Kerala- the abuser’s hub?

Literacy means nothing. At least when it’s about Kerala. If it is not so, how would you justify the incumbent scenes of sexual harassments and related violence in the state? There was a time when people would turn their heads back and ask,’ What??? Rape???’ But now the worth of the news itself has slid from its impact among the people as a rape or a sexual assault marks almost every hour.

It’s nothing but strange when we see this fact in the literary worth of Kerala. The first state to accomplish hundred percent literacy in India is now just a file of sexual upheavals that raise doubts in its credibility as the God’s own country’.

In Kerala you will see all the versions of sexual persecutions. It flourishes in every corner of life in the safe brand names of admission, ragging, blackmailing, insanity and drug use. But the truth hidden is nothing other than the lack of serious outlook into the matter by both the society and the government.

A recent happening in Kerala was behind the name of Ragging. A student of Mahatma Gandhi University was sexually assaulted in the name of ragging. The people who are responsible were shielded by the mutual supervision of the management and other authorities. The brutality of the incident is embossed in the fact that nobody paid any attention to the tears of the girl who was abused, until she had turn up to tell the world the way she was ragged. The cultural sagacity that the ‘Malayali’ proudly proclaims; but for no use, woke up to sympathize the victim.

Vijayakumari, a housewife in Mumbai who had been to Kerala recently remembers her experiences during a travel in the capital city, Trivandrum; ‘It was as if the men were waiting for buses to get crowded. In the bus they made all the rush deliberately. Wherever a woman was standing, there would be a large crowd of men around her. Even the conductors were not far away from abusing the female passengers in the bus. The conductor who was standing near to me was trying to fondle my thighs and I could only grumble at him’

Ministers in Kerala are known notorious for their sexual indignities. The deep-lying reality is that every Tom, Dick and Harry are involved in one or other cases, but the truth comes up only when there are issues of political blackmailing. On a fine morning someone from the opposite party or group will dig up the ‘ditch’ just to screw the opponent with a blast from the past. Recently, the minister of industry Mr. Kunjalikkutty was forced to resign with regard to a very old gossip of woman disgrace that the opposition party found out on a bad mood. Another one, Mr. Neelalohithadasan Nadar was under the police scrutiny as his track records revealed that he is a veteran in abusing fellow women.


Small kids to aged citizens to animals, the target of abusers are anyone to anything. Few months before, a youngster raped a schoolgirl of 5 years old and punted her to death in muddy water. Aged females who stay alone are more vulnerable to the crimes. Not even a month has passed after a woman of 74 years was molested and mutilated by a group of thieves. Even animals are not safe in terms of sexual abuse.

According to a study sponsored by the state government identified 825 child sex workers of which 355 are males and 470 are females, aged between 8 and 18. Many of these children had finished their school and were in great demand of among clients fearful of contracting HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases and believed child sex to be a safer option. Poverty, broken families or sexually abused by relatives, co-workers or bosses were found to be the chief factors driving these children into the sex trade. Children from other states are also brought to Kerala for sex trade.

These are all just ‘normal’ when considering another incident happened in Viyyoor Central Jail in the State. A male convict from another state was sexually abused by his male jail-mates with the prior knowledge of the jailers. In another similar happening, a boy was abducted from his school by a group of men, nastily raped and then returned home with threats to conceal the chapter.

Parks and beaches are becoming the den of sexual fanatics. A travel to the famous Calicut beach once showed me some awful sights I had ever seen. Some men were staying around the beach just to show sexually explicit gestures and actions to the females and young kids. Some others were found masturbating in the open places.

There are more similar incidents to swear the pathetic condition of a place that is considered to be the kingdom of edification. Every day is entitled by happenings of the same line that repeatedly slap on the deformed cultural image. No one is safe-women, kids, aged people and even men themselves too. Who is to be blamed? Because the picture is still appear blurred in the dust of social reverberations and cultural hullabaloos.

What is chuckling behind the curtain is nothing other than law. Sex rackets and other abuses are just the outcome of a common perception that the law is seriously inactive. It is true to a pretty good extent.
In recent times, a two-member Division Bench of the Kerala High Court let off all but one of the 36 convicted by a lower court in the infamous Suryanelli sex racket case, shocking some citizens and taking many others by surprise. The case was about a 16-year-old girl was allegedly sexually harassed continuously for 40 days by 42 men, who were convicted on charges of abduction, conspiracy, illegal detention, rape and gang rape. Overturning an earlier verdict by a special court, which convicted 36 of 42 accused, the High Court acquitted all the 36 individuals of the charges of rape and gang rape. It also reduced the sentence given by the trial court to the prime accused Advocate Dharmarajan from a rigorous life imprisonment to a mere five-year imprisonment.

“Taking into account the increasing incidents of sexual harassment and violence against women, the High Court’s verdict is a real let down,” points out K Ajitha, a prominent activist and president of Anweshi, a women’s counseling centre at Calicut.

These smack-backs will definitely reduce the effectiveness of law. In addition to these, the delays in solving the remaining cases due to lack of forensic and other reports, non-identification of accused, migration of accused to other countries, disappearance of accused, co-accused and witnesses in some cases, reluctance on the part of victims to pursue cases and inadequacy of facilities for DNA tests stink the whole scenario with clueless sniffs.

Truth is painful. It is the same when there are no clues too.

What is happening to the country of rich heritage and deep cultural outgrowths? A non-Keralite may not be interested in this affair as long as he/she is not going to stay in Kerala. But that level of a ‘stay away’ won’t do any good for the whole country itself. We are called to act on a national basis to end this dull despicability. It is the decent right of a small corner of the world that is renowned for its natural beauty and cultural connotations.

The God’s own country is just sighing.