Children in a brutal and hostile society

At a time when militant attacks have hogged -and not unjustifiably -- the media attention, other brutalities do not make screaming headlines. But brutalities against children have assumed such a level of insanity, the crime can almost match the carnage in range and scope. In the latest incident, a 10-year-old Sagar Barman has been murdered in a most brutal and bizarre manner. A high-pressure gas nozzle was inserted into his rectum before activating it by senior co-workers of a spinning mill.
However, Sagar was not the first to succumb to this type of brutality. About a year ago Rakib Hawlader, a 13-year-old boy, was done to death in the same manner for leaving his job at a vehicle workshop. Maybe, the spinning mill workers were guided by some malevolence that is contagious in some respect. In the case of Rakib's death, two men were sentenced to death in connection with the murder. It seems when a new process of brutality or crime is tried on a victim, diabolic minds take cue from it. Acid-throwing once topped the list of crimes. Incidence of that crime is low now but has not totally disappeared.
What is alarming is that criminal minds are influenced by the manner of the brutalities inflicted but not by the punishment meted out. Had the mill workers taken any lesson from the earlier incident of high-pressure air pumping death, they would not have perpetrated the crime now. Criminal minds perhaps react in a strange way. They risk imprisonment or even death sentence for the sadistic pleasure they derive from inflicting inhuman torture on the weak. In all the cases of child murder, the murderers displayed a loathsome mindlessness in making fun of their victims to their monstrous acts.
One reason may be that the follow-up of such nefarious acts is not widely published. If the trials and execution of the perpetrators are prominently published, they may have the desired result of a strong deterrent. Not that the criminally bent minds or crooked receive motivation from the manner of crimes committed in the past but they give the impression that are overly concerned about their own future. What is their calculation then?
One explanation may be that they think legal process can be influenced in their favour with money and influence. Actually it happens at times. Law does not take its own course in many cases. When the rule of law is absent, people prone to crimes feel encouraged to commit more crimes. However, in case of all the child murder, the record has been more or less clean. Trials were not delayed and after hearing arguments, the courts have announced verdicts soon enough. Yet those verdicts failed to act as a deterrent to child murder.
That it is a case of underdevelopment is beyond doubt. A 10-year-old or 13-year-old boy is not supposed to work at a vehicle workshop or a spinning factory. They had to be in schools. But grinding poverty forces families to send their sons and daughters to work at any place where they can earn -however modicum the amount may be.
The most vulnerable of all in a society are children. Factory workers used to harsh condition and brutal treatment welcome the youngsters as their plaything. They play pranks on them and in tragic situations like that of Sagar and Rakib, they are victimised. The girls among them are sexually abused in their workplaces and domestic helps among them are both physically and sexually brutalised.
This is rather intriguing. Those who employ helping hands to help in domestic works in cities and towns are mostly educated and financially solvent people unlike the factory workers. Yet, they prove the fiends they are by torturing small girls from poor families in villages in their custody. Many of the helping hands end up with scalding or burn marks from hot irons all over their tiny bodies. Some get emaciated because they are not fed well.
It is a brutal world to children. Society that cannot or does not know how to take care of children is despicable indeed. Bangladesh society has proved it is in the forefront of such societies. It will have to pay a heavy price for this oversight. The rise of militancy is certainly an offshoot of a number of aberrations. Maltreatment of children is just one of them.