CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE: BREAKING THE TABOO
Author: Riya Goel, II year of B.B.A., LL.B.(Hons.) from University of petroleum and energy studies
Abstract
People are very often to talk about Child sexual abuse because when this heinous crime is done with the children, they can’t able to speak against this wrong and used to tolerate. later it is too late to take necessary action. United Nations has defined child sexual abuse as contacts or interaction between the child and an older or more knowledgeable child or adult. It is done when a child is being used as an object of gratification for the older child for an adult's sexual need. These contacts or interactions are carried out against the child using force, bribes, threats or pressure. In such circumstances, the child is never able to make a free and informed decision and can never be said to have consented. Child sexual assault occurs when an adult or someone bigger than a child uses his power intentionally and take the advantage of his power and sexually dominate to the child.
Keywords: Child sexual abuse, United nations, Dominating, Emotional violence, POCSO, Physical violence.
What is child sexual abuse??
Here CHILD means any person who is below 18 years old of age. The term gender is neutral and includes all children of gender. We do not often discuss the terms like sex, children abuse, violence in the same sentence. As sexual violence and abuse are that Evil that should be addressed and redressed. In the survey, more than 45,000 children in 12 to 18 age group across 28 states in the country revealed to the victim of child sexual abuse. World Vision India revealed that one in every five children do not feel safe and fear of being sexually abused. Marks of physical violence can usually be visible if attention paid towards it but scars of emotional violence are difficult to read. After sometime humans can recover from physical violence but it's so difficult to recover from emotional violence. This is very heartbreaking for the human being.
Types of Child Sexual Abuse
There are different sexual abuse prevalent in the world such a cyber abuse and many more and some of them do not have remedy provided so we have to prevalent protect against it for the sake of Justice.
Show the different types of child sexual abuse are as follows:
1. Hands-on and hands-off
2. Direct and indirect contact
3. Physical and mental Violence
4. Known person or stranger
5. Home or outside the community
Rape and assault: Rape is a very heinous crime done against women in India. A child under 16 is raped every 115 minutes and a child under 10 in every 13 hours. 240 million women living in India are married before the age of 18 years old. Child marriage still prevalent in India as according to the supreme court if the husband and wife have sexual intercourse or relation if the wife is below the age of 18 years old then it automatically amounts to the rape. The child is not aware of abuse still he is quite old and learns to recognize this behaviour as wrong and inappropriate till that time damage to child Psych has already happened.
Child grooming: It is the recent happening when the practice of befriending and forming an emotional bond with a child by a person with the objective of sexual abuse. for example, two teenagers were arrested in Kolkata and raping a 15 years old girl from home they had befriended on Facebook. The danger of child grooming both online and offline is fast-growing and cannot be easily curtailed. It is one of the worst Offences done against the child because it not only leads to the further sexual offence but is undertaken by systematically building a Child's trust and feeding on his innocence.
Child trafficking: This is also a major issue which means kidnapping or selling of children.
Child prostitution: The selling of a child’s body for use in sexual acts.
The protection of children from sexual offence (amendment) bill 2019
The POCSO was introduced by Rajya Sabha. It was also introduced by the minister of women and child development coma Mrs. Smriti Zubin Irani on 18 July 2019. Now it has become an act. Before 2012, there was no specific law prevalent to protect children from sexual abuse. Before 2012, there was no specific law prevalent to protect children from sexual abuse. In 2012, the Protection of Children from Sexual Offence (POCSO) Act was formulated to effectively address sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children. Under this, the punishment given to the child sexual abuse is for minimum 7 years to 10 years. further adds that if a person commits penetrative sexual assault on a child below the age of 16 years he will be punished with imprisonment between 20 years to life imprisonment and fine. If a child causes death for an assault committed then the punishment will be 10 years to 20 years and maximum punishment to the death penalty. Before 2012, there was no specific law prevalent to protect children from sexual abuse.
Objective of POCSO
The objective of POCSO are
1. It aims at meeting all kinds of child sexual abuse punishable by including penetrative or non-penetrative assault as well as sexual harassment.
2. Most of the time child sexual abuse was done by a very close relative or by the family member so it's aim is to aware the parents and children about this offence done against the children.
3. The act aims at casting the police in the role of protectors and gorgeous during the investigative process to ensure justice delivery and safeguarding of the children.
4. The act aims at avoiding the revictimization of the child at the hands of the judicial system. It provides for special quotes that conduct the trial in a child-friendly manner so that the child cannot feel unsafe and awkward. And have a nice environment so that he can get justice.
5. To include the community in protecting children, the Act also provides for mandatory reporting the child sexual abuse report so that people can share more about it and do not sit quietly against this wrong. if someone knows about the wrong and does not report the offence so he may be punished with imprisonment or fine.
Consequences of Sexual violence
It is impossible to calculate the extent of permanent scaring that takes place in a child a few consequences a result of child sexual abuse is as follows:
1. There can be a death or being murdered by the person.
2. There can be behavioural issues and changes.
3. There can be a severe injury on the body.
4. There can be infertility.
5. There will be unintended pregnancies which created a lot of problems for the girl.
6. There can be a noncommunicable disease and std s. There will be an impair brain and nervous system development stopped.
7. The most violent behaviour towards others and the younger children which creates irritation to the children.
Conclusion
The need to protect children and inform them of meaning common occurrence, types and consequences of sexual abuse cannot be overstated.
1. Parents are the chief responsibility of protecting their children from this cruel society and aware them about good touch or wrong touch.
2. Like the old age seen that prevention is better than cure so children need to have sufficient knowledge about child sexual abuse so that they can refrain from indulging in any sort of high-risk behaviour that might make them vulnerable of sexual predators.
3. It is a multi-dimensional problem having legal, social and psychological implications. Police, other Healthcare professionals are often the first contact for child sexual abuse victims. They need to be experts and give good treatment to them so that they can feel comfortable.
4. Child sexual abuse affects the child's personal growth as well as interpersonal relations. So adolescents need more detailed knowledge of body physiology and sexual intercourse pregnancy health relationships, sexual violence which is best provided at schools by train teachers.
5. Giving knowledge about Sex is a taboo in our society. Like this is a very natural phenomenon and children get curious at some age to know about it, so parents should have the responsibility to make them understand it so that children won’t get the wrong information from an unauthentic source. It also helps the children to fight against any abuse done with them.
So at last I want to convey that a collective stand needs to be taken against the violation of a child’s dignity then only we can make it stop the child sexual abuse.