WUNRN
INDIA - Over 53% of Children Face Sexual Abuse:
Survey
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
NEW DELHI: In a shocking revelation, a
government commissioned survey has found that more than 53% of children in India
are subjected to sexual abuse, but most don’t report the assaults to anyone.
The survey, released on Monday and
which covered different forms of child abuse — physical, sexual and emotional —
as well as female child neglect, found that two out of every three children have
been physically abused.
Parents and
relatives, persons known to the child or in a position of trust and
responsibility were mostly found to be the perpetrators of child sexual abuse in
the country. According to the women and child development ministry-sponsored
report, which assumes greater significance in the backdrop of the Nithari
killings that brought into focus the issue of children’s safety, those in the
age group of 5-12 years reported higher levels of abuse.
While releasing the survey, women and child development
minister Renuka Chowdhury said, "Child abuse is shrouded in secrecy and there is
a conspiracy of silence around the entire subject. The ministry is working on a
new law for protection of children’s rights by clearly specifying offences
against children and stiffening punishments."
The survey, carried out across 13 states and with a
sample size of 12,447, revealed that 53.22% of children reported having faced
one or more forms of sexual abuse, with Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Assam and Delhi
reporting the highest percentage of such incidents. In 50% of child abuse cases,
the abusers were known to the child or were in a position of trust and
responsibility and most children did not report the matter to anyone.
The survey, sponsored by WCD
ministry and carried out by the NGO Prayas in association with Unicef and Save
the Children, found that over 50% children were subjected to one or the other
form of physical abuse and more boys than girls were abused physically. The
first-ever survey on child abuse in the country disclosed that nearly 65% of
schoolchildren reported facing corporal punishment — beatings by teachers —
mostly in government schools.
Of
children physically abused in families, in 88.6% of the cases, it was the
parents who were the perpetrators. More than 50% had been sexually abused in
ways that ranged from severe — such as rape or fondling — to milder forms of
molestation that included forcible kissing.
The study also interviewed 2,324 young adults between
the ages of 18 and 24, almost half of whom reported being physically or sexually
abused as children. When it comes to emotional abuse, every second child was
subjected to emotional assault and in 83% of the cases, parents were the
abusers.
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