Citizens question safety of children at the kids’ favourite hotspot.
Image Courtesy: The Hindu
The Parksite Police in Vikhroli have made one arrest in the case of the molestation of two school girls at Kidzania, R City Mall. The perpetrator was posted as an attendant at the indoor theme park. According to the investigating officers, the accused, Ranveer Singh Rathod allegedly molested the girls on September 18, 2019. The students from three classes of a suburban school were in the mall for a day-long trip.
An officer said, “One of the students seemed upset when she returned home. When her father called up her class teacher, she told him that Mr. Rathod had touched his daughter inappropriately while strapping a seat belt on her. When the girl protested, Mr. Rathod brushed aside her concerns saying ‘aisa chalta hai [this is normal]’.”
The teacher said a written complaint had been submitted to Mr. Rathod’s employers.
On September 19, the girl’s father filed a complaint with the Parksite police. Another girl from the school too filed a similar complaint against the Kidzania attendant. Senior police inspector Kalpana Pawar said, “We have arrested the accused based on the complaint received from the two girls.”
The accused has been booked under Section 354 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for outraging a woman’s modesty along with sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
Growing Security Concerns
Statistics show that every 15 minutes, a child is sexually abused in India. A recent study found that the national conviction rate for child rape is 28.2% and pendency in these cases is at 89.6%. Data show that conviction rates remain as low as 10.2% and 6% in states like Jammu and Kashmir and Odisha respectively.
There is no question that there is a murky underbelly of slapdash background checks in India. With no difficulties in attaining fake documents and stringent background checks, the probability of hiring a wrong person is 1 out of 6.
The lack of a data repository makes it inherently difficult for companies to screen a candidate’s criminal, legal, educational and financial status. Also, the cumbersome and time-consuming process of sourcing such data from inherently bureaucratic organizations, which is mostly
inconclusive, is one of reason why background checks are given a miss in the country.
Companies owe it to their customers to prevent such heinous incidents, but whether the gap between quickly filling vacancies and conforming to safe hiring procedures will be bridged, only time will tell.