Academic Script

CHILD ABUSE

INTRODUCTION
In this section, let us discus on child abuse. Child abuse is one among the social problem
which has little attention towards it in India. However, in India, as in many other countries, there
has been no understanding of the extent, magnitude and trends of the problem. The growing
complexities of life and the dramatic changes brought about by socio-economic transitions in
India have played a major role in increasing the vulnerability of children to various and newer
forms of abuse. Child abuse is a violation of the basic human rights of a child and is an outcome
of a set of inter-related familial, social, psychological and economic factors.

DEFINITION OF CHILD ABUSE

First, Let us understand the concept child abuse. Child abuse is a state of emotional,
physical, economic and sexual maltreatment meted out to a person below the age of eighteen and
is a globally prevalent phenomenon. From this, it is clear that a child is abused through different
ways such as emotional, physical, sexual and economic and the victim is who is below the age of
eighteen years. The term 'Child Abuse' may have different connotations in different cultural
milieu and socio-economic situations. A universal definition of child abuse in the Indian context
does not exist and has yet to be defined. According to WHO (World Health Organization),
''Child abuse or maltreatment constitutes all forms of physical and/or emotional ill-treatment,
sexual abuse, neglect or negligent treatment or commercial or other exploitation, resulting in
actual or potential harm to the child's health, survival, development or dignity in the context of a
relationship of responsibility, trust or power.'' Child abuse not only means ill-treatment of
children but also includes negligent treatment. For example, in our society, girl children are
neglected and given little importance, it is also a kind of child abuse.

TYPES OF ABUSES
Physical Abuse:
As we have seen in the definition of child abuse, child abuse is widespread in different
forms. It includes physical, sexual and emotional abuse. The World Health Organization defines
'physical abuse' of a child as an incident resulting in actual or potential physical harm from an
interaction or lack of interaction, which is reasonably within the control of a parent or person in a
position of responsibility, power, or trust. There may be single or repeated incidents.
Social scientists have developed certain indicators for identifying physical abuse. Indicators
of the physical abuse are as follows:
 Bite marks
 Unusual bruises
 Lacerations
 Burns
 High incidence of accidents or frequent injuries
 Fractures in unusual places
 Injuries, swellings on face and extremities
 Discoloration of skin
A physically abused child not only shows signs of physical indicators but also shows behavioural
indicators. Behavioural indicators of the child includes

 Avoids physical contact with others

 Apprehensive when other children cry
 Wears clothing to purposely conceal injury, i.e. long sleeves
 Gives inconsistent versions about occurrence of injuries, burns, etc.
 Seems frightened by parents
 Often late or absent from school
 Comes early to school, seems reluctant to go home afterwards
 Has difficulty getting along with others,
 Little respect for others

In a study titled ‘Child abuse: India 2007’ on child abuse conducted by the ministry of
women and child development, revealed that almost 89% of the children were subjected to
physical abuse by parents, who have the primary responsibility of protecting their children and
also two out of every three children are physically abused. The Indian society, like most societies
across the world, is patriarchal in structure where the chain of command is definite and
inviolable. In such power structures parents, both fathers and mothers, consider their children as
their property and assume a freedom to treat them as they like. Evidences suggest that sometimes
it is parent's inability to raise their children, and their frustrations find a manifestation in the form
of beating them or causing other physical harm. In 14.83% of the respondents, the physical abuse
resulted in swelling or bleeding or causing serious physical injury.
 Severe physical maltreatment also takes place outside family situations and the most
common and known forms of it are corporal punishment in schools and physical abuse at work
place. The study also exposed that very high percentage of corporal punishment was reported in
government and municipal schools. Majority of the respondents, i.e., 68.99% reported physical
abuse, out of which most of the respondents (54.68%) were boys. Data indicated that more boys
reported physical abuse as compared to girls. Moreover, the highest percentage of physical abuse
in children (13-14 years) was reported from Uttar Pradesh (37.42%) followed by Mizoram
(30.74%).
Thus, not only do parents and teachers adopt harsh methods of disciplining children,
there is also little opposition to this harshness. The underlying belief is that physical punishment
encourages discipline in children and is for their betterment in the long-run. The analysis of the
report discloses that the young adults were in favour of abusive forms of punishment to children
as a method of discipline. This is a disturbing finding as the cycle of abuse will get perpetrated, if
this mindset continues.
Physical abuse, whether it is called disciplining or venting of personal frustrations, the
fact is that it is a grave violation of children's right to live with dignity and freedom from
violence, their right to be loved and cared for and their right to be nurtured with respect.

