies; go to school to carry out all pranks but studying; come back home and throw the bag, loosen the tie and throw himself on the couch and after a hurried lunch throw himself at the ground to play. But the luckiest of lucky children now get this beautiful fairy tale life to experience. The majority are groping about in some kind of darkness waiting to be liberated from the myriad tortures outlined in there.

Child abuse is not an issue that can be solved in one conference or act. Its a weed which is hard to uproot, hard to completely eradicate. Its like the water hyacinth which regrows as soon as the alarms are put off and expands its territory larger and stronger than before. Recent surveys have shown that 53% of the children are subjected to molestation and other abuses. A child need not be abused by a random stranger only. He or she need not be in a isolated place, all desolate and lonely to be taken advantage of. In the most crowded of places, in the unlikeliest of situations a child can be subjected to any form of abuse. May it be a seemingly harmless touch of a hand or a forceful intrusion upon the privacy of a child.

The worst and the most disgusting part of child abuse is being cornered sexually by ones kith and kin. The very people whom you trust, whom you are taught to respect take advantage of your innocence and destroy your beliefs, your attitudes. Cases where the brother molests her sister, the very sister who ties a Rakhi on his wrist asking him to protect her are not uncommon. Step-mothers forcing daughters to get involved sexually to complete strangers to satisfy their needs are not beyond the horizon. Cases pop out of the boom box now and then with the weirdest and most shivering stories enough to cause goosebumps about the punishments hurled by the various communities on these children for petty issues. Instances are there where for three-four decades at a stretch, the child has been molested and and raped hundreds of times to satisfy the dragon's lust. Is this what the children take birth for, is this what they dream of in their fantasies? Is the anger vented out on a daughter who takes birth after three years justified just because her husband shut himself to her?

The first and foremost duty is of the parents to groom their child well in their formative years. No matter how conservative they might be, they should not hesitate to build a strong sturdy bridge of friendship and communication with their children. True, this is India; here "sex" is a highlighted word which rings a bell in the ear always. Despite the hesitation, the parents should do the talk. They should guide their children to be more careful. Its true, you cannot avoid the evitable but atleast you can lessen the aftermaths of it. Children should be made aware of the helpline numbers available and they should be provided with honest police officers who don't take advantage of their vulnerability and help them. Only then the growth of this weed can be slowed down and might be finally fully eradicated.

"There was this girl who was as pure as the serenity of the mountains at dawn and light as the wings of the cotton seed dispersing her radiance and purity everywhere she went. On the cherry morning of her birthday which happened to coincide with the celebrations at her school, she waited for a friend of her father's car to come in sight. The car did come in sight and soon she was asked to sit beside the driver's seat. The girl's father's friend was not at the wheel. Rather a driver with evil intentions sat there nonchalant. The girl oblivious to his intentions sat without any hesitation. She was a mere eleven year old child that time. The driver did not think twice before sexually abusing the child who could just decipher the action being beyond normal but could not muster as much courage to protest than and there. She was unaware of what actually was going on with her. Behind her friends laughed and cheered away and she continued to feel more and more puky. The thirty minute long ride to her school became a haunted nightmare for which she could only pray to get over. What was to become a memorable cherished day for her turned out to be a torturous haunted experience for her. She forced herself to smile, forced herself to perform at her best that day. But it lingered forever in her heart and burned her every instant of her breathing and more so from the time she realized what was done to her on her birthday..."