Wanted: a rational response to Nithari

You can8217;t fight paedophilia by banning male school teachers

The brutal murders of heartbreakingly innocent children in Nithari have jolted the entire nation. They have forced us to acknowledge a shocking reality: child sexual abuse is probably rampant in our country. How many unreported Pandhers and Kolis must be lurking around similar villages, towns and cities in India, using their insidious, cunning means to attract and win over trusting, vulnerable children?

However, the solution of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi MCD to tackle sex crimes against children, by sacking male teachers working in primary schools for girls, is unacceptable. The explanation, that this is a precautionary measure, given the few molestation cases reported in MCD schools last year, doesn8217;t really hold. Are they suggesting that over 5,000 male teachers might have paedophilic tendencies? And, in that case, why ban them only in primary schools for girls? It is common knowledge that boys are abused too. Latest research suggests that up to one-third of child sexual abuse crimes are committed against young boys.

This is all that the already beleaguered MCD schools need. Besides the fact that 80 per cent of the children in these schools can8217;t read or write in Class V at the age 10, there is a serious shortage of teachers for every class, in each one of these schools. Sacking over 5,000 teachers will only make the situation worse. At this point there are over 250 posts of headmasters in MCD schools lying vacant with absolutely no one to fill them up. The ratio of teacher to student is 1:45, but now with fewer teachers this is set to rise.

It is a documented fact that over 95 per cent paedophiles are men. They consciously seek employment in professions like teaching that will bring them into direct contact with children. But the way to deal with this is not to deny employment to some perfectly decent male teachers, but help kids identify, and protect themselves against potential abusers. Children lead fairly independent lives from the age three these days. Sex education is essential and imperative at the earliest stage, since it is impossible to monitor a school-going child all the time. We under-estimate children8217;s unerring instinct to figure out the difference between right and wrong. It is the only way to safeguard innocents from sexual predators. This, of course, is going to be difficult in a country where, until recently, a health minister frowned upon sex education even for 14-year-olds.

This, while the numbers of those living with HIV/AIDS is rising alarmingly. Sushma Swaraj, when she was health minister, had put forward the ridiculous suggestion that the only way to battle the disease is to promote sexual abstinence. If some countries in Southeast Asia can hand out the death penalty for dealing in drugs, there is no reason why we cannot develop a zero-tolerance policy towards sexual offenders, with special courts to ensure speedy trials. This would be a far more sensible approach than to cast aspersions on the entire male teaching community of Delhi and deprive them of employment.