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Mansi Choudhary, RSLW Rajasthan
Date: 20.04.2022
PRESENT SCENARIO OF CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE IN INDIA
Introduction
The
inappropriate use of a child’s sexuality by many means, for example production
of child pornography, sexual intercourse, bad touch, child grooming, sexual
exploitation of a child and many more, comes under Child Sexual Abuse[1].
It is also termed as Child molestation. CSA is a criminal offence which is
mostly done by an adult or an adolescent against a minor child. Under the
Indian Penal Code, Section 376 describes the sexual abuse as a criminal offence
which includes the sexual abuse against a minor also. The Protection of
Children from Sexual Offences (POSCO) act of 2012 is completely devoted to this
social evil. There many factors which leads to CSA like poverty, lack of
education, child marriage. According to
UNICEF “Child marriage represents perhaps the most prevalent form of sexual
abuse and exploitation of girls.”[2]
World Health Organization described CSA as follows,“ It includes a child
who is unable to give consent, under
compulsion, fear or any other
circumstances, not prepared
physically, mentally or
emotionally for sexual
activities, any illegal
activity, other activity which
not relates with
the moral values
of the society,
child trafficking, child prostitution, child pornography, and
many other similar acts, which are done against the will of the child in it”.[3]
This research paper includes the causes, effects, laws of the social evil “Child Sexual Abuse”. In depth study of the present scenario in India regarding the same is also depicted in the research paper. The main topic which are covered in the present scenario are abuses during the pandemic, present state of knowledge, estimated incident rates, data and various other remarkable topics related to the topic.
Effects of CSA
A child sexual abuse sufferer faces so many difficulties in their lives, from the mental one to the physical one. This section of the paper talks about the same. Some of these effects are presented below:
1. Psychological effects: According to the studies, 51% to 79% of the sexually abused children are found to exhibit psychological symptoms. This kind of assault can give a life time trauma. There has been many long term and short term psychopathology effects faced by the accused like, self-esteem[4], anxiety disorders, depression, sleep disturbances[5], eating disorders and many more including the post-traumatic stress disorders. CSA also result in the pregnancy many a times, which causes a grist amount of stress and mental trauma.
2. Interpersonal relationships: Sexual abuses affect the intimate and platonic relations of the sufferer. After facing something like this they find it difficult to talk to their friends, partners in most of the cases.[6]
3. Physical health: The sexual abuse against a minor caused injuries and infections. Injuries like bleeding, internal lacerations, these even caused deaths in some cases. Sexually transmitted diseases[7] remained a main infection in CSA.
4. Education/ later life: For many, education a work became the escape from their sufferings but in a report it was seen that their future life, their grades, their whole future is affected by the trauma of CSA.
Recent cases of CSA
The CBI registered around 23 recent cases against 83[8] accused persons, many of which are related to the online sexual abuse. So far, the CBI has identified over 50 groups, which were sharing material related to the child sexual abuse.
Some of the recent cases are being discussed in the following part of this section:
·
Manoj
Tyagi Monu v. State (Govt. of NCT, Delhi)[9]
In this case, the supreme court judge implied the laws of the POSCO act in relation to the case framed against him qua alleged commission which is punishable under section 10 of the POSCO act, 2012.
·
Kmlesh
Vaswani Petitioner v. Union of India and Ors.[10]
This was a case of child pornography dated in the year of 2016. After the accused was proved to be guilty court adopted few measures to improve the law in the field of child pornography, which is a type of CSA.
POSCO ACT, 2012
The
Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 is a legal act introduced
with the aim of protecting the children of India from criminal offences and to
provide them a judicial mechanism which is child friendly. It ensures at most
security of children in India. According
to a survey conducted in the year of 2017 by World Vision Organization[11],
it was seen that every second child was some or the other type of sexual
assault. After the coming of POSCO act, 2012; in an another report produced by
the Economic Intelligence Unit named “2019 Economic Intelligence Unit Report”, India
was the highest ranked among 60 countries, which all were surveyed. The report rated
legal framework of India for the child abuse protection. In this survey, India left behind top 3 countries
in having the best environment in the case of children; they were Sweden,
Australia and United kingdom. The pandemic gave rise even more sexual abuse
cases mainly, by the means of social media. Here are some key features briefly
described in this section of the research paper.
·
POSCO is a gender-
neutral law: Wherever the sections are described talking about the sufferer, it
is mentioned as ‘any person’ below the age of 18 years, instead of mentioning
any gender.
·
There is no time limit to
report an abuse: it was observed by the union ministry of law and justice that
due to the trauma of getting sexually abused, people get time to take decision
of filing a complaint. Therefore, the rule is to complaint at any time.
