But the kind of change we discuss is meant not only to bring a positive affect to one’s own life, but it’s the kind of change that brings real freedom in a life. When a life is lived with real freedom, the vision for that person grows and begins to include far more than himself. It extends to include many.
As part of our course, we took our students to a local boys home run by Don Bosco. From what I witnessed there, they are a group of people who have become free inside and thus available to work for a much broader vision.
Child abuse in India isn’t something you see in the open all the time, but its there. In the west, we typically think of child abuse as a drunk dad who whacks his kid now and again. Much of the time it is. It’s pathetic behavior that causes deep fears and insecurities. More common, I would think, is emotional abuse in which parents act as nothing more than grown up children, using their more sharpened mind to make immature power plays on emotions. It’s disturbing, but in a way, I understand it. It’s a function of broken relationships over generations and a difficult culture that can crush the human spirit.
This happens in India, but even this is not even remotely close to the underbelly of child abuse.
Perhaps what I see as the darkest thing in the whole world is organized child abuse. And its in India. And its not always hidden. In fact, sometimes it walks right up to you with a smile.
Throughout India there is human trafficking of children. Organized criminals partner with corrupt police, businessmen and politicians to use children to turn profit. Kidnapped children, swindled children and abandoned children are picked up off the streets in slums and trains stations and taken to situations of cruelty that are hard to stomach: Children sent out to beg in busy intersections and beaten unless they generate a certain return; Boys going to work in hotels where they work 20 hours days and are chained to the wall at night; Girls and boys working as slaves in brothels.
For a time I denied this kind of darkness in the world. I just couldn’t imagine a person falling so far away from love that they would destroy innocence. Sadly, I’ve come to accept it. But in that sadness emerges a possibility to change it. The people at Don Bosco have also seen this situation and they’ve gripped their faith and taken their hands to work in an effort to change it.
I sat in amazement as I heard the tragic stories of abused children and the lucky few who had been rescued and taken to centres for rehabilitation and education. The stories I heard made my stomach turn and stirred anger in my heart. By the end I was exhausted and in despair. Helpless. Even in the middle of the session, a 6-month old girl arrived at the centre, abandoned at the Bangalore City Bus Stop that very morning. The center averaged 6 or 7 new arrivals a day (In fact, a six-month old girl arrived while I was talking with Father Geo). And these were the lucky ones who were reported or divinely guided to safe hands. Many others would disappear, possibly forever of the streets each day.
I could hardly get down my puri curry at lunch. Even with all of their efforts, even Father Geo and Father Edward gave a sense of the size of the problem. The government refused to give them money to help address the issue, even after naming them the official government agency for missing children in the state of Karnataka. The roots of the crime dug so deep that even those on the “good” side of the law were entangled in the deadly web.
Still, a song rang out. It was a song of hope. A song that tells the story of one person who stands up for the marginalized and takes part in the redemption of the world.
With all the desperation and the tragedy of this situation, men and women were stepping up to counter it on the ground. With every reason to say “no, it can’t be done”, they were saying, “yes we can and yes we must”.
With a problem so big and entrenched that little can be done to affect root causes, a group stands in the gap to offer hope.
With a problem so huge, that group spoke in humility: We can not do it on our own. This is a work of faith. And it is only through faith that one can topple these walls. Our only answer is to face organized crime is with equally organized systems of justice. We must live out our answer with free and spontaneous acts of faith.
I left renewed. These were the miracle-workers of the 21st century: Restoring hope and faith to innocents. Giving them grace in human form. Life anew.
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