Child Abuse : A Curse !!

Child Abuse : Definition

India
At present there is no single, specific definition on child abuse in India. The definition of child abuse can be gleaned from a number of articles in the Constitution.

UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
Article 191. State parties shall take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to protect the child from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation including sexual abuse, while in the care of the parent(s),legal guardian(s) or any other person who has the care of the child.

U.K.
"A child is considered to be abused if he/she is treated in a way that is unacceptable in a given culture at a given time. The last two clauses are important because not only are children treated differently in different cultures, but also within a country... There are variations of opinions of what constitutes abuse of children" - The ABC of Child Sexual Abuse by Roy Meadows

USA
Federal Law definition. The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act defines child abuse and neglect as "the physical or mental injury, sexual abuse or exploitation, negligent treatment, or maltreatment

* of a child under the age of 18, or except in the case of sexual abuse, the age specified by the child protection law of the State
* by a person (including any employee of a residential facility or any staff person providing out-of-home care) who is responsible for the child's welfare
* under circumstances which indicate that the child's health or welfare is harmed or threatened thereby
* the withholding of medically indicated treatment for disabled infants with life-threatening conditions. The Act "...the failure to respond to the infant's life-threatening conditions by providing treatment (including appropriate nutrition, hydration, and medication) which in the treating physician's or physicians reasonable medical judgement, will most likely be effective in ameliorating or correcting all such conditions.


Child Abuse : Forms of Child Abuse

Overview
Child Abuse in India takes various forms. Often, cases of Child Abuse are not reported or considered serious. This makes it difficult to understand the real dimension of the issue.

Neglect
Child neglect is largely characterized by the willful delay/failure to provide for the child's basic needs. Neglect can be physical, educational, or emotional. It is very important to distinguish between neglect and a parent's or caretaker's failure to provide necessities of life because of poverty or cultural norms. This is especially critical in a country where a large part of the population lives below the poverty line. To accept in toto the definition of abuse and neglect, without taking into consideration, existing cultural norms, can result in a lot of conflict and misunderstanding.

Physical
Physical abuse is characterized by physical injury (for example, bruises and fractures) resulting from punching, beating, kicking, biting, burning, or otherwise harming a child. Any injury resulting from physical punishment that requires medical treatment can be considered abnormal and abusive

Mental
Failure to provide the child with adequate exposre to education and learning and/or catering to a special educational need when the available facilities are not made use of for no apparent reason

Verbal
Subjecting the child to constant abuse by nature of calling the child a variety of hurtful names such as ‘stupid’, ‘fatty’ etc

Emotional
Emotional abuse is the most difficult form of child maltreatment to identify. Emotional abuse includes acts such as scapegoating and belittling or omissions –as in never praising the child or withholding love, by the parents or other persons responsible for the child's care. This kind of abuse can cause, or could have caused, serious behavioral, cognitive, emotional, or mental disorders.

Sexual Abuse
Child sexual abuse (CSA) can be defined as any sexual act committed by an adult on a child for the purpose of the adult’s gratification. CSA includes a wide range of behavior

CSA is present in a number of forms, some are more physical in nature and therefore more obvious, others are more insidious and does the same if not greater damage. It is possible that there may be other forms of abuse that have not been mentioned here.


Sexual Molestation
Usually not physically stressful to the child. It includes petting, fondling, kissing, mutual masturbation, verbal sexual abuse and innuendo.

Rape
In Indian society rape is categorised by penile penetration in both heterosexuality and homosexuality.

Incest
Believed to be the most common form of CSA in India, it is inclusive of the above two forms of CSA. Given the Indian attitude towards familial loyalty, it is the most difficult to prosecute.

* 63% of girls in Delhi, have experienced child sexual abuse at the hands of a family member (Sakshi, 1997).
* In a study of a 1000 girls from 5 different states in India, (Rahi, 1997), 50% of the girls said that they had been abused when under 12 years of age, 35% had been abused between the ages of 12- 16 years of age. The average sex offender has 76 victims. (American data.)

Sodomy
There is no legislation to cover sexual molestation of boys. Unnatural offences is used to cover the rape of boys

Commercial Sexual Exploitation(CSE)
Essentially the prostitution of children and quite often also includes the trafficking of children.

* There are 50,000 children in prostitution, in India
* One million children are trafficked into prostitution, in Asia every year (WHO).

Pornography
This method is steadily on the increase. It involves the use of children to produce pornographic material.

Sex tourism
Involves the use of children for sexual gratification. Very common along the southern and southwestern regions of India.

