An incident in which two 19-year-old young men and two juveniles were nabbed by the police for reportedly shooting obscene videos of two other teenage boys, highlights the government’s lack of focus towards children and their issues during the lockdown period, say child rights activists.
On Monday, the Adyar All Woman Police Station received information about a video of a sexual act between two juveniles, aged 14 and 15, being circulated on a message sharing platform. Using the footage, they identified the locality and conducted an investigation in the area located on the East Coast Road.
During the investigation, it was found that two juveniles along with Abhinesh, 19, and Chinna Santhosh 19, all from the same hamlet, had captured the visuals of the two teenage boys, on April 30. The four then circulated the video amongst themselves and by mistake it was sent to a WhatsApp group. This came to the notice of the staff memeber of an organisation working for child rights and he in turn, alerted the police.
A case was registered under section 14(1) of the POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act and 67 (B) of the IT Act and Abhinesh and Santosh were remanded to judicial custody on May 10. The two children in conflict with the law, were produced before the Juvenile Justice Board , Chengalpattu and sent to the Juvenile Home, Chengalpattu.
Police said that two of the four juveniles, one offender and one victim, were school drop-outs and two others were attending school. “Their parents leave for work and these children don’t get necessary attention. Hence they fall into the hands of anti-social elements and become addicts to bad habits,” said a police officer.
Meanwhile child rights experts said that this was an outcome of not utilising the idle time of the children efficiently. “The government has failed to do this. Many children are idle during the lockdown period and are under stress. Hence their only refuge is mobile phones and clubbed with bad company, their lives will be destroyed,” said M. Andrew Sesuraj, State convener, Tamil Nadu Child Rights Watch (TNCRW).
He said that the TNCRW had asked the government to utilise government schoolteachers to interact with the parents and children over phone at regular intervals and keep them engaged.
“The majority of parents were unaware about how to handle their children throughout the day. Now, Tamil Nadu is facing second generation problems including anxiety, stress and technology-related psychological problems. Teachers should be trained to efficiently handle children who may be facing such problems,” he said
Besides he said that village and ward-level child protection committees should be formed. “The District Child Protection Units (DCPU) should do a mapping of various vulnerable groups of children in different localities and monitor them. It should be action-based research, guided by experts,” he added.
