In a shameful and shocking incident in Mahoba district of Uttar Pradesh, a Dalit girl was lured by a priest of a church who converted her, and then sold her off to one Phulchandra Bazigar in Ludhiana for Rs 1 Lakh. Before selling her, the priest also arranged her marriage with Phulchandra as per Christian rituals.
According to the Superintendent of Police, Vansh Raj Yadav, the victim girl was repeatedly raped by the by Phulchand in Ludhiana, Punjab. The parents of the victim were not aware about these happenings. When the girl got a chance, somehow, she managed to escape and returned home. After that, she told everything about her ordeal to her parents. After learning about the girl’s horrifying tale, the family approached to the police and registered a complaint. The police reacted swiftly, arrested the pastor and registered case against him under the IPC act. A case against Phulchand has been also registered. According to the police, further probe of the case is going on.
Pastors of the church have a history of crime against children. This problem of child abuse by the Church is rampant all over the world. About seven percent of all priests who worked in Australia from 1950 to 2010 were accused of sexually abusing children. Pope Francis defended Chilean Bishop Juan Barros who is accused of concealing cases of child abuse by a priest. Various personalities have noted that child sexual abuse is a systematic problem within the Catholic Church. Father Michael Baker is accused of molesting 23 boys during his 30 years as part of the clergy.
India is also not an exception. In India, child abuse by the church is rampant. In 2014, Raju Kokkan, the vicar of the Saint Paul’s Church in Thaikkattussery, Thrissur, Kerala, was arrested on charges of raping a nine-year-old girl. In 2017, Father Robin aka Mathew Vadakkancheril of St Sebastian church in Kannur, was arrested in Kochi on the charges of sexually abusing a minor girl who later gave birth to a child. Recently in Jaipur, the Church had asked people to ‘fast and pray’ for the priest Georgish Britto who was booked under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. This also shows how seriously the church takes sexual violence against children.
These shocking incidents are indicative of widespread abuse of minor girls by ostensible religious leaders and are abomination to a civilized society. At least now there is a law to tackle these kinds of acts of depravity. Recently, in a landmark decision, Modi government approved an ordinance to award death sentence to child rapists under the POCSO act. The Union Cabinet cleared the ordinance to award death penalty to those convicted of raping children up to 12 years of age. Later on, President Ramnath Kovind gave his nod to the ordinance.
The government should crack down hard on the culprits of child sexual abuse who take advantage of the innocence of the children and exploit them sexually. Child molesters and rapists deserve fitting punishment for their crimes.