OPINION

Delhi Teacher Destroys Future of Young Girls

September 01, 2007
smallsquirrel

By now I am sure all of you have seen the news about the Delhi government school teacher caught on tape by NDTV selling off her wards as prostitutes. Apparently she gave the unwitting girls drugs, then filmed them in uncompromising positions. Then she used the tape as leverage against them to make them act as prostitutes - both in films and for adult clients.

This crime is inexcusable for so many reasons. Of course we have the immediate victims of this woman who have been used and humiliated. I do wonder if the government will offer them anything more than a lakh to muffle their cries. These girls will need counseling and help to rebuild their shattered self-confidence and self-image.

However, it is not just the girls forced into these horrible acts who were victimized.

You see, this school was located in a poorer section of the city, where many parents are reluctant to send their female kids to school to begin with. Usually after they hit puberty, the girls are yanked out of school and sent to work. Or they begin their training to be a useful wife. But somehow, in this neighborhood, many families had consented to leave their girls in school and let them get an education. It was a great victory for these girls, and it now lies in ruins.

Why? Because following the news of what the teacher had done, many of the girls in the school were taken out and told they would not ever return. That's right, a good many of the parents have removed the children from school permanently. They see no reason to let them attend a place that would allow them to be defiled, and for some the news only served to prove their suspicions that nothing good can come of sending girls to school.

I wonder what will happen to the teacher accused of this disturbing crime. She cannot plead innocent, as she is caught on tape charging Rs 4,000 and saying she would allow an adult man to take the girl somewhere in a car and have his way with her. Her only stipulation was that he could not bring her home. (How nice of her to have some concern for her well-being!)

I do not know what the penalty is in India for this kind of thing, but I believe she should, at the very least, be charged with accessory to rape of a minor, and the manufacture of child pornography. But who knows... we'll soon see who gets justice from the system.

Smallsquirrel is a born ranter. She is an Italian who moved to India by way of the US to be with her husband, a native Bangalorean. She loves bacon and rava masala dosa in equal measure, but certainly not in the same meal.
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#1
Deepti Lamba
URL
September 1, 2007
11:31 AM

That woman should be left to rot in jail forever!

#2
Tanay
URL
September 1, 2007
12:16 PM

smallsquirrel, if you are aware in a couple of days from today, Indians would celebrate 'Teacher's Day' [5th Sept].

And incidents like these tarnish the pristine relationship that students and teachers share. Also as you have rightly mentioned, the people from the lower strata of the society would pull their kids out of the schools, solely as they don't want their kids to undergo this shame.

Now, as I learn from the post and the news, this teacher was a lady, how could she do that ? Assume she has her own kids, and if her kids undergo the same awkward and ugly traumas, how would she feel. She is not a teacher, or a mom, or a lady, she is a pevert playing with others lives for few pennies.

#3
temporal
URL
September 1, 2007
02:07 PM

ss:

sad!...while she will pay her dues (after due process of the law)...will the punishment meted out be enough? ... her wards would carry the scars for the rest of their lives...how can justice help them?

#4
smallsquirrel
September 1, 2007
02:22 PM

temporal... "justice" is never really enough, as it cannot undo the pain cause, but it can give the victims some kind of closure. I guess at this point something is better than nothing, right?

tanay... you've touched on something that really upsets me... how can women of all people do things like that? this woman was not a mother, I think I remember hearing. but I think back to a documentary I saw once about the "cages" in Mumbai, and many of the brothels there are run by women, and many of the brothels contain underage girls. and a few of the women let their own children play with the children held there as sex slaves when they were not "working". I almost lost my mind.

#5
A. S. Mathew
September 1, 2007
02:33 PM

Please don't misunderstand that I am justifying
Salman Khan. For killing an endangered animal,
one jude put him into jail for several years to
destroy his career.

What kind of punishment this lady teacher has to
pay? She must be punished as a lesson for all other
teachers that using innocent student is not a joke and a serious crime. She must be put into
jail for years, before that she must walk through
the streets of Delhi in a swimming costume. This kind of crime will have an impact on the students until they die. Our society is turning
soft on evil so evil people try to take over
decent people and to destroy others.

#6
Atlantean
URL
September 1, 2007
04:08 PM

I saw her picture in the newspaper and she looks exactly like one of those women goons in south Indian TV serials.

This is not a petty crime. She has destroyed many lives - lives of young children who have a bright future in a country which has just begun giving its people long denied opportunities and freedom to make the fullest use of their selves. Whatever punishment the accused is given, the memories of the pain she inflicted on these children will stay with them forever, wherever they go, whatever they do.

And for that, this rakshasi and all those who are part of her network need rigorous LI... no less.

---

There's more to this than meets the eye.

Unless there's a huge market for her business, this teacher wouldnt have done all this. And what kind of people are those who would watch the videos made by her? Paedophiles, perverts and those with a predisposition to eve teasing.

Unless there's demand, there'd be no way this teacher would be running her business, which means there's a huge customer base for her business.

Which means there's a big big network involved in this and she's but a single node in it.

A large customer base cannot be reached unless there's a large marketing and distribution network.

A large marketing and distribution network needs to be controlled and monitored closely (you cant let the police know.) That will be done by a hierarchical structure of middlemen who would ultimately report to the MASTER.

The MASTER who would coordinate everything, collect and arrange the large finances (which often runs into crores of Rupees if there's an international angle) necessary for such a network to survive, hire and fire "recruiters", cameramen and control the middlemen.

There are other kinds of networks which dont have any MASTERS. Some dont have any - they're like the Internet. There's no master but its a network of autonomous smaller networks operating in tandem to optimise their businesses.

This teacher is a just a part of this network. She fills the role of a "recruiter." There are others who are a NECESSARY part of her network - cameramen, marketers, distributors and middlemen. They should be found out and caught.

This case is going to unravel a can of worms and should be watched closely. However, it is unlikely our media would continue to follow this story. There's more important stuff - Salman Khan brushed his teeth today at 7.33AM 54 seconds, for example.

#7
Atlantean
URL
September 1, 2007
04:16 PM

The commercial angle is central to all cases such as these.

Here's a report which talks about evidence showing that Internet porn is increasing child abuse: http://www.guardian.co.uk/child/story/0,,1121315,00.html

If Internet porn can, porn carried on CD, DVD and tape can.

---

The root of this problem is the customer - the PAEDOPHILE who creates the demand for child porn and child prostitution in the first place.

The investigation of this case should go deeper and reach the customer. Only then can the police say to themselves - phew, job done!

#8
rajkumari
September 2, 2007
06:18 AM

If we take the law and punish the teacher the punishment may not be enough.If GOD PUNSHES her it would be the right punishment in my openion

#9
Sumanth
September 3, 2007
02:20 PM

"I wonder what will happen to the teacher accused of this disturbing crime."

I promise, nothing will happen to this female criminal. She will join some other school in some other city very soon.

Patriarchal society is quite sympathetic to female criminals as the men are obsessed with protecting all women. If media follows this story for another week, she may even get offers to act in movies as vamp.



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