Child Abuse in India

This is hot off the press. In a ground breaking effort, Save the Children and Ministry of Women and Child Developement in India have for the first time conducted a study of child abuse across 13 Indian States covering 12,500 children and 4800 young adults. The findings of the report are shocking.

Some of the key findings are (Excerpts from Reuters Alertnet):

1. Boys, as compared to girls, are equally at risk of abuse.
   
2. Persons in trust and authority are major abusers.
   
3. 5-12 year old children are in the high risk category: across the forms of abuse, the percentage of abuse among them is the highest.
   
4. 70% of the children have not reported abuse to anyone.
   
5. Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar and Delhi almost consistently report high rates of abuse in all forms as compared to other States.
   
6. 2 out of every 3 children have been physically abused.
   Two out of every three school going children are victims of corporal punishment. Half of these incidents are in government run schools.
   
7. More than half of the child respondents reported facing one or more forms of sexual abuse.
   
8. Every second child reported facing emotional abuse. In more than 80% of the cases parents were the abusers.

At the inauguration of the Study, Renuka Choudhary, Minister of State, Ministry of Women and Child Development, said "This is a landmark study that paves the way for new initiatives for protection of children in India." The Ministry on its part has taken measures such as enabling legislation to establish the National and State Commissions for Protection of Rights of the Child, the Integrated Child Protection Scheme and the draft Offences against Children Bill.

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