Child Abuse – Endangering our Future

Children are believed to be a boon of God in India. However, as of the data provided by the National Crime Record Bureau, 109 children were abused daily in India in the year 2018. 32,608 cases of child sexual abuse were reported in the year 2017 and 39,827 cases were reported in 2018. Considering overall crimes against children, a total of 1,41,764 cases were reported in 2018 in India. The cases being reported have increased drastically over decades. And its safe to assume there will be many unreported happening too. 

So, what do we mean by Child abuse? Child abuse is any act or negligence on the part of an individual that creates a sever threat to life and development of the child. It can be any actual harm to the child may it be in form of physical, emotional or sexual. Child abuse can have very prolonged physical, emotional and social impacts on the life of the child. As we can see form the given statistics, child abuse is very prevalent in the Indian society, may it be in form of crime or religious traditions. Child abuse can happen anywhere, at schools, hospital, foster homes, home or even on any online platform. Child abuse is classified into four sections-Physical, Emotional, Sexual and Neglect. 

1. Physical Child Abuse – Any type of mistreatment that can cause physical harm to the child comes under this classification. It maybe the work of the parent, guardian o any individual. Excessive punishing, Beating, forced labour, bullying, etc comes under this classification. Irrespective of the motive, the resultant injuries are considered as child abuse. 

2. Emotional Child Abuse – It is considered as emotional abuse if the act results in harming the psychological and emotional development of a child. Such abuse is often difficult to know unless reported by the victim. It can include isolating the child, constantly abusing the child, verbally bullying the child, blackmailing, etc. Antisocial behaviour, behavioural extremes are generally the sign of emotional abuse. 

3. Sexual Child Abuse – Any involvement with the child in any sexual manner is considered as sexual abuse. It may include direct contact like various sexual exploitation or indirect behaviour like obscene remarks, online comments, etc. There are certain behavioural and physical signs of a child being sexually abused. They may include aggressive behaviour, swelling or blood in the genital area, etc. 

4. Neglect – It is depriving the child of the basic human needs like food, shelter, water, clothing, etc. This is a very subtle act that many times goes unnoticed. It includes failure to provide nutrition, basic needs, etc. There are physicals signs like malnutrition, bad hygiene etc that can point towards neglect. 

The child’s physical inability makes them very vulnerable to such abuses as they are not able to reciprocate. In a country like India, where gender discrimination and stereo types thrive in the society, unwanted children often become the victims of such atrocities. Most of the victims are unaware of being abused. Sometimes, ignorance of the parents too leads to such incidents. The child abuse can have a lifelong impact on the child. They tend to have emotional, psychological and mental impact that can harm themselves in the future. 

India does have strict laws against child abuse but if the abuse is not reported, it becomes impossible to help the victims. It is important to make children as well as the society aware about the different forms of child abuse so that they can be reported. Awareness workshops ought to be held for children in schools to make them aware about the difference. It is necessary to have psychological institutions for the children where they can be provided the required assistance. It is therefore the need of the time for the society to wake up to the call of protecting and enhancing the childhood of the children. Because for any society, the children of it are the future of the society.