Rachel Arora reports from Inda on child abuse:
There are millions of children in the world who are victims of child abuse in one way or the other. What does it take for someone to carry out such a horrendous crime? Children are vulnerable and they easily bestow their trust in others. Do those villains, who commit this gross act, ever feel ashamed or guilty? They not only devastate the trust of a child at such a tender age, but also crush his childhood.
Says Dr Rajat Mitra, director of Swanchetan, a well-known non-profit working for the cause of children, “Child abuse is a very serious crime and its implications are likely to be visible on a whole generation of children. A series of scripted violence and abuse will be cascaded by the victims if no one hears their cry soon. Parents are also responsible for letting their children suffer.”
But what can be done to prevent this? “There are no safe institutions or policies to defend the rights of the children. Awareness needs to be created on a large scale. If a child turns up for help, teachers must be equipped with the ability to handle such a situation. The mothers often feel scared to raise their voice if the criminal is the father or a close family member. The government will only take action when it is shaken up. We need to build public opinion and bring out the extent of abuse and trauma.”
I highly recommend reading the entire article by Rachel Arora. It goes into even more depth than the part I excerpted above. Plus, it uses specific stories of abused children.
Sadly, prosecutors have a hard time prosecuting child abuse, because children cannot provide reliable testimony. Worried adults can help prevent unreliable testimony by having a professional question their child on video tape. The more people that talk to the child about an incident before the child gives a testimony, the less reliable the testimony. Additionally, never use suggestive questioning; doing such makes any accusation of the child useless.
What do you think?
