Around the world, child sexual abuse (CSA) is a major problem faced by a large number of children and teenagers. Child sexual abuse has, unfortunately, become so common that there are millions and millions of children and adolescents, both girls and boys, going through these traumatic incidents. The most horrifying part of this is, in most of the cases, the offender is someone known to the child. Sadly, Child sex abuse is an extensive issue which does not seems to be decreasing over years.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Child sex abuse can be defined as “The involvement of a child in sexual activity that he or she does not fully comprehend, is unable to give informed consent to, or for which the child is not developmentally prepared and cannot give consent, or that violate the laws or social taboos of society. Child sexual abuse is evidenced by this activity between a child and an adult or another child who by age or development is in a relationship of responsibility, trust or power, the activity is intended to gratify or satisfy the needs of the other person.”
A child does not necessarily have to be touched to be sexually abused. It can happen in many other ways like child pornography, exhibitionism (exposing oneself to a child), making a child hear or watch sexual acts etc. Suffering from any kind of abuse in childhood, whether it is physical, mental, psychological or sexual, can have lifelong effects on the lives of people. Children who have experienced CSA can have problems of trust issues, low self-esteem, communication problems and anxiety later in their lives.
When it comes to statistics, the results are quite appalling. According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, a meta analysis was conducted in 2009 which revealed that an estimated 7.9% of males and 19.7% of females universally faced sexual abuse before they reach the age of 18. The situation of India in this matter is even worse. Unfortunately, India has the highest number of Child Sex Abuse (CSA) cases. In the year 2011, 33,098 cases of sexual abuse in children were reported whereas, in 2010, this number was 26,694. There has been an increase of 24% in the number of cases of sexual abuse in children in 2010-2011. Studies say that over 7,200 children in India, including infants, are raped every year. There is a chance that these results might not be accurate as they are several cases that go unreported.
A survey was conducted by United Nations International Children Education Fund (UNICEF) on demographic and health aspects of India from the year 2005 to 2013. Some shocking results were found, saying that around 10% of Indian girls might experience sexual violence in the age of 10-14 years and 30% of Indian girls, when they are of 15-19 years of age.
In totality, nearly 42% of Indian girls have the traumatic experience of sexual violence before they hit the puberty.
Kamla Bhasin, a famous Indian activist, in an interview with The Citizen talked about the nature of this grotesque crime by saying “This is a crime of power. The offenders need to feel powerful and strong and thus, do this to children. It is shameful how pedophilia is globally very common.” When asked how the situation can be improved, she said “there is an extreme need for awareness, awareness about ‘good’ touch and ‘bad’ touch to children. Parents, family and schools need to pay more attention towards their children behaviors.”
Child sex abuse has become a stigma in the society. Parents and families feel ashamed, want to keep it hidden and don’t report the offender to the police. There is a need for awareness and acceptance. Parents and schools are required to give sex education to their kids so that if something happens, kids are able to tell it to adults. There is an extreme need to take quick actions against CSA as it has the potential to destroy a child’s well being for the rest of his life.