President Ram Nath Kovind has expressed his deep regret and shock at successive incidents of child-rape occurring in various parts of the country and said that it was indeed shameful that this occurs frequently in an independent democracy.

The gang-rape and murder of an 8-year old Kashmiri Gujjar girl Asifa Bano in Kathua District reportedly by local BJP cadres (who confined the child to a local temple for a few days when the crime was committed repeatedly) has sent shock-waves across the entire country.  Social and political organizations have expressed their shock and demanded optimum punishment for the guilty who have since been arrested.

In a statement released by Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi yesterday, President Kovind has said that it was indeed a shameful thing that women and children are sexually assaulted in an independent democracy even after 70 years of attaining Independence from the British.

The President has appealed to all State/UT Governments to ensure that the ‘Kathua incident’ is never repeated in any part of the country in future.  “It is high time that we thought deep and hard about the kind of society that we are creating for the future (generations),” the President’s statement said even as sporadic incidents of child-rape and molestation have been reported from Surat and elsewhere after the Kathua case.