Child rights activists have warned the government that the disturbing findings might indicate only a small part of the problem.
NEW DELHI: Child rights activists have lauded the government for undertaking the National Survey on Child Abuse (NSCA) but have warned that the disturbing findings might indicate only a small part of the problem.
Rajib Kumar Haldar of Prayas, the non-governmental organisation that conducted the survey, said the real magnitude of child abuse in the country is extremely disquieting.
“Child abuse was never defined in the Indian legal system and was listed for the first time while conducting the survey,” Haldar said. Acts of child abuse were determined on the basis of definitions used by the World Health Organisation and UNICEF.
According to the NSCA, 69% of children in India face physical abuse, and 53.22% reported sexual abuse. But the activists said the figures could be higher if a full-fledged survey were to be conducted.
“Almost every child is hit or roughed up by guardians,” said RS Chaurasia of Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA), an NGO.
“But while at homes it seen as an act of disciplining with no bad intention attached, such incidents are to be viewed more seriously at workplaces.”
Chaurasia said children in such situations are made to work long hours, beaten up, threatened, not given proper rest and food, and barred from meeting parents.
According to the WHO, about 40 million children below the age of 15 suffer from abuse and neglect. “There is an active trend of child abuse across the world, and across classes, religions and castes,” said Inakshi from Haq, a centre that champions child rights. “Usually, sexual abuses are hardly talked about, and physical abuse is taken as an act of disciplining.”
Although parents concede that children are vulnerable to sexual abuse, they question the definition of physical and emotional abuse, and their affect on the parent-child relationship.
“We all have been hit by our parents. We all have been humiliated and scolded harshly,” said Sangeeta, a parent. “That is how children are disciplined. How can you characterise an act of disciplining as a form of abuse?”
Indeed, 36% of Indian mothers surveyed told interviewers that they had hit their children with an object within the past six months.
Activists contend that parents must change their attitude and find the courage to accept the problem. Child experts say violence against children is a major risk factor for psychiatric disorders. These include suicidal tendencies and produce lifelong sequelae, or abnormalities that follow or result from a disease, injury, or treatment. Sequelae can show up as depression; anxiety disorders; the propensity to smoke, drink or use drugs; aggressive behaviour; risky sexual habits; and post-traumatic stress disorders.
The NSCA was undertaken as a complementary record to the UN Secretary-General's Global Study on Violence against Children.
In India, the survey involved 13 states and 12,447 children (51.9% boys, 48.1% girls) in rural and urban areas. It examined 135 variables that mapped four forms of abuse: physical, sexual, emotional, and neglect of the girl child.
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