Human Rights and Children in India

India and Child Abuse       
    A report stated that sexual abuse on children has become a big problem that has not been solved yet. Although it has become "disturbingly common," and awareness of this issue is very high it continues to be a problem for these children. Most of the people who have the power to fix this widespread issue this are not only ill prepared to handle these cases, but they also have the tendency to worsen the situation rather than fix it. Children are abused in various places such as home, school, orphanages, and in their own neighborhoods. Most of these cases, unfortunately, are not reported. When they are reported by these children the reaction of the government and law enforcement is not enough to fix the problem and help these victims. In addition to this, the process is traumatic for these victims and because of the additional pain they have to go through when they report it, sometimes it is better for the kids not to even report it. Meenakshi Ganguly said that of all incidences of child abuse only 3 percent of it is actually reported. The responses by the police is also a big part of the problem. One example was a 12-year-old girl that was raped by a man who was a member of a politically high ranking family. He was put in jail for about two weeks, but the police wanted and insisted that the young girl needed to change her story. The Integrated Child Protection was introduced to help protect children, but the ideas presented by this have not been put into action.
    I found this report very sad. As adults it is our job to protect our children. Not just our own kids, but other children too. A child should not be a target of such horrific crimes. These innocents can't even go to school or home without being targeted by adults. No child should be taken advantage of in such a way. It is our job to keep these kids safe and the people who can are not. The people that they should be able to trust, are the very ones doing them harm.
   

http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/07/child-sexual-abuse-rampant-and-untreated-in-india-report-says/?ref=freedomandhumanrights

Molly Winfree
2/8/13
12:25 am