Child abuse on the rise in coastal areas again

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a desperate bid to curb the rising menace of child abuse in the coastal villages of Vizhinjam and Kovalam, the local police are planning to seek the help of the school authorities and local residents. The move is following the complaints of sexual abuse of children that started pouring in at the police stations here after a brief interval. ‘’We have already sent letters to the school authorities under our jurisdiction, urging them to take extra care to ensure the safety of their students,’’ says Vizhinjam Circle Inspector J Dinil. There exist a total of 22 schools in the region, out of which 13 are in Vizhinjam and nine in Kovalam. The Inspector said that the police have sought the help of local residents too on the issue. Tourists in the area are also under the police scanner, he said. The police pressed the panic button after a 27-year-old man was arrested on charges of abducting a 12-year-old boy and sexually abusing him. The person, whom the police identified as Baiju, turned out to be a serial-offender as he confessed to the police to have abused a number of kids, particularly boys, in his neighbourhood. According to the police, the boy who raised the complaint alleged that two persons, including Baiju and another middle-aged person, had abused him sexually. But the police haven’t been successful in nabbing the middle-aged man yet.  What made the police suspect a racket of paedophiles in the region were the complaints made by several parents following the arrest of Baiju. However, the kids told the police that the person under custody was not the one who had abused them which, in turn, meant that there were more child abusers on the prowl in the region.The total number of cases registered at the Vizhinjam and Kovalam police stations is only two. A huge number of cases go unreported as the parents show reluctance in filing a complaint formally, the police sources said. Several studies conducted by various non-governmental organisations in the past had reported on the presence of rampant child abuse in Kovalam. But the authorities have not yet been able to arrive at an effective system to curb the menace.