One of the earliest cases that we dealt with concerned abuse of a three year old child by her paternal grandfather. Despite the mother’s testimony, detailed medical report and report of the counselor, the judge refused to believe her terming it as an absurd and impossible allegation. Since the grand father was a wealthy businessman, the personal class biases of individual judges also went against the woman. Ignoring all international conventions of child rights, weekly access was granted to the grand father. `I wonder in what words could a three year old describe an act of sexual molestation,’ the judge commented.

While this case reveals one spectrum of the social reality of incest, the second case reveals yet another gruesome aspect of the problem. In this case, the mother of two teenaged girls had expired. The father was an alcoholic. Since the girls were minors, the residential premises which were obtained through her own savings by the wife were transferred to the husband’s name and the girls had become extremely vulnerable. Though they approached various social work agencies. No one was willing to believe them Finally they were referred to us. We filed a petition in the High Court and obtained an ad-interim injunction restraining the father’s entry into the premises. Fearing arrest he fled and took shelter in a relative’s house. Later when he appeared before the court, the ad-interim order was converted into an interim order and the children and father were referred to a conciliator. Subsequently the father gave an undertaking that the premises would be transferred into the names of the two girls and the security of the girls was ensured.