·
Identity: section 23 of
the POSCO act ensures that the identity of the victim does not get disclosed.
Punishment is given for the violation of this section.
·
If a person don’t report
an abuse, even after being aware of the same, he/she would be punished under
section 21 of the POSCO act.
·
Some of the important
POSCO rules are that persons who are allowed to contact the sufferer regarding
the case, need to get periodically verified by the police and the protection
policy of zero tolerance is need to follow. If not followed, strict punishments
are to be given to the wrongdoer.
Key features of the present scenario of CSA in India
This
section mentions almost all the key points about the CSA in context of India
briefly.
·
According to the reports
of the National study on the topic, it is found that India comes in the list of
countries, register most of the child sexual abuse cases in the world.
According to the report, found that 20.90% of the total children in our country
faces the offence of CSA. From which, 50% of the sexual abuses are done by
their acquaintances only which included their trustworthy people like relatives,
parents, friends, neighbors etc.
· According to the study of United Nations International Children Education Fund during 2005-2013, stated that 42% of CSA are committed against the girl I the country of India.[12] Boys were also almost equally effected and more than 20% of those faced some severe forms sexual abuse which included exhibiting private parts, assault etc.
·
In India, there is also a
delay in medical treatment of sexually abused children which resulted in
various threat and stress to the family of accused and the sufferer
himself/herself.
·
CSA is different in India
than all the other countries as the causes of the same different. India the
main caused remained poverty and child marriage, which don’t take place in the
developed countries like united state, Japan etc. therefore, people see CSA in
India differently.
· Sexual assault takes place more in rural areas than the urban one. this causes a sense of distinction. There are some cities in India, which report more CSA rates than the other cities, which makes them high risk cities. This causes an major effect on the intervention, education and prevention.
·
Child Sexual Abuses don’t
come alone, they bring with them other physical and mental problems, making it
more difficult to overcome the trauma.
·
Prevention requires given
of complete awareness about the CSA. It needs to make the changes in the family,
society, community, state and national level. Children should be prioritize in
the context. Enforcement of law and NGOs must be proper. POSCO act is a perfect
example of it.
Conclusion
The
research paper is about the concept of, “Present Scenario of Child Sexual Abuse”,
a vast topic to study every inch. This research paper is written with the aim
of covering at most concepts, laws etc of CSA. In making, the author used
secondary data for the research work to meet the requirements. The research
paper used descriptive and analytic methods to cover the important topics of
CSA like, the meaning of the term CSA,
their effects, an important law made to provide justice to the victims of CSA,
which includes, POSCO act and the key features including the statistics of the
CSA in India.
[1] “Child Sexual
Abuse”. Medline Plus. U.S. National Library of Medicine. 2008-04-02
[2] “UNICEF”
(PDF). unicef.org
[3]WHO, Report of the
Consultation on child abuse prevention (WHO/HSC/PVI/99.1) WHO; Geneva
(Switzerland) : 1999. Available at:
https://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?title=Report+of+the+consultation+on+child+abuse+prevention+(WHO/HSC/PVI/99.1)&publication_year=1999
[4] Walsh, K.; DiLillo, D.
(2011). “Child sexual abuse and adolescent sexual assault and
revictimization”. In Paludi, Michael A. (ed.). The psychology of teen
violence and victimization. Vol. 1. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger. pp. 203–216.
ISBN 978-0-313-39375-4.
[5] Noll, J. G., Trickett,
P. K., Susman, E. J., & Putnam, F. W. (2006). “Sleep disturbances and
childhood sexual abuse”. Journal of Pediatric Psychology. 31 (5): 469–480.
doi:10.1093/jpepsy/jsj040. PMID 15958722
[6] Anderson, James;
Mangels, Nancie; Langsam, Adam (2004). “Child Sexual Abuse: A Public
Health Issue”. The Justice Professional. 17: 107–126.
doi:10.1080/08884310420001679386. S2CID 144058326.
[7] De Jong AR (1985). “Vaginitis due to Gardnerella vaginalis and
to Candida albicans in sexual abuse”. Child Abuse & Neglect. 9 (1):
27–9. doi:10.1016/0145-2134(85)90088-2. PMID 3872154.
[8] https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/cbi-searches-in-14-states-in-connection-with-child-sexual-abuse-case/article37516913.ece
[9] Crl.A. No. 93 of 2019 & Crl.M(Bail).No. 168 of 2019
[10] (2014) 6 SSC 705.
[11]Ray A. 42% of Indian girls are sexually abused before 19: UNICEF. [updated 2014 Sep 12; cited 2021 Jan 22]. Available from:
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