Children’s Day: A Time To Reflect, A Time To Act

Children's Day is an important day to celebrate children and childhood, but Children's Day is also a crucial day to look at these children and ask ourselves if we have been fair to them as a society, as a nation? Children's Day is to look within and without, and ask difficult questions about everything from our societal norms to judicial systems, from our political will to civic determination and if our collective goal has been to preserve, protect and enrich the next generation.

There is no denying the fact that India has taken a few very significant strides in the direction of child protection in the country, but the road ahead is long, tumultuous and still uphill. Here is a look at a few of the issues that the country needs to address and resolve urgently so that next year on Children's Day, when we drive past a busy traffic light, we do not need to avoid the glare of a 7-year-old doing acrobatics, begging for a few coins.

Missing, but can't be Forgotten Anymore

Child Trafficking is a multi-billion organized crime network involving players from across the globe. A child may be trafficked from a small, unnoticed village in Jharkhand by a local 'uncle', sold to a gang in New Delhi, placed as domestic help in a Gurgaon household (where she is abused and raped), or may be sold for organs or prostitution to a faraway European country. With so many hands and resources involved, child trafficking remains an insurmountable danger looming over our children.

As per the reports by National Crime Records Bureau, till the end of 2023, over 47,000 children went missing in India with 71.4 per cent being minor girls. Many of these children, in all likelihood, are living a life most of us cannot even imagine. They could be employed as child labour, as domestic helps, for organ trade, prostitution or sold somewhere for marriage.

So this children's day one of the key things we need to address is ensuring our children are safe and not missing. Even though the newly introduced Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita has new provisions that ensure that women and children are justly covered as per the law and trafficking is now an organized crime, we need much stricter laws to punish the culprits and destroy the entire meshes of such networks. Anything less than that should not be accepted.

A Child Married is a Childhood Killed

Some crimes defy the very boundaries of morality; and there is no reason that can justify their place in a just society. Child marriage is one such crime. Cloaked in societal norms and religious pretexts, it is nothing short of sanctioned child abuse. Yet, despite its inherent brutality, child marriage persists, celebrated openly as a societal ritual. Beyond the economic setback of excluding countless women, married as children, from the workforce, child marriage reflects a profound moral collapse-a betrayal of our youngest and most vulnerable.

Disturbingly, India is home to one-third of the world's child brides, and while strides have been made toward dismantling this practice, a monumental effort is still needed to uproot it entirely. As of 2024, one in every four girls in India is married before 18-a statistic that underscores the enduring cultural, socio-economic, and educational challenges we must address. Recognizing the need for grassroots intervention, the Supreme Court of India has issued guidelines which include action at village level with panchayats, faith leaders, and teachers taking the lead in generating awareness in their communities.

These guidelines lay the foundation for ensuring that India reaches the tipping point of ending child marriage. We need to implement them as swiftly as possible because way too many childhoods are being killed in the name of 'marriage'.

Safety Online as Much as Offline

Digital world is a landmine of predators, sexual offenders and paedophiles and with the cloak of invisibility, a large number of such criminals approach vulnerable children luring them with conversations, promises and even threats. The number of children abused through online platforms is growing exponentially and the prevalence of online child sexual abuse material has shown that since 2019, there has been a rise of 87 per cent. As per the latest data from March 2024, India has over 95 crore Internet subscribers. This monumental number puts India on the top of both the consumer as well as the supplier list of child porn material.

All is not so grim in India though. Not anymore. The Supreme Court while hearing a petition by Just Rights For Children Alliance, held that viewing, storing and possessing 'child pornography' is punishable under POCSO Act. This landmark judgment will definitely change the ecosystem and make it difficult for both the consumers and the suppliers of such Child Sexual Exploitative Abuse Material. Even though the judgment alone cannot combat this crime, this sure is a significant move towards protection for children.

Now the world needs to come together and make this fight a collective and cohesive one. As is true for child trafficking, child sexual abuse is also a crime involving lot of people, resources and places. There is a need for global response to both these crimes because it is this disparity among nations' legal framework that traffickers and abusers take cue from and operate successfully.

Their Fight for Justice Can't be This Long

While we need to resolve and ensure that all our children are protected and safe from all kinds of abuses and exploitations, what about the ones who have been wronged already? Because there are lakhs of children who were sexually abused, raped and despite the pain, the system in place and the collective social apathy they face, they mustered the courage and sought justice.

In a country like India where a rape victim is the one shamed and singled out, it takes immense courage for the child and her family to fight for justice. But if this fight for justice becomes yet another ordeal for them, we cannot forgive ourselves.

As per a research paper by NGO India Child Protection, almost 2.5 lakh POCSO cases were pending in the country's fast track courts as of January 31, 2023. The paper further said that it would take at least nine years to clear this backlog provided no new cases are added to the list.

These figures and facts should make all of us extremely furious and exasperated. Because if such monumental numbers don't stir our collective anger and shame as a society, we don't deserve children and we definitely don't have any right to celebrate Children's Day.

So till we mend these gaps and make this world even a little more just, we need to pause and act. As child rights activist and author, Bhuwan Ribhu said, "If we fail to protect our children, nothing else we do in life matters." The stakes couldn't be higher. Our choices today will define the world our children inherit.