World: South Asia Pakistan's wall of silence on child abuse

[abdul1]

BBC News | South Asia | Pakistan's wall of silence on child abuse


A new report on attitudes to child sex abuse in Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province paints a horrifying picture of widespread abuse.

The report shows that many of the population believe that the sexual abuse of young boys is a matter of pride.

The United Nations is shortly to publish the first nation-wide survey on child sex-abuse in Pakistan - an acutely sensitive subject in this deeply conservative Islamic country.

The first indications of the scale of the problem have been revealed in this early report from North-West Frontier Province.

It shows that one third of those who took part in the survey did not even believe that child sexual abuse was a bad thing - let alone a crime.

The UN believes the sexual abuse of young children is widespread in some areas of the country but that until now it has been hidden behind a wall of silence.

In Pakistan much of the population lives in squalid slums where children are forced to play their part in the day to day survival of the family. That means working in places such as the notorious Pirwadhai bus station in Rawalpindi.

Here there are hundreds of young boys at work in the grimy workshops and sleazy hotels on which the bus station's reputation is based. For this is a centre of child sexual abuse.

One boy told me that local hotels encouraged the trade: "The hotel-owners employ children who are used to attract customers. The customers are then told what kind of services are provided and that they can do what they want with the children. The hotels here are very well known for these services. And it's good money for us."

Their clients are men from all backgrounds - travelling from one part of the country to another - thus freed from the constraints of life at home in this conservative society. With girls mostly kept at home - they prey on these working boys who are extremely vulnerable to abuse.

Although at present there is little data on child sexual abuse in Pakistan, experts such as the clinical psychologist, Kamran Ahmad, believe it is widespread:

"There is a lot of repression of sexuality so what happens is that is shows up in unhealthy forms. You rarely find healthy expressions of sexuality in everyday life so sexual abuse becomes very common"

For the victims it is a terrifying ordeal. A boy told us how he had been raped when he was just 7 years old. He said the men in his village were like dogs - 'they would eat you like a dog' he said. 'It was not safe for any young fair-skinned boy to go out alone. It was a tradition to molest boys'.

According to the report many people in Frontier Province are also well aware that men in the area keep boys specifically for sex.

All this seems to be a result of the rigid segregation of men and women in Pakistan, which is most seriously enforced in the Pashtoon areas of the North. Under Pashtoon culture it is very difficult for a young man to interact with the opposite sex - particularly in the rural areas.

Young boys therefore become the targets of abuse.

But the government is starting to recognise the issue. The Secretary at the Ministry of Women's Development and Social Welfare, Muzzafar Quresh, says : "We're beginning to realise that it is a serious problem.

"We've initiated several studies to try to measure the extent and there's also some evidence coming out about what happens to children and the need for greater attention to rehabilitate them and to bring them back to a normal social life."

But in reality only a handful of organisations are helping children at risk of being exploited and abused. The subject is still far too hidden for there to be a concerted campaign to rescue the many victims.

The publication of the nationwide survey on child sexual abuse is a critical test for both the government and Pakistani society as a whole.

It will prompt painful introspection - but the hope is that it will lead to positive reform.

 

[Spring Onion]

Bad. This should be stopped.

Unfortuantly Child abuse is going on in many parts of the World. Pakistan and India are included in this shamful practice.

BBC report on the same abuse in India.

Incest, child abuse is India's hidden shame

Sexual abuse of children in any form by a family member is among the most urgent forms of child abuse which our society must address. A report produced by the BBC opined that close-knit family life in India masks an alarming amount of sexual abuse.



TWO INSTANCES of incest were widely talked about in the media over the last week. The first pertained to the Austrian, Josef Fritzl, who has just been sentenced to life imprisonment for incarcerating his daughter in a purpose-built prison beneath the family home in Amstetten for 24 years, raping her more than 3,000 times, fathering seven children with her and causing the death of a twin son. Sounds too horrible to be true; and the fact that the victim was his own daughter makes it sound even more monstrous.

The other story, more home grown, is that of a businessman, who allegedly raped his daughter over a period of nine years following a ‘tantrik’s advice for getting rich. The traumatised girl, now 21, had been silent about her ordeal but mustered courage to approach the police after her father attempted to rape her 15-year-old younger sister, again on the advice of the ‘tantrik’. The mother was arrested for abetting the crime, and if anything, the fact that the mother actively helped as her daughter was being violated makes it if anything, more ghastly.


Just how big an issue is incest in India? Well, obviously, a topic like this will always be in the shadows and one may have even to look at the definition of the word ‘incest’. In South India, marriages take place between cousins (especially cross-cousins, that is, the children of a brother and sister) and even between uncles and nieces (especially a man and his elder sister’s daughter). That is culturally acceptable and would not be termed as an incestuous relationship.

