Qasoor incident in Pakistan was alarming for all the parents who came to know about this sad and tragic incident. In a small village near Qasoor city, a group of criminals raped more than 150 children. The barbarous act continued unabated for almost two decades until it got the attention of media. This was a lucky village as there may be many more children, both in villages and cities, who might be the victim of such insane people. According to media reports, the criminals used to take pictures or film the children during this shameful act. This revelation did not make it a simple of case of some villagers raping some children due to their lust and sexual desire but an organized group of criminals who might be working for local and foreign pedophiles who buy such pictures or videos on huge sums.

One after the other, different revelations about child molestation and sexual abuse adds to the worries of parents. The cases of 70s and 80 when children were sexually harassed, molested or abused in different boarding and catholic schools of England and a number of other European countries are also frightening. A number of such cases have recently been made public and media reports that there may be many more that are still in the dark due to the fear of their victims. 

In Western countries and a small part of Muslim countries as well, the situation of gays is also alarming. In fact, gays also show an abnormal and unnatural trait in sexual relations and it is not far when child molestation may also get the backing of law and legislation. Luckily, we have hardly heard about any gay case in Afghanistan but then we have another shape of this problem. In last few years, Afghan media reported many cases when young boys were kidnapped, raped or murdered by certain criminals. In the same way, the country was in shock after the cases came in media that very young girls, as young as 3 to 5 years, were raped and murdered. It doesn’t mean that all these started in last few years; in past there was no media to expose these crimes.  In USA, and a number of European countries, special task forces have been establish to bring into justice the increasing number of groups that are working to make porn videos or take pictures of children and then these videos and pictures are traded. It has become a huge business as the number of paedophiles is dangerously increasing. These criminals have established vast networks in which they target children of different classes and use different techniques to allure them for their heinous and shameful activities. Due to the increasing access of children to internet and social networking sites, the vulnerability of children has increased. In the same way, the trade of porn videos and pictures of children has also increased and different governments are working to break these networks and catch the criminals.  World famous Indian actor, Aamir Khan also discussed this issue in his television talk show of Satyamev Jayate. He gave message both to the parents and children in this regard. He asked the children not to remain silent and bring it to the notice of parents whenever they are treated abnormally by anyone at home, or in relations, or at school or at any other social setup. He asked the parents to be close to their children so that they should be confident to confide their secrets and tell them about everything in their lives. Most of the cases of child molestation or sexual abuse happen when children are threatened or blackmailed and the frightened child does not dare to share the problem with anyone in the family.

All these facts are distressing. It is a fact that sexual abuse or molestation in the childhood destroys the personality of the person forever. He loses his social confidence, stops trusting anyone, which greatly affects his or her professional career, and overall, his personality remains incomplete. At many occasions, he may avenge the society and become a serial killer. In short, the victim of child abuse carries with him or herself a burden of psychological complexities, which follows him like a dark shadow until the death.

It is a fact that the world is getting a dangerous place regarding child protection but the remedial solutions are also not far-fetched. Many researchers have found that the root cause of this problem lies in weak family relations. In families, where parents keep shouting on each other and children long for peace and love, the atmosphere in family may not be attractive for the child. This may cause the child to seek love and peace somewhere out of the family and he may fell prey to those who look for such children.  We are lucky that we have a culture and traditions in which parents are strongly bound to each other and divorce is rare. In the same way, we do not have any concept of parents living separately. It is needed that both the parents should show tolerance and understanding in order to keep the bound of family strong. It lies as a responsibility on both of them to keep the atmosphere in the house pleasant and loving so that children should get all the love from inside the house and family members.  Being parents, we need to give more time to our children and show interest in their activities so that we should be fully aware of all their activities and likes and dislikes. We also need to keep them busy in healthy activities like books, painting and others and this can only happen when we will first do it ourselves and be a role model for our children. Family is the first social group of a child and according to social sciences, if a child gets enough attention from the first group, he remains closely attached to this group and the impacts of other groups in his life is minimized.

We also need to educate them to inform their parents if somebody touches their sensitive organs or parts or behaves strangely. We need not to be shy in this case as it is for the sake of safety of our children. Along with this, we can work to build their characters on strong basis and once again, character development begins with parents.

In all these cases, the role of parents is the most important and being parents, we need to fulfill our duties.