Sexual Abuse:
As defined by the World Health Organization, child sexual abuse is the involvement of a
child in sexual activity that he or she does not fully comprehend, is unable to give informed
consent to, or that violates 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 being intended to gratify or satisfy the
needs of the other person. This may include but is not limited to:
 The inducement or coercion of a child to engage in any unlawful activity
 The exploitative use of a child in prostitution or other unlawful sexual practices
 The exploitative use of children in pornographic performances and materials

Every second young adults had been sexually abused during their childhood. But the
subject of child sexual abuse is still a taboo in India. There is a conspiracy of silence around the
subject and a very large percentage of people feel that this is a largely western problem and that
child sexual abuse does not happen in India. Part of the reason of course lies in a traditional
conservative family and community structure that does not talk about sex and sexuality at all.
Parents do not speak to children about sexuality as well as physical and emotional changes that
take place during their growing years.

As a result of this, all forms of sexual abuse that a child faces do not get reported to
anyone. The silence of parents and caretakers encourage the abuser so that he is emboldened to
continue the abuse and to press his advantage to subject the child to more severe forms of sexual
abuse. Very often children do not even realize that they are being abused. In a study on Women's
Experiences of Incest and Childhood Sexual Abuse conducted by RAHI (Recovering and Healing
from Incest), some of the respondents have stated that till the questionnaire was administered to
them they did not realize that they had been abused as children. They had buried the incident as a
painful and shameful one not to be ever told to anyone. Child abuse: India 2007 also exposes that
72.1% of children did not report sexual abuse that they had suffered to anyone.
However this fear is only around girls and the safety net is generally not extended to
boys. There is evidence from this report as well as other studies that boys are equally at risk. Of
the respondents, more males (58.33%) faced one or other forms of sexual assault as compared to
females (41.67%), during their childhood. Assam reported the highest incidence of sexual abuse
of both boys and girls. Goa reported the lowest incidence of sexual abuse in both boys and girls
which is not in line with the general perception. Children on streets, children at work reported the
highest incidence of sexual assault.
It is worrying to know that the perpetrators are the ones who are not strangers to the
victims. They are acquaintances of the victims and are in a position to protect the children. 50%
of the abusers were cousins, uncles and friends and class fellows. The highest percentage of
children reported such abuse by friends and class fellows followed by uncles and neighbours.

