Child Sexual Abuse

Most of us are aware of it, heard about it, many have even witnessed it or worse, experienced it, but not much can we do about it. Can we?

Yes, we are discussing one of the most unfortunate things of the society – child sexual abuse. Countless children across the world, including in India, are victims of this social evil. NGOs and other social welfare societies have been trying to combat this evil and help the victimised children wherever, whenever possible. Lot has been written and said about this abuse and has been portrayed in films like Pankh and I Am (the Sanjay Suri story). Yet, children continue to suffer.

It goes without saying that the children who suffer this bad experience often get into a state of trauma, which in many cases, remains all their life. In certain cases, the child fails to realise when he/she is being exploited and understands it when they are grown up. That realisation can also traumatise the child and haunt him/her almost at all times.

An incident of child sexual abuse can have such a deep impact on the mind of a child or a grown-up (in case of late realisation) that it may hurt his/her personal and professional life and may even make the child mentally unstable to get back to normalcy. While some manage to get over it or learn to live with the forgettable experience, most others get into a state of irreparable shock.

The Abusers

Why does child sexual abuse happen? To understand this, we need to first identify the victim and the culprit. The victim is the child, male or female, in the age group of 0-12 years, usually. The child may also be a eunuch, but that is a different genre of abuse altogether, which requires a separate discussion.

The culprit is the abuser, which is mostly male (I am yet to hear about any female abuser), whose age may range from about 20-70 years. In many cases, the culprit is someone within the family. In fact, majority of the cases of child sexual abuse involve uncles and cousins.

But what drives these people to commit such a heinous activity? The reasons vary from psychological to biological. The instances of child sexual abuse indicate that the desire to be involved in paedophile exists in many. Besides, frustration in sexual life or lack of sex also leads to people engaging in such activities.

Child sexual abuse is also a result of the attempt to fulfil hidden desires by the abuser. For child abusers, trying to get physical with a child is often an endeavour to fulfil their desire of being bisexual.  

From these instances, it is evident that these are not normal deeds, which indicate that the abusers are sick mentally. True, some are lecherous, but trying to have sex with a child doesn’t indicate a sound mind.

I am publishing this article on a day when this issue is being featured in Aamir Khan’s TV show ‘Satyamev Jayate’. A commendable effort no doubt, but is it enough to eliminate a social evil like child sexual abuse, which mainly happens within the confines of home?