Construct a sociological narrative on the increasing trend of child abuse in India. (UPSC CSE Mains 2018 - Sociology, Paper 2)
Child abuse is a social evil which has existed in our society since a long time. Children are vulnerable and need love, care, shelter, and protection from their caretakers for appropriate growth and development. Abuses against these tender beings often blight their childhood, leading to inability in reaching their full potential—both physically and mentally. Though child maltreatment has existed for many centuries, contemporary societies have either remained in denial or have been snail-paced to acknowledge them as issues. India houses the second largest child population—India houses 19% of the total children in the world and 18% among them are below 18 years.
A government of India survey showed that 53% of our children face some kind of abuse. The last decade has seen a gradual rise in the number of child abuse victims–8,804 in 2014, 14,930 cases in 2015. In a study conducted in Kerala, 35% of boys and 36% of girls below 18 had faced some kind of sexual abuse during their childhood. Children between 5 and 12 years were found to be more at risk. The most vulnerable among them were those homeless on the streets, children recruited for child labor, and those in institutional care. The various kinds of abuse are:
- Physical abuse
- Emotional abuse
- Sexual abuse
- Neglect
- Fabricated or induced illnesses
- Societal abuse
Social reasons such as general preference of boys could also lead to the selective neglect of girls leading to their abuse. Other common social evils such as poverty, illiteracy, caste system, lack of family planning, etc., also contribute to the intensity of the abuse and its ill effects. Increase in urbanization with a recent trend of preferring nuclear families has shown to increase the stress levels in families, and a lack of adequate support structure due to the same—leading to creating an environment amenable for abuse. Female sex, physical disability, low intelligence quotient, behavioral disorders, maternal illiteracy, maladaptive maternal personality traits, young mothers, parents involved in anti-social activities such as drug abuse, and unwanted pregnancy were the recognized risk factors.
- Comprehensive Framework calling for prioritising prevention activities against abuse, creating safe online environments for children, besides calling on all with a role to protect children to work together to dramatically improve the response.
- Developing a comprehensive outreach system to engage parents, schools, communities, NGO partners and local governments as well as police and lawyers to ensure better implementation of the legal framework, policies, national strategies and standards.
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