New Delhi: Nobel Peace Prize winner and acclaimed social worker Kailash Satyarthi has called the alarming and unstoppable rise of rapes and abuse against children as a National Emergency.
Satyarthi was speaking at a Research Symposium organized by the Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation. The Symposium, Every Child Matters: Bridging Knowledge Gaps for Child Protection in India brought together key stakeholders and shared evidence and research-based knowledge which will be useful in making child protection more effective. The symposium also helped knowledge sharing and transfer, raised dialogue on new directions in child protection research, and helped create common platforms for new research.
Even as the country reels under crimes against children, what can increase efficacy of initiatives to mitigate and eradicate these crimes is data and research.
The report puts the spotlight on the grim reality. Take the case of Arunachal Pradesh. A child whose case of rape is registered today will have to wait 99 years for justice. That too, only if there are no fresh cases registered from today. Which means this child will live her life without seeing justice. Gujarat is no better. A child raped in Gujarat will have to wait for 53 long, agonizing years for justice. If a child has to wait and beg for justice in our courts for decades, it is our collective failure.
Addressing the Media, Kailash Satyarthi Said, “Each time a daughter is raped and killed; Indias soul is raped and killed. Every day, 55 children are raped in India. The ideals of a progressive and free India will never be realised as long as our children are unsafe. As part of his first step of action, I call all the political parties to devote one day in Parliament to formulate a National Budgeted Action Plan for expeditious delivery of justice for rapes and violence against children.”
Speaking Exclusively To Ten News, at the release of a report, Kailash Satyarthi Said, “The Children Cannot Wait and it is necessary to highlight the shocking situation of pendency of Child Sexual Abuse cases in the country”.
Mr Satyarthi added, I reiterate my demand for a National Children’s Tribunal to uphold the principles of natural justice for child survivors of abuse. I also ask for exclusive fast track courts for swift disposal of POCSO cases.
“There is alarming statistics of rape and abuse, whose numbers are on the rise every minute, the pendency of cases is also rising exponentially. Justice remains a distant dream for every victim. Stories of child rape and sexual abuse such as that from Kathua, Unnao, Surat and Sasaram will continue to emerge every day, in the absence of a responsive and speedy justice delivery system”, he said.
