MADURAI: The arrest of a school secretary last Monday for alleged voyeurism in the girls’ hostel of a leading educational institution the city has stirred up a hornet’s nest. In the past two months, police have registered two more child abuse cases in the State’s southern districts and have arrested three persons, including a sexagenarian. This takes the total number of child abuse cases reported in southern districts in the just concluded academic year to nine. National secretary of the All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) U Vasuki said the actual number of cases may be higher as many incidents go unreported because the victims often fear consequences on filing complaints. Societal pressure on victims’s parents along with the indifferent attitude of officers in the education and police departments perpetuate child abuse cases.Both the education department officials and police officers always try to suppress complaints about sexual harassment filed by students, charged members of the AIDWA. When the Sattur case (see box) was reported, police officers reportedly refused to register a complaint. Instead, taking advantage of societal pressure and consequences, they forced the victims’ parents to reach a compromise, citing reasons like marriage prospects of the girl, said a AIDWA member. It was only after the intervention of higher officials that the inspector filed an FIR.Meanwhile, despite the sexual harassment case against Sattur Municipality Middle School social science teacher Antony, the education department gave him a promotion, alleged Vasuki. Following the incident, the AIDWA sent a High Court interim order to the education department, which directed the officials to withhold his promotion and appoint Antony to non-teaching positions, Vasuki said.
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