An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Times News Network explores real-world lessons from the classic Tamil text ‘Thirukkural’, written by poet and philosopher Thiruvalluvar. The Kural consists of 1,330 short couplets divided into three books on virtue, wealth, and love, considered a masterpiece on ethics and morality. Motivational speaker and diversity champion Bharathi Bhaskar examines this text.
The Disturbing Reality of Child Abuse
My dismay begins with a question that has robbed me of sleep: How can some male minds become so perverted and brutal that they turn into predators of children as young as three years old? What do you see in a child? I see a face reflecting a soul untouched by deceit, a smile that welcomes the world without suspicion, a heart so pure that cruelty has not yet found a place. How then does a man look at such innocence and think of sexual assault?
The recent news of a three-year-old daughter of a guest worker from Bihar allegedly raped and thrown into the bushes by a 19-year-old migrant worker has shaken me deeply. Doctors who treated her found grievous injuries to her genitals and anus, causing extensive bleeding. The little girl succumbed to the assault and died. Every parent who came across that report must have felt the same knot of helpless rage.
A Growing Pattern of Violence
What disturbs me even more is our growing tendency to describe such horrors as rare incidents. They are not rare anymore. The victims are becoming younger, the brutality more savage, and the predators bolder. What kind of mind chooses a toddler as its victim? Alcohol is often offered as an explanation, along with rage and social circumstances. Yet none of these answers the central question: why are the targets so often those who are completely defenceless—little girls and elderly women? These offenders are not merely driven by lust; they are driven by power, domination, and the certainty that their victims cannot fight back. There is cowardice at the heart of their violence.
The tragedy of the three-year-old child is part of a larger and deeply disturbing pattern that society can no longer ignore. Our streets, neighbourhoods, and even homes are becoming unsafe for those who should be protected the most. I often think of another disturbing episode that revealed how low human vulgarity can descend. When actor Silk Smitha died in September 1996, there was controversy concerning the handling of her remains. For some people, even death does not command respect. The female body continues to be viewed through a lens of exploitation and violation. If human beings can lose respect for a dead woman, is it surprising that some among them lose all sense of humanity toward a living child?
The Need for Deterrence and Justice
This is why the discussion cannot stop with outrage. We must ask difficult questions about deterrence, punishment, and accountability. Are crime rates against women and children lower in societies where punishment is swift and certain? Have we created a system in which endless procedural delays allow offenders to escape? Every adjournment, every delay, and every prolonged trial send a message, not merely to victims but also to predators.
Thiruvalluvar understood this centuries ago. In Kural 879 he warns: Ilaidhaga Mulmaram Kolga Kalaiunar / Kaikollum Kaazhththa Vidaththu — Crime, like a thorny plant, should be nipped in the bud: One gets bruised when felling it later. The true measure of a society is not how it speaks about its children but how fiercely it protects them. Until we make predators fear consequences more than they desire their crimes, the headlines will continue, our children will be preyed on, and our collective shame will deepen.
