Opinion: The hell inside the orphanage

When the wounds of Rajon’s murder from torture are still fresh in the nation’s psyche, social media is, yet again, inundated with horrifying images of two children being beaten mercilessly at an orphanage. An 18-minute video, uploaded on Facebook, shows the health assistant of the girl-orphanage clubbing the girls for that prolonged period,despite poignant appeals from the minors that they be spared. Apparently, the girls, only 8-9 years of age, were being “disciplined” for wandering off from the orphanage, allegedly at the instruction of the in-charge of the institution.

Only the most naïve amongst us would think of this whipping as an “isolated” incident in a country where such cold-hearted, pitiless beating is deemed an “appropriate” punishment for two children wanting to go home; forget the fact that there is a High Court ruling banning corporal punishment in 2011. The minor residents of the orphanage claim that this wasn’t the first time that such an incident has taken place – that, in fact, they are regularly subjected to beating, torture and assaults for the most minor of transgressions. With no video to “share” and “like” on Facebook of these other instances, we remain unaware of the gory details of the everyday lives of these children living in extreme vulnerability, who have little to no option of a better, safer life. In orphanages across the country, children are forced to endure harsh and often inhumane conditions, denied love and compassion, and access to basic healthcare, counselling, good education, extra-curricular activities – denied, in short, of chance at a “normal” life. Starved and beaten, many are even subjected to sexual violence, and forced to accept the reality of their tortured existence in silence.

We are glad that the orphanage staff has been suspended following public outrage (though suspension is hardly a fitting punishment for a criminal offence!) and a probe committee formed to investigate the matter. But before this video becomes yesterday’s news and our attention is diverted to another “spectacular” report, we should remember that beyond this horrific video is a broader, perhaps more cruel, story about child abuse and the deplorable condition of our orphanages. Is there any monitoring mechanism in place to check how these orphanages – whether state-run or private – are being run, and under what circumstances the children are being brought up? Who do the children turn to for help or redress, when the authorities themselves decide that disciplinary action must take the form of violence? Is there any accountability for how the money allocated to these institutions – whether allocated by the social welfare ministry or by private donations of people wishing to help -- is spent?

But these are hard questions that cannot be answered through “shares” and “likes” alone, unless we commit to really working on these issues in a sustained manner. After all, asking for justice in one “sensational” case, with no follow up on the end result,is easy; asking that the culture of impunity, lawlessness and lack of accountability is addressed, and structures of inequality challenged, is not. Suspending and denigrating an employee for his cruel action is easy, holding the state accountable for failing to take care of its citizens is not. Looking at this incident as an “isolated” one is easy, analysing it as a structural issue is not.  

We should not forget that beyond this horrific video is also a broader – and yes, perhaps more cruel – story about how power is exercised by those in positions of privilege against those who they deem as helpless. A story about how women, minorities, children, disabled, and economically impoverished populations are treated, whether on the streets, in schools or in factories, by the state, by private institutions, and by us. A story about a highly unequal society where Might (be it social, economic or political) is always Right.