mid-day editorial: Protect victims from further harassment

A month after a 5-year-old was raped on the premises of St George Hospital in SoBo, her family is now receiving threats from friends of the accused. The accused, a 25-year-old unemployed man, is the son of a Class IV employee, who lives in the hospital quarters. The little girl and her parents were at St George Hospital for her mother's treatment earlier this month. The accused had lured the little girl with the promise of chocolates before assaulting her.

This is not the lone incident of women being at the receiving end of sexual frustration at medical institutions. Numerous reports of molestation and assaults on women inside clinics and in hospital residential quarters have made headlines in recent times. What it proves is that a medical campus is no longer safe for women or children. Ironically, this is where people are meant to go to heal.

Our police forces must ensure adequate security for the child's family so they don't live in fear. In fact, families of all rape and assault survivors deserve police protection. It would also set a precedent of a more concerned society. If this family's faith and courage is punctured, it's unlikely others would dare to file police complaints in the future.

Our society, fortunately, has come a long way in terms of shaming the attacker, not the victim. Today, we see people display immense courage by approaching the law for help. If our authorities ensure ample protection for victims, the faith in them would increase by leaps and bounds.

The culprits who have been threatening the family must be held to let all other offenders know that no individual or family would bow down to their bullying tendencies again. Let people not live in trepidation that a complaint will only heighten their troubles. Let's ensure the path to justice is trouble-free so that these families get a modicum of closure.