Emotional Abuse
Emotional and psychological maltreatment of children is the most complex type of abuse
- invisible and difficult to define. Emotional abuse is also known as verbal abuse, mental abuse,
and psychological maltreatment. It includes acts or the failures to act by parents or caretakers
that have caused or could cause, serious behavioural, cognitive, emotional, or mental trauma.
This can include parents/caretakers using extreme and/or bizarre forms of punishment, such as
confinement in a closet or dark room or being tied to a chair for long periods of time or
threatening or terrorizing a child. Less severe acts, but no less damaging, are belittling or
rejecting treatment, using derogatory terms to describe the child, habitual tendency to blame the
child or make him/her a scapegoat. In India there is no clear cut perception of the extent of the
emotional abuse and neither is their clarity on the damaging effects of continuous emotional
abuse on the psyche of children.
 Child Abuse: India 2007 study has made known that every second child reported that
they are being emotionally abused. In Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Delhi and Rajasthan, the
percentage of boys reporting humiliation was significantly high. In Delhi, 87% of the female
young adults reported facing one or more forms of emotional abuse during their childhood. In
83% of the cases parents were the abusers.
The study has not examined the impact or the effects of the abuse on children; however,
it is clear that this is an area that requires detailed study and analysis. Getting factual data on
emotional abuse is a difficult task as children often do not understand that they are undergoing
emotional abuse. While the indicators of emotional abuse are not as visible or quantifiable as
those of physical and sexual abuse, the fact that every second child, whether boy or girl,
perceives himself or herself as emotionally abused, is a cause of concern. Further, a lot of
indicators of emotional abuse are culturally accepted ways of disciplining a child and are
therefore not perceived to be an abuse by adults, parents or caregiver.
It is the failure to provide for the child's basic needs. Neglect can be physical, educational, or
emotional. Physical neglect can include not providing adequate food or clothing, appropriate
medical care, supervision, or proper weather protection (heat or cold). It may include
abandonment. Educational neglect includes failure to provide appropriate schooling or special
educational needs, allowing excessive truancies. Psychological neglect includes the lack of any
emotional support and love, never attending to the child, substance abuse including allowing the
child to participate in drug and alcohol use.
Indicators of neglect includes
 Lack of attention to girls as compared to brothers
 Less share of food in the family
 Sibling care by the girl child
 Gender discrimination
As it has been said earlier, in our society even in 21st century boy children are given
importance than girl children. According to the data, 48.4% of girls wished they were boys. It
represents how still our society favours strong son preferences. 70% of the girls did household
work and 49% of the girls took care of their siblings. This is indicative of the fact that these girls
are deprived of developmental opportunities.

Causes of abuse
Now, let us move on to the causes of abuse. There are various causes which encourage the child
abusers to carry out such inhuman acts. Let us see the causes of different forms of abuses one by
one.
Physical
The dominant causes of battering children were found as:
 children constantly disobeying parents,
 quarrels between the parents and the child beaten as scapegoat,
 child not taking interest in studies,
 child spending most of his time away from home,
 child refusing to go to earn a livelihood,
 child frequently fighting with siblings,
 child frequently playing truant from school,
 child refusing to hand over his total earnings to his parents/guardians,
 receiving complaints of misbehavior from outsiders and
 child indulging in deviant behaviour like theft, smoking etc.
Sexual
The causes of sexual abuse mostly given are:
 conflict between parents and weakening of inhibitions leading to neglect of the children,
 absence of affectionate parent-child relationship within the family that fails to give
support and protection to child,
 alcoholism of the earning male member and his lack of accountability,
 lack of adequate control on the children,
 illicit relations of the mother with some man and paramour’s hold on his mistress,
 dominance of stepfather,
 social isolation of the family and the
 psychological disorders of the abusers.
Emotional
Important causes of emotional abuse can be identified:
 poverty,
 ‘deficient’ parental control and non-cordial relations within family,
 maltreatment faced by parents in their own childhood or intergenerational transmission of
child maltreatment, and
 alcoholism of parents.

Effects of abuse on children

The consequences of child abuse on the victim are likely to have a far reaching effect.
Bolton and Bolton (1987) have identified eight possible effects of abuse on children, namely,
self-devaluation, dependency, mistrust, revictimization, withdrawal from people, emotional
trauma, deviant behaviour, and interpersonal problems.
Kewalramani in his study of child abuse lays down the effect of abuse on children in five
significant areas. The first is the loss of self-esteem. Abused children develop a negative view of
themselves. Children have no choice but to accept the perpetrators’ abuse. The individual who
maltreats them is their own parent so they cannot run away. Similarly, they have to tolerate their
caretakers’ and employers’ hostility because of their poverty and their dependence on them.
The second effect is on dependency. It was found that a child’s dependency is shifted
from parents/caretakers to teachers for the gratification of all his/her needs. The third effect is on
deviant behaviour. It was found that abuse had a great effect on a child’s conformity to socio-
cultural expectations and a large number of the victimized children were compelled to indulge in
activities that violated the social norms or which are labeled as ‘deviance’. The fourth effect is
on social and interpersonal problems. Kewalramani’s study revealed that child abuse results in
poor communication and coping ability, failure in developing intimacy and social relationships,
mistrust, isolation and withdrawal from interactional settings.

