Stolen Childhood

The recent rape and murder of a three-year-old girl in Malegaon in Nashik district is a crime so horrific that it numbs the senses. A toddler stepped out to play near her home in Dongarlare village; within three hours she was lured away with a piece of chocolate, assaulted and killed, her small body dumped in the bushes near a mobile tower. While her family is obviously, the outrage has spread across Maharashtra as the state once more confronts its inability to shield its youngest and most vulnerable.

The sequence is tragically familiar. Around six in the evening, the child was noticed missing. Within an hour, her family alerted the police. Her playmates, the only witnesses, revealed that a 24-year-old construction worker from the same village had enticed her with chocolates. Acting on this information, the police swiftly tracked down the accused, who allegedly confessed during interrogation. Soon after, the girl’s body was recovered. The accused is now in custody, with investigations ongoing.

Swift action is welcome, but it does not mask the deeper institutional rot. Maharashtra, despite its claims of administrative excellence, remains unable to protect children from predatory violence. The state’s child-safety systems especially in rural districts are weak, fragmented and reactive. Most villages lack adequate lighting, community vigilance mechanisms or basic awareness programmes for parents and children. Families rely on social cohesion and informal neighbourhood supervision, a fragile safeguard that crumbles instantly when confronted with malice.

The Malegaon tragedy thus exposes a longstanding contradiction in India. While laws such as the POCSO Act are among the world’s strictest on paper, they falter in practice. Cases of child rape continue to rise; convictions remain abysmally low. Fast-track courts are anything but fast. Forensic delays, uneven policing standards and poor inter-agency coordination routinely weaken cases before they reach the trial stage. This failure is a moral one, and not just administrative.

Maharashtra’s ruling alliance, the Mahayuti, came to power promising a sterner hand on law and order. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, as the State’s Home Minister, has often positioned himself as the custodian of Maharashtra’s internal security and the architect of a more efficient policing system. Unfortunately, at the moment, this perception is dismal.

It appears that the system bends for the powerful, stalls when confronted with theinconvenient, and collapses entirely for those without influence. This is why the Malegaon case demands more than formulaic assurances. It requires Fadnavis and the Mahayuti government to demonstrate that the state still retains the moral authority to deliver justice. They must ensure that investigators receive the resources they need, that lapses are punished, and that the trial proceeds on an accelerated timeline. Anything less risks further eroding public trust in the institutions meant to protect the vulnerable.

A society is judged not by how loudly it condemns barbarism, but by how effectively it prevents and prosecutes it. Maharashtra now stands at that test.