Spotlight
New Delhi, 17 August 2018
Child Abuse
STATE BE MADE ACCOUNTABLE
By Dr. Oishee Mukherjee
Recent horrific incidents
of child abuse in shelter homes in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh have elicited sharp
response from various quarters, including the Supreme Court, on the culpability
of State governments and local administration. Arresting individual culprits
alone would not help end the scourge, which runs deep. In the Muzaffarpur shelter
home even a child welfare committee member and the district child protection officer
were accused of raping minor girls. The State must be answerable
And the Supreme Court
has done precisely this. On Tuesday last, it was stumped when the Centre
informed it that 1,575 sexually abused children are living in shelter homes run
by NGOs across the country! This was not a rough estimate but based on a report
by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) following an
all-India survey conducted on shelter homes. Of the cases reported, 1,289 girls
and 286 boys were sexually abused and 189 children were “victims of
pornography”!
Statistics reveal
that 30 to 50 per cent of Indians are sexually abused in the country, which has
around five lakh child prostitutes. The World Health Organization (WHO) had
estimated that 150 million girls and 73 million boys had been subjected to
forced sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual violence. Moreover, a large number
of children, running into thousands or maybe even a lakh, both reported and
unreported, are missing every year and around 25 per cent are not traced. These
children are taken, mostly from villages and from urban slums.
Abuse and neglect are
defined as “injury, sexual abuse, sexual exploitation, negligent treatment or
maltreatment of a child”. This abuse, according to the WHO, can be of several
kinds--physical, mental, emotional, psychological or in the form of neglect or
exploitation. It brings about circumstances causing harm to a child’s health,
welfare, and safety. There can be no denying that child abuse, in its various
forms can be found everywhere in India -- in cities and rural homes, in homes
of both the rich and the poor, and in the streets and schools.
In fact, trafficking
in children, underage girls and young women is possibly the third largest
organised crime next only to illegal trade in drugs and arms. Pakistan,
Malaysia, Nepal and Indonesia are among others closely associated with such
crimes. In India, like in most others countries in South Asia, poverty has been
the main reason for human trafficking.
Legal measures to
combat child trafficking are not stringent enough and State governments too are
not serious about enforcement measures. Take for example rape cases--these are rampant
in the country in spite of stringent laws, leading to nagging suspicion of a nexus
between investigating agencies, the police and State administration. Only
recently, an international organisation described India as the most dangerous
country for women. And while the Government has denied and rubbished the
report, it is confronted with the child abuse scandal.
How tough are the
country’s laws to safeguard women and children? The main legal provisions are
the Indian Penal Code 1860 with several stipulations to deal with the use of
criminal force against women and female children – Sections 354, 366, 366 A,
366 B (selling minors for prostitution), 373 (buying minors for the purpose of
prostitution) and 375. Unless enforcement is strengthened, legal provisions
have little value, thereby raising a demand among civil society to ensure a
lady officer and at least one official in each police station to deal with such
crimes.
Additionally, the Juvenile
Justice Act 2000 has had very little impact. The economic situation, lure for
money and a growing materialistic culture are also reasons for increase in
child abuse, especially among girls. Moreover, with a liberal culture spreading
in cities, free sex for money is on the rise. Besides, the National Crime
Records Bureau has spoken about the relationship of victims and accused in rape
cases.
A thin silver lining,
if we may call it, is that the Protection of Children Against Sexual Offences
Act of 2012 (POCSO) and Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, has been strengthened
recently to contain child rights’ violation. As a result, there has been a
corresponding increase in the number of child abuse cases filed, translating into
an increase in number of convictions. But this is still not enough. Bihar and
UP shelter homes have revealed that sexual abuse of the inmates was rampant,
making a mockery of the laws.
Sadly, shelter homes
instead of providing succour to destitute children have turned into centres of
sex trade. Perhaps, these need to be linked to schools which must be run by
trained staff and should have qualified counsellors and educators. This could
be considered by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, which has done well
by calling for social audit of all 9000-odd shelter homes in the country.
However, what comes
as a surprise is that it is novel order. Social audit, as per exiting recommendations
of the 2nd Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC), has been mandatory for
organisations and institutions that are government-aided and have a public
interface! Therefore, the Ministry must ensure that its instructions simply don’t
remain on paper and at the same time have the audit conducted by an independent
agency such as an academic body or a consultancy or research organisation so
that there is no political pressure.
This apart, the
Government must set up separate tribunals/fast courts for cases of sexual abuse
and impose severe penalties. It may also consider steps such as making moral
and sex education compulsory in schools and colleges; raise awareness of sexual
abuse through mass media; perpetrators
of such crimes be given psychological treatment and school teachers be trained
for detecting symptoms of sexual abuse among children. Extra effort would need
to be made to detect child abuse at home or by family members, as experts say this
is often a hidden phenomenon. At the same time, focus on child labour,
prostitution, any form of abuse in State-run institutions such as schools, or
aided homes needs to be sharper and all-encompassing.
It also goes without
saying that societal abuses which are a result of poverty, malnutrition, lack
of education, poor health, neglect need to be addressed. Since economic and
social conditions are inextricably linked together, child maltreatment prevention
programmes too must be widely publicised. The presence of social networks and a
stronger family support system could facilitate bring about awareness in prevention
of child abuse, be it any form.
However, other than
reforming the society, what is critical is a ‘child protection policy’, as
sought by the Supreme Court. How soon will the Centre be able to frame it and
will its provisions halt the inhuman and appalling incidents in shelter homes, is
the big question.---INFA
(Copyright, India News
& Feature Alliance)
|