Child Sexual Abuse

Keerthana Gedela is a second year student doing law in DSNLU. She loves all kinds of stuff ranging from music to basketball. She is a foodie and aims to set a mark for herself in this world.

CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE (CSA)

One of the most shocking and heart-breaking crimes is child sexual abuse. The victims and survivors are left with scars, both physical and mental of the trauma and fear that they went through. Some of them find the courage to speak about it to the ones they trust while others find it hard to confide in someone and suffer in silence. As long as they are silent, the predators grow stronger and prey on other children as well. Child sexual abuse has been a global pandemic ever since such predators dared to show their paedophilic nature. Pedophiles have a psychiatric disorder, but commonly it is considered that it is sadistic and perverted feelings in either men or women that incentivises such erratic behaviour affecting children.

The reason why I speak of child sexual abuse as rape is because such sexual acts of predators are done without the consent of the children. Children are vulnerable and predators take advantage of this vulnerability by bribing them with things and toys that they like in exchange for their silence. Children realise the difference between touches and can sense an unsafe touch from someone other than their mother. Child abuse is common with one among four girls and one in six boys a victim of Child Sexual Abuse. The experience of CSA becomes a huge burden and problem in their future affecting both their lives and career. Feelings of anxiety, discomfort, distress, introversion and suspicion arise in the aftermath of child rape a.k.a child sexual abuse.

CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE IN INDIA

In India, we have a child protection agency popularly called as Child Line, one of the most trusted organisations to protect children from sexual abuse otherwise called as child molestation in all aspects. A call to 1098 brings medical aid and assistance to take care of the victim and help him/her to cope with the consequences of the acts committed by the predators, and it also helps provide justice to such crimes. It is  a child-friendly organisation putting mechanisms into place to curb the ever increasing child abuse in India.

According to a survey, nearly 53%  children face child sexual abuse. It is also shocking to hear that a majority of them are not even reported but imagine the proportion if they are reported. Whether the abuse is physical, emotional or sexual the children are a victim of them. A majority of these victims are girl children. It is also shocking to know that in a lot of these cases, relatives and sometimes parents are reported as perpetrators of CSA. The survey not only stops there but holds more. 13 states with a sample size of 12,447 held that 53.22% of children have reported being victims of CSA. The states with majority reportings are Andhra Pradesh( Telangana), Bihar, Assam, and Delhi. It’s also shocking to know that the capital city of India is one of the primary centers of child trafficking. Out of 53.22%, 50% cases of CSA are committed by people whom the children had a fiduciary relation with. Such people are responsible for the safety and security of the children.

The WCD ministry sponsored this survey which helped bring out these frightening yet previously unknown facts about CSA. An NGO named Prayas which was in affiliation with UNICEF and another organisation named Save The Children conducted extensive research and found that most child abuse is done through corporal punishments, and 65% of school children mostly coming from government schools face it. Many children don’t report the fact that they received an unwanted and unreasonable lashing from their teacher out of fear.

The rates of child sexual abuse and child abuse have proliferated in the recent years. The statistics are disproportionate to the crimes actually committed and the victims abused. Child sexual abuse is a horrific act. The perpetrator not only takes away his/her childhood but he/she also endangers a child’s possibly bright and optimistic future by hurling them into a dark well of insecurity filled with fear and anxiety.