Conclusion:
The increasing number of study on child abuse is expected to place the subject of child
abuse on the national agenda. This has created an environment wherein discussion on child abuse
has been initiated, the media has started highlighting such issues and an understanding of their
gravity is gaining momentum. This understanding must be translated into action, and not only the
central government, but state governments, civil society, families and children themselves need
to understand the rights perspective and together create the enabling environment wherein a child
is protected from abuse and exploitation. The momentum needs to be sustained and should be
carried forward in the form of a movement that will take all stakeholders along the road to
sustainable development and create a protective environment for the children of India. The
primary responsibility of protecting children from abuse and neglect lies with the families or the
primary caregivers. However, communities and civil society and all others are also responsible
for the care and protection of children. The overarching responsibility is that of the state and it is
the state that has to create a protective environment and provide a safety net for children who fall
into vulnerable and exploitative situations.
We need to put forward certain suggestions to deal with the existing problem of child
abuse. The following recommendations for addressing the issue of child abuse and girl child
neglect are proposed by the Ministry of Women and Child Development (2007):

GENERAL RECOMMENDATIONS

Outreach and Support Services:

The Child Abuse: India 2007 study has revealed that the majority of abuse cases take
place within the family environment, the perpetrators being close family relatives. A child who
has been abused or continues to be in an abusive situation, needs a variety of services, including
professional help in the form of trauma counseling, medical treatment, police intervention and
legal support. Such a system should be established under the scheme on child protection. Further,
the existing Child line service providing emergency outreach services to children in difficult
circumstances should be expanded.
Tracking Missing Children:
Children go missing for a number of different reasons. Difficult and abuse situations at
home often force children to run away; economic compulsions make them move to urban and
semi-urban areas in search of a living; and sometimes they are trafficked for domestic work,
other forms of labour or commercial sexual exploitation. Annually, large numbers of children go
missing and there is little attempt to track them or trace them. Such children are most vulnerable
to all forms of abuse and exploitation.
Shared Responsibility:
Child protection is a shared responsibility, and for any intervention to be effective there
should be a synergy between efforts being made by public to address the issues. There is a need
to create a mechanism that will make such a synergy possible. These may include child
protection mechanisms at village, block, district and state levels which involve parents, elected
representatives of urban and rural local bodies, teachers, anganwadi workers, medical
practitioners, police and social workers and responsible members of public among others.
Gender Equity:
Equity is possible if social norms ensure that the girl child lives in a non-abusive
environment in which she is cared for and respected. Discrimination of girls results in their lower
enrollment in schools, higher levels of malnutrition, trafficking of girls for sexual exploitation,
child marriage and their non-participation in decision-making in the family etc. These
imbalances need to be addressed by bringing about attitudinal changes in people regarding the
value of the girl child. Focus should be on elimination of discrimination and abuse of girls and
on creating awareness of existing legislations.
Advocacy and Awareness:
The media should be used to spread awareness on child rights. Debates and discussions
with participation of children can be a regular feature on electronic media in order to enhance
people's knowledge and sensitivity on child protection issues. While media coverage of child
protection issues is desirable, it is essential that the coverage is done in such a way that it
prescribes to high ethical standards of reporting such as avoiding disclosure of the identity of the
child victim to reduce the child's trauma and prevent re-victimization of the child. It is also
essential to obtain informed consent of the child in cases of reporting. All these measures will
protect the child from the stigma attached to abuse and prevent sensationalization of the issue.
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and media self regulatory authorities should take
necessary action to develop ethical standards for the media and to implement them.