A 12-year-old’s brutal end exposes Kashmir’s deepening crisis of crimes against children
The alleged rape and murder of a 12-year-old girl in Budgam is not just another crime to be counted in a police register. It is a searing indictment of our collective failure as a society, a brutal reminder that our children are far from safe even in the supposed sanctity of their homes and neighbourhoods. A young life, full of promise and innocence, was snatched away in the cruellest manner, her body found in a nearby field only hours after she went missing. The horror of what she may have endured before her death should haunt our conscience. The police have constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT), and prima facie evidence points to rape and murder. This is necessary, but it is not enough. We have seen SITs formed before, statements made before, outrage expressed before. Yet, the numbers continue to climb. According to the latest National Crime Records Bureau data for 2024, Jammu and Kashmir recorded 887 cases of crimes against children in a single year, including 308 under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, with 228 cases of penetrative sexual assault. Behind each of these numbers is a child, a family, a shattered world. The incident has triggered grief and anger in the valley, especially in Budgam. But grief that does not lead to sustained demand for accountability and reform will fade, as it has so many times in the past. The administration must ensure a thorough, transparent and time-bound investigation, as demanded by voices of conscience. The guilty must be identified quickly and punished with the full force of the law. Yet punishment, however severe, cannot bring this child back. At best, it can serve as a deterrent and a small measure of justice. The deeper questions remain: Why are our children so vulnerable? Why is there such silence around abuse until it erupts into tragedy? Where are our schools, religious institutions, mohalla committees and civil society heads when it comes to building awareness, vigilance and safe spaces for children? This Budgam child’s death must mark a turning point. The UT must strengthen child protection mechanisms, fast-track POCSO courts, improve policing and forensic capacities, and ensure witness protection so that families are not intimidated into silence. Society, too, must break its taboos, listen to its children, and refuse to normalise harassment and violence. We owe this much, at the very least, to the little girl who left home one evening and never returned. Her silence must not be met with ours.