Child sexual abuse (CSA) includes any exploitative sexual activity by a person who, by virtue of their power over a child, due to age, strength, position or relationship, uses the child to meet their sexual or emotional needs. CSA takes many forms and does not necessarily involve direct physical contact.
Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act 2012 defines a ‘child’ to mean ‘any person below the age of eighteen years. The Act provides for a wide range of sexual offences, including penetrative sexual assault, non-penetrative sexual assault (kissing, fondling), and non-contact based sexual acts such as sexual harassment. The Act suggests that any person, who has an apprehension that an offence is likely to be committed or has knowledge that an offence has been committed has a mandatory obligation to report the matter. It is now mandatory for police to register an FIR in all cases of child abuse. The Act also intends to protect the child through all stages of the judicial process and gives paramount importance to the principle of ‘best interest of the child’.
Mandatory reporting has been, however, contested by many who closely work on CSA. Please read the findings of this study by Arpan, an NGO in Maharashtra, to know more. You can also read this article for a quick review of the Act.
Although the POCSO Act has a provision for mandatory reporting, often cases of child sexual abuse go unreported, particularly if the abuser is a family member or relative. Often, a child may not have the language to articulate the abuse, or even if they do report it to a trusted family member, there is often inaction and a lack of support. This 2019 report by HAQ: Centre for Child Rights states that even if cases of abuse are reported, the victims are persuaded to withdraw from the legal proceedings for the sake of the family’s honour. The POCSO Act’s ineffective implementation and administrative pitfalls often cause delays in the delivery of justice. Although the law requires that POCSO cases be resolved within a year, some proceedings drag on for years, causing the victims severe emotional distress.
No, this is a myth. All children, including boys, are vulnerable to sexual abuse. However, since most research on CSA focuses on the abuse of girls, statistics show a higher number of girls are abused than boys. Existing research on boys shows that boys tend to report abuse differently, often denying it or behaving as though they enjoyed it. Read this research paper on the impact of child sexual abuse on men and boy survivors and the barriers they face in disclosing their abuse experiences. The trend of underreporting suggests that more boys are abused than we know, and more research is needed to get an accurate picture of the situation.
Yes. In fact, most times, the abuser is someone within the family: it could be a relative or a friend of the family. The abuser is rarely a stranger and more often someone that the child knows and trusts – maybe a relative, cousin, or caretaker at home, or an adult at school, like the school bus driver or a teacher. Child sexual abuse occurs in all socio-economic classes. Education and social class are no guarantees against abuse.
CSA can include contact sexual behaviour like making a child undress or touch someone else, fondling (whether they’re clothed or not), kissing, oral sex, penetrative sex, etc. However, it can also include non-contact sexual behavior like being made to watch sexual acts/pornography, exposing or flashing, posing for sexual photos, making them masturbate, forcing a child to take part in sexual activities or sexual conversations online, and/or listening to talk about sex. With increased access to technology and the internet, an added dimension to CSA is also online child sexual abuse. It can take a number of different forms, such as online grooming, live streaming, distribution of prohibited pictures, and online coercion and blackmail with the goal of attaining sexual content or asking for sexual favours online or offline.
This is a popular misconception. CSA is a universal problem, affecting millions of children across the world. Although this is a problem worldwide, more reporting and research is available from Western countries. Here is some information from the Study on Child Abuse INDIA 2007, done by Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India with the support of UNICEF and Save the Children:
- 53.22% children reported having faced one or more forms of sexual abuse.
- Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar and Delhi reported the highest percentage of sexual abuse among both boys and girls.
- 21.90% child respondents reported facing severe forms of sexual abuse and 50.76% other forms of sexual abuse.
- 50% abusers are persons known to the child or in a position of trust and responsibility.
- Most children did not report the matter to anyone.
Child sexual abuse is not a recent phenomenon in India and around the world. Due to a lack of understanding that what was happening was wrong and a low reporting rate in the past, it may have been assumed that child sexual abuse is a relatively recent problem. By identifying and making criminal a number of inappropriate sexual behaviours that threaten children, the POCSO Act has aided in “breaking this silence.” As people are significantly more cognizant of the need to educate the public and sensitise the criminal justice system, more cases are being reported today.
Children with disabilities can be easy targets for abusers. For example, if they are not mobile, they cannot move away from an abuser. They may be unable to report the abuse because they cannot communicate or be understood by their care providers, or they may be being abused by a care provider. Considering that almost 12 million children in India are disabled, the possible prevalence of sexual abuse of children with disabilities in India is very high. This is even more of a problem because our society often denies the existence of CSA, and because children with disabilities are often viewed as ‘non-sexual’ or ‘sex-less’ and hence not given sexuality education (including how to recognise and report abuse) like their non-disabled siblings and peers may be. Another damaging myth that obscures this reality is that children with disabilities cannot be abused, since people find them unattractive and feel sorry for them.
Not always. Child sexual abuse involves an imbalance or exercise of power along with sexual behaviour. If two friends of the same age play doctor, it is not child sexual abuse. However, if there is a difference in age – such as a 12 year old playing with a 4 year old, or children of different castes/classes/races playing together, the more powerful child could exercise their power over the less powerful child, in which case, it would be abusive.
While a small percentage of children report abuse when it happens, others may find it difficult to tell anyone because of multiple fears that accompany disclosure: fear of remembering, fear of losing their family’s love, fear of shame, fear of blame or not being believed. Often children share a relationship with their abusers, and this makes it difficult for them to disclose the abuse to others for fear of being taken away from them – especially when the abuser is a parent or a family member. Another important factor that prevents disclosure is children’s lack of vocabulary to describe abusive sexual acts that they may be subject to.
It is also important to note that individuals who experienced abuse as children deal with the abuse in different ways. Some may think little about the abuse as they get older and put the abuse behind them as much as they can, while others may have a tougher time recovering from the abuse and need more support and counselling to move forward. Either way, dismissing the feelings and emotions of a person, even years after the abuse, denies them the opportunity to speak about and heal from the experience.
In reality, studies show that most child molesters are men married to women and target children in their network of family and friends. By assuming that all abusers are gay, people tend to be lulled by a false sense of security that the children in their care are safe from harm if they do not have any homosexual men in their immediate circles. This myth leads to more stigmatisation of/ discrimination against gay men.
Sexual abusers of children can be anyone – fathers, mothers, siblings, stepparents, grandparents, and other family members (uncles, aunts, cousins), neighbours, care providers, religious leaders, teachers, coaches, or anyone else who is in close contact with children. While more cases of men being abusive are reported, there are a small proportion of women that sexually abuse children as well.