Boys more abused than girls

While the recent Mira Road rape cases have brought to light sexual crimes against girls in society, the fact is that boys are even more victimised than girls.

“In our experience, we found that boys were more sexually abused than girls. And they were even more reluctant to report it than girls,” said Pooja Taparia, founder-CEO, Arpan, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) which works to prevent child sexual abuse and heal those who have been affected by it.

Taparia said the effect of child sexual abuse on a boy or a girl stays through the victim’s lifetime. When it comes to child sexual abuse, there are several myths: the first one being boys are not at risk.

“The truth is boys are as much at risk as girls, and so protecting only girls is not enough,” said a child rights activist Pranay Veer. 

The second myth is child sexual abuse is prevalent only in the lower class. “In fact, all the victims of child sexual abuse that Arpan has seen belong to the middle or upper class. We haven’t got any case from the lower class,” said Taparia, adding that this does not imply that it does not happen in the lower class. 

“Another myth is that incest is very rare. In fact, it is far more prevalent than what is reported,” she added.

According to a national survey, 50% of the offenders are known to the victim. “The abuser could be a family member, like a sibling, father, uncle, grandfather, close relative, neighbour or friend,” said member of the Child Welfare Committee (CWC), who has seen over a hundred cases of child sexual abuse in her tenure.