On Saturday, the Congress panel on social justice also pushed for a quota within quota in the Women’s Reservation Bill, years after the party resisted such demands when the draft legislation was passed in the Rajya Sabha in 2010.

Sexual abuse of children is an issue shrouded in ignorance and denial in our country. One of the chief reasons for this conspiracy of silence is the high value, almost idealization, of the family.

A society is judged by the way it treats its women and children. So is a judicial system. Nothing is more horrifying than the sexual abuse of a child: nothing more reprehensible than a judicial system that subsequently victimises the victim, police behaviour that adds terror to agony.