The incidence of child abuse incidents in India has instilled an incessant fear among the parents, especially those with girl children. Some time back, the culprits behind such barbaric crimes were usually identified as men from uneducated sector or low-level workers. Lack of education and the socio-economic environments they grew up were said to be the triggers for them to indulge in such inhumane crimes. Disproving this conclusion, today men who are well-educated, well-employed, and hail from very respectable families too indulge in such crimes like child abuse, gruesome rape and cold-hearted murders that makes us squirm.
Innocent children and teenagers becoming prey to these remorseless culprits who engrave shame on the entire human race. These perverts do not hide themselves anywhere, they are amongst us, we interact with them on a daily basis, they could be our friend, neighbor, relative, well-groomed, well-educated and may be our children would have also played with them. But the fact is we never know how rotten their minds are, until they commit such horrifying crimes. Parents of all child abuse victims live their rest of their lives in guilt, thinking if they should have taken put an extra pinch of attention on their child.
A week ago, our nation lost yet another sweet little 7-year-old pie Hasini from Chennai to the brutality of child abuse. While, India is striving to be a complete literate nation, literate perverts like Tashvanth (the accused in Hasini's murder) is a proof that being just literate without any strings of socio-economic values is 'useless'! But, where does it all go wrong, how did these people go so inhumane and why do they target children? are the questions that strike our hearts. Here are some experts from various fields who share their opinion on child abuse.
Latha Sundaram, Founder of Aram Foundation Charitable Trust has been transforming the lives of many school-going children through her Happy Child Project. The Happy Child Project educates the children at Corporation schools on 'Good' and 'Bad' Touch problems. Having faced real-time sessions with children who open-up with such abuse related issues, the NGO gives a comprehensive counselling session to such children.
"We launched the Happy Child Project in 2012 and so far, the response from the kids, parents and teachers have been over-whelming. Through our sessions, we create awareness to children and parents to be cautious on child abuse. As very young children cannot be explained in detail about what is exactly a child abuse, we use children-friendly words like "NO" "RUN" and "HELP" to create awareness among such young children.
We keep insisting to the children that they should boldly report such incidents to their parents or teachers. But, what we have observed over these years is that, there are still parents who take the complaints raised by children very lightly. They think their child is exaggerating or fooling around. Parents should never do that. They should be attentive to the complaints raised by their child.
Parents standing by their kids at all times and spending quality time will help children boost their confidence and encourage them to openly discuss about all issues to their parents. If there is any behavioral change with their kids, parents should immediately address probe into it'. She further shared that through this project we witnessed many kids opening up about their traumas and such kids were put through a comprehensive counselling session'.
Raja Sheriff, though an Advocate by profession, he is an active socialist involved in taking session for school childrens' to create awareness among them to stay safe. Raja shares with us that "The rise in crime rate against women have been on a continuous increase in recent times. The worst part is that even kids are not spared. The decadence in our society has reached such an alarming level. It's harrowing to learn that youngsters who are believed to be the leaders of tomorrow are indulging in such inhumane acts.
If we analyse the root cause which destructs the moral values and ethics of today's youth, I would blame 'internet and technology' being used in a very wrong way plays a crucial role in such crimes. These days, kids and youngsters have access to all sort of disgusting things such as browsing porn sites, watching videos on serial killers, child pornography and stuff. Access to such obnoxious stuff drives them crazy and triggers them to commit crimes without any guilt. Influence of drugs is also one an important reason, most of the perpetrators of such gruesome crimes are drug-users. Whenever such issue arises, we point fingers and start the blame game instead of brainstorming on how to put a full stop to such crimes.
I would say, the best solution for this is to ban access to all porn sites, as it is followed in Arab Countries. Limited access to kids on internet is more than enough. Let them browse to improve their knowledge on subjects, let them play games but all under parents supervision. In many games, pop-up windows open up which leads to porn games, hence supervision becomes mandatory. Awareness should be created among boys to respect and treat girls with dignity, and similarly girls should be made aware of good and bad touch and how to act prudently if they are exposed to vulnerable situations.
Instead of forcing academics on children, parents and teachers should focus on instilling compassion, love and ethical values to their children, from a very young age. Being a good human is more important than being a great academician!
Dr.Prema, Pshycologist and Founder of Mind Care Counselling Centre while speaking regarding the child sexual abuse cases shared that lack of good parenting is the ground for people turning so barbaric and committing such heinous crimes. In many families, in order to manage their financial crisis, both father and mother are forced to go to work. To the contrary, there are also parents who choose to work to build their bank balances, sadly children of those parents are deprived of love and attention.
Teens of both sex undergo a cryptic phase during their adolescence. Hormonal imbalance combined with exposure to obscene materials may lead to complicated sexual desires. To fulfill their urging sexual desires, they fall prey to cheap acts. Many children who lack compassion from parents, will get psychological affected. Once their psychology is affected, they will pay no heed to the consequences of their act. And, also drugs play a catalyst in these cases as nearly 70 % of the abusers are drug-users or addicts.
I have counselled many girls who have undergone sexual abuse, many of them come along with their parents. While, some parents boldly reveal such incidents, most of them don't, as they are worried about the social stigma attached to it. But parents should remember that if the child is not given due counselling on-time, the fear factor will be engraved in their hearts for lifetime. A healthy communication cycle in the family, will relieve children from stress and moreover bind them together as one strong 'family'.
Rajesh B Lund Coimbatore chapter of CREDAI's, a registered body that represents the organized property development sector of Coimbatore city briefed on the security measures that needs to be implemented at apartments.
'Almost all newly built apartments in the city have been equipped with CCTV Cameras at the entrance and the exit for security reasons. But with the rising incidents of crime and the recent heart-rending incident in Chennai where a 7-year-old Hasini was sexually assaulted and murdered by her neighbor in an apartment has made us think of implementing additional security measures in all apartments in Coimbatore. We are planning to insist all apartment associations to install CCTV cameras in Kids play area and corridors to ensure safety of the kids' said Rajesh.