"Need To Teach Boys To Respect Women": High Court On Sex Assault Cases

The mindset of boys needs to be changed and they need to be taught to respect women, the Bombay High Court advised today while hearing a petition on the case of sexual assault on two four-year-olds inside their school in Maharashtra's Badlapur.

"You need to change the mindset of the boys when they are young. Teach them to respect the other gender, respect women," said a division bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Prithiviraj Chavan.

The court, that was hearing the case taken up suo moto (on its own), said that "male chauvinism" persists in our society and that nothing will change until children are taught about equality.

"Male dominance and male chauvinism are still there. Until we teach our children at home about equality, nothing will happen. Till then, all these laws like Nirbhaya and all will not work," the bench said.

"We always speak about girls. Why don't we tell boys what is right and wrong? We need to change the mindset of boys when they are young. Teach them to respect women," it added.

The kindergarten students were allegedly sexually abused by a school attendant. The incident triggered huge protests with the state government assuring strict action against the culprit.

The court suggested forming a committee comprising a retired policeman, retired judge, retired educator and a member of the Child Welfare Committee (CWC).

"We want a consolidated committee which can come up with recommendations on how these acts can be curbed in schools," the High Court said.

The committee can come up with recommendations on how these incidents can be curbed in schools, it said.

The Bombay High Court also sought to know if the school ran a background check on the accused before hiring him and why the students were sent will a male attendant.

Maharashtra Advocate General (AG) said the background check wasn't done. The accused's parents and cousins work in the same school and since he was also hired, said the AG.

The court also slammed the lapses by the police in the case. "The mandate of the law is not followed by Badlapur police. They attempted to record the victim girl's statements at the police station. There is complete non-compliance with the mandate. Asking the victim and her parents to come to the police station for a statement recording is completely insensitive and against the law," it said.

The High Court also suggested that a woman doctor must examine minor survivors of sexual abuse while expressing displeasure that a male doctor had initially examined the nursery school girls.

It also said that a woman prosecutor should be appointed to assist the special prosecutor in the case She should be there with the girls and help them, the court said.