New Delhi: On Saturday, in northeast Delhi’s Dayalpur, a 9-year-old girl was sexually assaulted and murdered by a neighbour. Her body was found stuffed in a suitcase in his second-floor house. The brutal crime has shaken the slum colony, but residents, especially young mothers, feel this has only exposed how, in tenements where one-room flats are stacked on each other and neighbours live cheek by jowl, children are often left to fend for themselves. Their parents are busy eking out a living and even mothers staying at home were usually preoccupied. Left to play in the lanes, informally watched over by neighbours or grandparents, and with limited understanding of safety, many children don’t speak up even if something feels wrong.“Children here learn to keep quiet and act older than they are,” confided a local tutor. “They don’t want to trouble their parents.” A 40-year-old mother of two daughters put it bluntly, “Yahan mamla aapas mein sulajh jaata hai (Issues get settled quietly among families). We often stay silent to avoid additional trouble.” But she added that after what happened on Saturday, speaking up had become necessary. “I’ll have to teach my daughter that too,” she said.Neighbours have now come forward sharing troubling accounts about the accused. “He had a history of making women feel uneasy with lingering stares,” said the man’s immediate neighbour. “On the day of the incident, he tried to lure several children into bringing him his house keys, but only the poor girl complied and ended up in the suitcase.” The neighbour’s sister and brother’s wife also reported feeling uncomfortable as the man stared at them from the adjacent balcony.NGO workers and child rights volunteers say the lack of awareness, poor adult supervision and culture of silence together create an unsafe environment for vulnerable children. Dr Poonam Singh, former member, Child Welfare Committee, explained how the densely packed homes made supervision of children nearly impossible. “Families often leave their daughters unsupervised around adult men because they are familiar faces,” said Singh. “But someone can literally step from one roof to the next. There aren’t many CCTV cameras or security personnel around either.”The tendency to treat men from their villages as extended family had unfortunately caused unwanted problems for people. “In my experience, screams from domestic violence in these localities are so routine that cries for help often go unnoticed,” said Singh. An elderly woman confirmed this saying, “A lot of violence happens in homes but we don’t like to get involved because it is their own family’s business.”Singh recalled a case two years ago when a neighbour lured the four-year-old daughter of a woman distracted by a street fight and sexually assaulted her. “A child should never be left unattended,” she warned, ruing that the eldest daughter often became the informal parent in the household, maturing too fast, without protection or guidance.Rita Singh, former member, Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights, pointed out, “Parental conflicts at home create an unsafe environment where children don’t feel secure sharing small incidents of harassment,” she said. She wanted urgent strengthening of the anganwadis for the safety of children.NGO worker DK Bhardwaj said, “In lower-income settlements, boys and men are emboldened by familiarity with neighbours and the silence of families. Even if reported to police, they aren’t cowed because they assume that poor families don’t have the means to follow up in court. And sadly, they’re often right.” He said that while the concept of good touch and bad touch was being introduced in schools, in neighbourhoods like this, the lines were still blurred. “A grown man cuddling a youngster is mostly seen as affection. Children protest only when it becomes physically painful,” he said.
About The Author
