There have been stories of child sex abuse in India for quite some time. In India, there are protection laws for it but the measures were not properly enforced and children don’t report. In fact, people stood up urging the government to better shield children from sexual abuse last December when a young woman was found dead after gang-raped in New Delhi but it doesn’t really seem to decrease it occurring.
According to The Human Rights Watch’s report, sexual abuse of children is disturbingly common in India. Children are abused by relatives at home, by people in their neighborhoods, and at school. It is reported that more than half of the interviewed children in 13 Indian states have been sexually abused in some way but only 3 percent of the cases were reported. Children or their family don’t report because they know reporting won’t help and sometimes have to go through embarrassing situation such as finger test to examine girls who had been raped. In one episode, the family who reported raping was locked in jail for almost two weeks.
Child sexual abuse has devastating aftereffects which haunt the victim as they grow into adulthood and by not reporting and keeping it has a family secret will make the child feel that it’s their fault. Because sexual abuse of children in India happens everywhere and is disturbingly common doesn’t mean it’s normal. Many children are being seriously harmed both physically and psychologically. The government needs to prevent it from happening more and change the perception of child abuse. People should be acknowledged of the enormity of such crimes. India also signed the Convention on the Rights of Child, an international treaty that protects children so they have the responsibility to take steps to protect children against sexual abuse and also offer a remedy when protections are violated.
Eun Jee Lee
2/8/2013 4:02pm
source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/08/world/asia/report-faults-indian-government-over-widespread-child-sex-abuse.html?ref=asia&_r=0
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