Aug

30

Little kids next door

August 30, 2009 posted by indiatime |

A week ago, Urvashi Dhanorkar, a TV actress in Mumbai was arrested (and later released on bail) for branding Rameshwari Jadhav, their family’s 10-year maid with hot kitchen utensils and punching the little girl on the eyes. The 10-year old’s ‘crime’ was that she had opened the refrigerator and eaten a delicacy out of it without asking for permission. The abuse came to light when the neighbors saw the little girl with bloodshot eyes and burn marks on her arms. The actress tried to pass off the eye injuries as a bee-sting and the arm injuries as shower burns, and got the judge to release her on bail, at least for now.

Only days ago, police in California cracked open an old kidnapping case where a 10-year old girl, kidnapped back in 1991, was found alive, impregnated by her kidnapper and now a mother of two. In that particular case, the ball was dropped at several levels. Three years ago, the neighbors had tried to alert the authorities about something amiss in the next door house. The kidnapper was a known child rapist who was once sentenced to 50 years in prison but had gotten off for ‘good behavior’. He was supposed to be monitored by parole officers who failed to really monitor him, never checked his house, and never followed up on him when an area child was kidnapped and went missing for years.

Back in 1965, a horrific abuse case in the US state of Indiana, claimed the life of a 15-year old girl named Sylvia Lykens. Several literary works (The Girl Next Door, An American Crime) including a few films have now immortalized the story of little Sylvia, who was branded with hot iron pins, punched, pinched, kicked and burnt with cigarette butts by a woman who was supposed to be caring for her.

Sylvia’s case has many similarities to 10-year old Rameshwari Jadhav. Both the girls were apparently being cared for by their host families. The host families in both the cases had promised the girls’ families that they would be put in school and provided for. Even the ages of the perpetrators are quite similar, both about 40. Both the girls were forced to stay in the house and warned not to leave the house. The biggest difference is that Rameshwari was lucky to get out alive because of the alertness of the neighbors, and Sylvia died in the basement of the Mrs. Gertrude Baniszewski.

I’m not speaking about child abuse where a parent or a teacher whacks a kid for being a brat. I’m speaking about real criminal behavior by people where little children are burnt, branded, punished inhumanly and almost killed. Those are things first noticed by people around those families - the neighbors, teachers, friends. Rameshwari Jadhav’s case proves that timely intervention and simple alertness by neighbors can save little lives that would almost have been lost.


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5 Comments so far

  1. OurCityKolkata.com on August 30, 2009 4:23 pm

    Nice article.

    I see that quite good research is done by you about it.

    nice keep it up.

    http://OurCityKolkaata.com

  2. vishal on August 30, 2009 5:21 pm

    Child abuse is a neglected topic in the media and it is good to see a post highlighting that. Child labour is not that uncommon, goes on everywhere, and recently some other Bollywood personalities have been mentioned in the media who have very young age servants.

  3. Fabian Doulton on October 16, 2009 9:07 pm

    Children only learn what you teach them and how you teach it to them.

    I think the bottom line is what you do to them, they will do to you when they grow up !

  4. xzyeaziao on November 7, 2009 2:27 am

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  5. Bratin on February 12, 2010 11:15 pm

    Abuse only hits the media only when it’s physical. But the truth is that there is constant emotional abuse that goes on almost every household, especially in South Asia. The constant criticism and beatings on the pretext of disciplining the child, makes the children scared and lacking in self-confidence. The goal of parenting is not to raise disciplined kids. That’s a selfish goal. The kids may be intimidated enough to obey their parents, but they’ll grow up into timid individuals lacking in self confidence. If they’re beaten or criticised a lot, they’ll turn into bullies, or even criminals. The goal of parenting should be to raise confident kids with a high self-esteem.

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