Rising child rapes alarms protection group

Aizawl, June 16 (UNI) Aizawl-based Child Welfare Committee (CWC) has voiced grave concern over the alarming rate of minor rape incidents in Mizoram.

The CWC, presently looking into seven reports of child molestation, averred that unless drastic steps were taken the incidents of minor rapes and molestations would keep increasing.

Of the seven cases reported to the CWC, five were allegedly committed by the victims' own step-fathers, while the rest were done by neighbours.

''One of the victims was an eight-year-old girl whose parents had parted ways. The girl went to stay with her biological father two years back and there she was raped by a man in the neighbourhood where she frequently went to watch TV,'' CWC sources said.

Out of fear the girl kept mum over the repeated incidents. The incidents remained under wraps until a social service group came to know of it. The girl was then taken for medical examinations.

An FIR was submitted on June 2 last and the police immediately arrested the accused Lalchawimawia.

''The case being an incident of nearly two-years old, there is very little chance of conviction of the accused,'' sources added.

According to sources, Lalchawimawia had earlier been charged with minor rape.

Two of the five girls allegedly raped by their stepfathers are sisters whose mother had three husbands. The two girls are presently in the custody of the CWC.

Blaming the rising incidents on lack of awareness on the part of the children, Lalengruali advocated that children be given awareness on sex education.

''Giving instructions by parents to their children are what is needed most. We believe that schools should impart sex education as part of the curriculum. We advocate parents tell their children all about the flowers and bees as soon as they are able to understand it,'' she said.

She said the CWC was also worried about the high rate of divorce as a result of which mothers have to remarry and bring their children to a new father. She said this was an open invitation to some husbands to molest his wife's female children.

Lalengruali said the churches also need to cut down the divorce rate and said church leaders need to be more active to prevent divorces.

Asked whether urban areas have more child molestations than rural areas, Lalengruali said the reports the CWC is receiving are mostly from urban areas, especially from different localities in the state capital.

UNI