Child Sexual Abuse Rampant and Untreated in India

Here is the link to the article:
http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/07/child-sexual-abuse-rampant-and-untreated-in-india-report-says/?ref=humanrightswatch


Children have weakest power to protect themselves. They need the most protection and care from government, society and law. Therefore, many countries have specific laws applying to the children. However, in India, Child sexual abuse continues to be “common” as reported by Human Rights Watch. This is really astonishing. I think children represent the future of a country. Ruining children is like destroying the hope of a country. Behind the fact that police, doctors, lawyers and other government officials were always unprepared to deal with child sexual abuse cases, I think there is a deeper problem --- “social stigma and negligence”. Although there is a law, called “integrated child protection scheme”, introduced in India, this law lost its power under a social which reflect indifference towards victims. It is really shocking that only 3 percent of child abuse cases in India are reported to the police. Why? We can interpret two possibilities here. One is that people realize that it is useless to ask for help from government because the government won’t do much about it. Sometimes government officials even make things worse. It also happens that government officials, who are supposed to provide shield for people, unfortunately become the abuser. As reported, a man from politics related family had sexual harassment to only 12-year-old girl. More strikingly, when the girl reported to the police, they insisted she changed the story. The government officials who have power are unable to carry out their duty. As a result, common people lost their trust and hope on government. I think the other problem causing the terrible situation is gander discrimination. As we can see, most victims in sexual abuse cases are girls. It’s common in India that girls are despised by their family. If their own family gave up on helping them, who also can hear their voice and give them hands? There poor girls have to bear the pain physically and mentally. I believe that to really help this situation, setting up laws is not enough. More work is needed to change the discrimination and rebuild up people’s trust on government. Government should enforce the law and clean up the corruption in itself. More propaganda should be done to let people realize the children are born equal despite gander. To change is difficult but step must be made. Again, we can’t expect the future of a country that can’t protect their children, their hope.