Net crimes
Gives information on how to access children who have been forced into sexual activity from around the world.

Child Marriage
It is very common in rural India and can only be prosecuted when the husband of the child is an adult. According to law, a child marriage is recognised by law, inorder to protect te girl cild who has been forced into the marriage and children born out of the union. However those who arrange the marriage are liable for prosecution.

Child Labour
There are over 15 million children in bonded labour, in India today. Twice as many girls than boys engaged in child labour.

Female Infanticide
The custom of infanticide seems to be motivated by the relative economic backwardness and the social importance of males. The practice of dowry further lowers the economic value of the female child and is one of the major factors contributing to female infanticide.

Female Genital Mutilation
Is the removal of the clitoris in a female infant. Orthodox women believe the girl will be wracked by sexual desire if the clitoris is not scraped off. The crude operation often leads to infection, abscesses, infertility and painful sex. Contrary to popular belief there is no religious sanction for this barbaric practice.


Child Abuse : Causes & Prevention

Causes
Well after defining child abuse and listing and understanding the various forms of abuse, the next question to be considered is "What causes a child to be abused? Was the abuser a parent under a lot of stress, Why did the father rape his daughter? Did the child provoke the parent?" Child abuse is most often, not the result of a single mitigating factor, rather, it is a combination of multiple forces acting on/or within the family that acts on the abuser(s) resulting in an act of child abuse. It is important to note here that listing possible causes of child abuse, in no way meant to negate the effects of child abuse and definitely, not to excuse it.

The tricky part in handling families where child abuse is to remember not to generalize and draw broad conclusions. This is important because certain factors are present among families where maltreatment occurs, but this does not mean that the presence of these factors will always result in child abuse and neglect and the absence of them means there is no abuse. Professionals who have a responsibility for intervening in cases of child maltreatment must recognize the multiple causes of the problem and treat each case individually. Besides which differences in cultures, and variations in opinion and behaviours, even within the same city must be taken into account and respected, within limits. What might be considered abusive in one country, family, may not be considered in the same way by anther. For example, in India corporal punishment, within bounds, is accepted as appropriate punishment for children, however, this would be looked askance at in America.

One of the most consistent finding in child abuse literature is that maltreating parents often report having been physically, sexually, or emotionally abused or neglected as children. This does not mean that al abused children have grown up or will grow up to be abusive parents. Abusive parents may be characterized by emotional disturbances and inappropriate behaviour patterns, but, mental illness plays a very small overall role in child maltreatment. Substance abuse, has become an increasing problem. While in the past alcoholism was the most common substance abused at home, today most drugs are freely available and are often consumed within the home itself. Children who are socially isolated are often felt to be at higher risk for all types of maltreatment. For example, a child who does not have a close relationship with his/her mother and has few or no friends may be more susceptible to offers of attention and affection in exchange for sexual activities. In families where there are problems like domestic violence, financial stress, the likelihood of maltreatment, is higher. These factors may or may not, in themselves, result in maltreatment but they could contribute to exacerbating the situation.

Prevention
This is a major area, in which there is a lot of work being done worldwide. The idea behind this is that responding, reacting or treating Child Abuse is far from the best approach to handling the issue. Prevention aims at the long-term results in curbing Child Abuse. In India, too, a lot of NGO work is related to the Prevention of Child Abuse. At present though India still has a long way to go in coming up with her own strategies to prevent child abuseMany professional in India now recognize the importance of developing effective prevention strategies and are focusing on this aspect of the issue of Child Abuse. Students in related fields can draw from the presentation below, while studying the entire aspect of prevention. . Given below is a brief summary of the prevention strategies practiced in the USA.


Child Abuse : Community Based Prevention

A number of community-based family support initiatives have been proposed or developed to strengthen families and prevent child maltreatment. These could be instituted through the organisations that the family depends on for services such as day-care, recreation, shelter, emergency assistance, etc.

* self-help and mutual aid groups to provide nonjudgmental support and assistance to troubled families;
* strengthening natural support networks to provide families with a supportive network of informal "helpers" and community resources;
* child care programs/respite care to reduce the stress employed parents experience, and provide positive modeling and contact for parents and children;
* programs for children in self-care to reduce the emotional and physical risks which "latchkey" children may face;
* programs that address the impact of lack of resources on children and families such as the lack of adequate shelter, nutrition, and health care; and
* public education and media campaigns to increase public knowledge and awareness about important issues in the prevention of child abuse and neglect.

Source : IndianNGO