Bhopal’s silent protest against child sexual abuse

To protest the increasing incidents of rape and child abuse in Madhya Pradesh, several students and activists staged a

silent protest

at the Board Office Square in Bhopal on Thursday. More than a hundred college and university students participated in the

Janandolan

, where they wore black clothes and masks with children’s faces, and painted red tears on their faces. They also carried boards with different slogans to emphasise their point. “There is not a single district of Madhya Pradesh where a rape case or a case of child sexual abuse has not happened. It is like an epidemic which the authorities are failing to control,” said child rights activist

Rolly Shivhare

, who has spent more than a decade fighting these issues.

Another child rights activist, Sangeet Rath, added, “Till the time the people don’t join this movement, and urge the authorities to put an end to these atrocities, things won’t change.” BSc student Asma Khan told us, “It wasn’t a halla bol protest but a silent one. We wanted to keep it simple yet innovative, so that the right message is spread through social media as well. That is why we all wore black and painted red tears on our faces – which represented khoon ke ansoon. We also wore masks with faces of sad and angry children. The venue was such that a lot of on-going commuters too stopped to get their face painted to support the movement.”

Apart from this, the students are also tracking cases of crimes against women and children in the state on social media, MA student Prachi Verma told us. It wasn’t just the people of Bhopal, but even those from nearby places like Jabalpur, Guna, and Singrauli, who participated in the movement. Guna resident and DPharma student Parvez Qureshi wants to replicate the protest in Guna as well. He said, “We need events like these in the smaller districts as well, because there the situation is worse. When so many people come together for change, we can hope for things to get better.”