Expert says mother’s love, awareness in schools can help solve problem
SHILLONG: One out of every four children in India is a victim of abuse and in 95 per cent of the cases the perpetrators are from within the family and known to the child, show reports of the UN International Children’s Emergency Fund, WHO and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
Radha Saini, Fellow at Union for International Cancer Control (UICC), told media persons that “most paedophiles are either family members or close relatives” for whom luring a child with gifts is easier.
Saini was speaking at the one-day seminar on ‘Throbbing pain, invisible scars and stoic silence – Child abuse: A multi-disciplinary approach’, at Anton Hall on Friday. It was organised by the faculty of Rapsbun School of Nursing and co-sponsored by Indian Council of Medical Research.
“However, not even 10 percent of the cases are registered with the police as many of them don’t go to police stations due to guilt, shame and keeping in mind the honour of the family. They might not even know about the awareness strategies or the laws behind that,” she said.
Enumerating the different forms of child abuse and their impact on the fragile psychology of victims, Saini said, “Child abuse ranges from physical abuse, emotional neglect, sexual abuse and even corporal punishment, pornographic or digital abuse like on social networking sites like Facebook and Youtube. Several pornographic materials are being shown on the internet which is basically driving our child psychology.”
All pornographic materials lure children to experimentation. Adolescence is a dangerous age and emotional upsurge due to hormonal change, peer group influence and pornographic materials on mass media deviate child psychology and “they themselves practice all these things and they have the tendency to turn to substance and drug abuse”, she said and added that metropolitan areas have high number of child abuses as parents leave their children with servants.
As solution, Saini stressed on compulsory education of children on “dirty touch, therapeutic touch and gentle touch” in schools. “In India we teach students to respect elders. But we don’t teach them the meaning of good, bad, sexism, therapeutic and communication touches. Nevertheless, if the child is resisting the overtures or bodily reactions of an elderly person, it needs to be seen and noted and it is an area of high concern,” she said.
According to her information, education and communication, guidance to anganwadis, are needed to disseminate information on child abuse.
Referring to research on criminal psychology in India, Saini pointed out that most of those who get into the dark world of crime “were deprived of maternal love”. An abused child either goes into depression or develops post-traumatic stress disorder “and they tend to develop anti-social behaviour”.
Talking about the role of a mother in developing a child’s psychology, Saini said, “Every ante natal mother needs to be given a very good environment – physical, mental and spiritual – for the formation of a healthy child.”
Children should be taught the meaning of tolerance and perseverance so that they grow up into good human beings. Also, mother’s love and bonding is necessary in the first six years of a child’s life, Saini pointed out.
Deputy Commissioner of East Khasi Hills PS Dkhar admitted that the trend of child abuse is increasing but mentioned that there is a need to focus on the legal aspects. “How the legal aspect will play a role here, which is an important issue as academicians that need to deliberate in. To what extend we can help and approach the law to address the issues,” he said.
“The trend (of child abuse) keeps increasing and looks like there is no end as people can do anything they want and go scot-free. This creates a fear and what we can do to control it, the workshop will focus on these issues to enlighten on the aspects of abuses,” he added.