Fatherless Child

We all have grown up with tales of motherhood. A mother’s love epitomizes the true nature of love, a selfless love for her child. Will this selfless divine love remain unchanged? Let’s see.

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In Thane, a 6-year old boy was branded with red hot tongs at several places on his body by his school tempo driver. How could a school tempo driver do such a barbaric act to a little child? What did the child do to provoke this man to take such a step? What was the real issue? And if at all this crazy tempo driver wanted to hurt this child, he could have simply slapped him. Why brand him with hot tongs all over his fragile body?

The truth will blow us all away. He confessed that he was instructed to do so by the child’s mother. Yes, mother. He said she wanted her ‘mischievous’ son to be taught a lesson. Taught a lesson??? Which child is not mischievous? Stopping a child to be mischievous by torturing him in this manner is barbarism. There is no way the tempo driver would have come up with his own idea of branding him with hot tongs. This sort of idea must have surely come from the child’s mother, who thinks a child should never be mischievous and if the child is, brand him with hot tongs.

The incident came to light as the boy has stopped going to school since the past two days. His aunt, who works as a peon in the same school, informed her husband who went to his sister’s home to find out what was wrong. He was appalled to see the burn marks on the little boy’s body. The boy, who was in a state of shock, narrated the incident to his uncle who took the matter up with former Thane mayor. The driver was caught and produced before the Naupada Police station. He confessed to branding the boy, but said he had been asked to do so by his mother.

How could a mother give such an instructions? And why to the tempo driver only? How could she instruct the tempo driver to brand hot tongs on her own child’s body? Such barbaric act of a mother could never be justified. Never.

When asked the elder sister of the boy, she shamelessly denied. She said that her mother had asked the tempo driver to just scold him as he used to keep nagging her for pocket money everyday. Is the mother incapable to scold him on her own? Why did she ask the tempo driver to do so? What the tempo driver got to do with their own family matters? And what is wrong in asking for pocket money for his daily expenses from his mother? This mother is a widow and so the boy has no one to call for help. What is wrong in asking pocket money from his mother? It is the duty of his mother to fulfill his wishes, and also act like a mother. Besides, if they didn’t ask the driver to brand him with hot tongs, why didn’t they confront the driver for torturing their child like this? What made them keep quiet after seeing such cruelty on the child? It is obvious that the instruction to brand the boy with hot tongs was in fact given to the tempo driver by the mother of the child, and apparently the elder sisters of the boy are not shocked and disturbed to see the burn marks.

The boy is living with two elder sisters and his mother. Where will this little boy go? His mother is giving instructions to others to brand him with hot tongs; his elder sister is denying and justifying such punishment. The little boy is alienated in his own house. What will be the effect of such a type of upbringing in his life? Will he recover from this trauma? Will he forget this incident? Will he be able to love his mother and sister after knowing that they instigated such a torture on him? He is left alone to heal his wounds? What a tragic life? Shame on such a mother and sister, and shame on our society. What has happened to the sensitivity of female gender that we always cherish? Is this sort of an incident expected in a family where a child is not supported by the father? A father would have never ever allowed the mother to take such a barbaric step against the child. Impossible!

With the increasing divorce cases, more and more children are brought up in single parenting system, which are then physically and/or sexually abused. Are these children safe? Are these children going to be having a normal and healthy life? Mother is an indispensable being in a child’s life, but father cannot be called dispensable. More and more cases of child abuse are seen in single parenting. Who is responsible? The mother or the society who believes that a child can live without a father?

How many such cases go unreported? Millions. Child sexual abuse is rampant in India. Girl child at least have some sort of social sympathy to encourage her to complain, but boys don’t have any social support; they get abused, keep quiet and suffer silently like this little 6-year old boy. We may not be directly involved in torturing these children but our inability and unwillingness to accept and support these little boys can’t be forgiven. 

4:10 AM - Thursday, February 8, 2007