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journalist-friend tracked me down in London recently, agitated about the rape of a child in his locality. He complained there was one such outrage every other day in his city, and wondered if I had some concrete suggestions on combating such perversity. He probably thought that, as a former policeman, I had some brilliant ideas. First, I disabused him of the notion that the police could prevent a man—I haven’t come across any female of the species as yet indulging in this pastime—from sexually assaulting a child in private. Second, I told him even if an offender is caught in the act, he will invariably get away, given the frailties of our criminal justice system. Finally, to the average Indian policeman, fighting the sexual abuse of young ones isn’t really a priority. He isn’t going to win medals for humane responses. At best, he will tend to be reactive once a case of child abuse or rape becomes a public scandal. And the cruel fact is that only one-third of rape cases end in conviction, and after trials that go on for at least a year.