Shocking, disturbing: Arya Orphanage sexual abuse scandal

Off late, I have been reading the newspaper about the sexual abuse scandal that was uncovered recently at the Arya Orphanage in Daryaganj, Central Delhi. A case of a 2 year old battered baby brought to the trauma centre of AIIMS by a teenager claiming to be her mother and slowly page-by-page a gruesome tale of human trafficking opens up. An enquiry leading to arrests also uncovers a chapter in the life of the teenage girl where she had spent some time at the Arya Orphanage and faced abuse (both physical and sexual) before she ran away from there to fall into yet another trap of physical and sexual abuse. One to another and to yet another, it is hard to imagine what the poor child would have gone through to eventually be supporting and favoring her last exploiter over all other people she had met in her short lifetime.

And then there is the orphanage. It is really very shocking and disturbing for me personally to read about the Arya Orphanage because my family has since generations patronized the orphanage. My grandfather had supported the orphanage since when I wasn’t even born and later my father continued to do so. I too have tried to carry on the legacy in whichever little way I can. Until now, that is. Having visited the orphanage twice, and that two at the time of Morning Prayer before breakfast on both occasions, I have seen the kids there. There are thousands and thousands of them, both boys and girls, of age as young as 3 or 4 years; and it now feels awful to imagine being unaware then of what some of them might be going through every day or night. It’s shocking to read about the indifference and alarming attitude of the staff there, the same people who had been very nice and polite then when I had met them. Not an ounce of abnormality (oh hell, I don’t want to use the word ‘guilt’ here) could be seen in their behavior. It was always just normal day’s business there.

Not that I regret doing what I had done for the orphanage and the kids then. Having gone through physical and sexual abuse doesn’t make those kids any bit less deserving of charity if not more. But, it’s plainly, absolutely and entirely shocking. Those kids are vulnerable, easy targets. And that exactly is the point. They had to face this because they were vulnerable and easy targets. Their exploiters knew that they probably don’t even have someone to turn to, that they cannot just simply go away or run. If they do, they probably meet the same fate the poor teenage girl met, having been sold off by pimps and sexually harassed and raped by innumerable men, eventually but accidentally becoming the key to uncovering this abuse.