Chipping in to add my mite here. India has a massive problem with rape, shoving cases under the carpet and victimizing victims. Most victims hesitate to go to the police even if they are told to, because of social stigma. Add to this equation instances of elders and even circuit overseers discouraging victims from going to the police or even from getting therapy because "therapists can use sorcery on people".
The cases I've mentioned earlier are on file at the branch office. Sadly, those papers lie dusty in a corner along with the many others that have been sidelined. In fact, the bethelite who molested the girl I wrote about - he's been assigned to serve in a sign language group in a remote part of the country. He confessed to abusing a child in the past, but that was covered up and he's not even on the list. I shudder to think what's going to happen to the many kids he comes in contact with - worse still, the deaf ones! The CO, by the way, is back and still among kids.
The good news is that there is a group of PIMOs in India who are putting together a list of cases to present to the media. Going to the judiciary in India doesn't help as much as going to the media, and hence this move. As far as I am aware, this group is having a hard time convincing victims to testify. To begin with, there is the problem of social stigma even if you're not a JW. So if it's known that a boy or girl was abused, they become "used goods" here. The girl's life is over and the boy is labeled as being weak. In addition to this, if you're a JW, you lose your family if all are in. India has a lot of joint families and family closeness counts. Losing this can have a larger impact than it could have in more developed countries. And if your family isn't part of the congregation, you'll anyway be tormented with people saying "we told you so". India doesn't have a proper system of therapy or emotional aid for victims. A person who visits a therapist is labelled "insane" - that's probably why you've got so many crazies both in and out of the organization.
With all of these factors against the victims, it's generally a trend to try to just bury the past, pretend it didn't happen, and move on. I'm not sure how successful the group will be, but I guess if they get at least one victim to testify, that will be a gamechanger.
With this being said, there's been a spurt fake videos that have gone viral - these videos claim that there are child traffickers in the area. Because of these videos, there've been a number of lynchings and deaths of innocent people. This has especially happened in villages - they didn't even spare an older woman. Now since JWs go out in twos, they look pretty suspicious. And since they're urged to speak to even little children, they look even more suspicious. I believe they've come under the scanner primarily because of this. I don't think there's trafficking in India but there definitely is a lot of child abuse in the organization. I'll anyway check with a source at the local branch office and try to find out what's happening.