A report produced by the BBC a decade ago had opined citing research sources that close-knit family life in India masks an alarming amount of sexual abuse of children and teenage girls by family members. It said that that disbelief, denial and cover-up to preserve the family reputation is often put before child abuse. A report from RAHI, a Delhi based NGO working with child sexual abuse titled ‘Voices from the Silent Zone’, suggests that nearly three-quarters of upper and middle class Indian women are abused by a family member -- often an uncle, a cousin or an elder brother.

Indeed, sexual abuse of children in any form of household setting by a family member in India is among the most urgent forms of child abuse which our society must address.

As per women’s organisations and activists nearly ninety-five percent of the abused are girls and more than ninety-five percent abusers are males.

Surveys carried out in schools and informal chats reveal that around 40 percent girls experience incest abuse or sexual abuse in one or the other form in India. How deep the iceberg is can perhaps, be gauged by the fact that 6 percent of all calls made to CHILDLINE (a 24-hour Indian helpline for children in distress) in the last ten years have reported CSA --- 6 percent of 10 million calls! There probably could not be greater statistical validation that CSA/incest is the most under-reported child rights violations in India.

In India, there is no law that specifically deals with child abuse, and there is no clear delineation of sexual abuse in the Indian Penal Code. Indian laws consider only “assault to outrage the modesty of a woman,” rape by penile penetration, and “unnatural sexual intercourse” like sodomy as punishable sexual crimes.


Although, there are lawyers and child rights activists who are ready to spell, explain, and act against incest and abuse they are still not a critical mass and their views are not strong enough to be able to impact consciousness of the policymakers, police, lawyers, judges, teachers, schools, mental, physical and sexual health professionals, and all those who could take up the issue. Although the issues of shame, family honour and plain depravity means that very little statistics are available, it also means that every statistic available speaks not just for itself but for a lot many others in the shadows; children and girls who are invisible and will, because of the abuse and betrayal they have faced, retreat further into the darkness and possibly out of reach of help. For organisations like RAHI, the raasta is indeed long and a lot more raahgirs are needed to fight this mammoth monster.


Incest, child abuse is India?s hidden shame

 

[Spring Onion]

Abuse of Indian children 'common'


By Geeta Pandey
BBC News, Delhi



Two out of every three children in India are physically abused, according to a landmark government study.
Commissioned by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, the study says 53% of the surveyed children reported one or more forms of sexual abuse.

This is the first time the government has done such an exhaustive survey on the controversial issue of child abuse.

Abuse of children, particularly sexual abuse, is rarely admitted in India and activists have welcomed the study.

Releasing the report at a press conference in the capital, Delhi, Minister for Women and Child Development Renuka Chowdhury said: "In India there's a tradition of denying child abuse. It doesn't happen here is what we normally say.

"But by remaining silent, we have aided and abetted the abuse of children."

Thousands quizzed

Describing the findings of the study as "disturbing", Ms Chowdhury called for an end to the "conspiracy of silence".

The issue of child abuse has been raised in the past by non-governmental organisations, but this is the first time an attempt has been made by the government to document the scale of the problem.

The study took two years to complete, and covered 13 states where 12,247 children (between five and 12) and 2,324 young adults (over the age of 12) were quizzed.

Dr Loveleen Kacker, the official in charge of child welfare in the ministry, compiled the report.

She said the study had revealed that contrary to the general belief that only girls were abused, boys were equally at risk, if not more.

She said a substantial number of the abusers were "persons in trust and care-givers" who included parents, relatives and school teachers.


Ms Chowdhury said the findings of the study were disturbing

Dr Kacker said a disturbing finding of the study had been that 70% had not reported the abuse to anyone.

Besides surveying physical and sexual abuse, the study also collected statistics on emotional abuse and neglect of girls.

The study called for efforts to make society aware of the rights of children and officials say the data will help them formulate better policies to protect children.

'One too many'

The report has been welcomed by child rights activists who say such a study was sorely needed in India.

Roland Angerer, country director of Plan International, told BBC News it was "very important that the government has finally taken up the issue".

"It doesn't matter what statistics say. Whether the percentage of abused children is 75 or whether it is 58 is unimportant. Each child that is abused is one too many," he said.

"It's important that parents and adults must learn that children are not property, that they have rights too."

In India, parents are often reluctant to admit child abuse and sexual abuse of children involving family members is almost always hushed up.


The study also collected data on how girls are neglected

Perhaps that is why - as the study shows - more than 50% of the young adults surveyed wanted the matter of abuse to remain within the family.

Only 17% of the abused young adults wanted harsh punishment for the abusers.

Officials and activists say the biggest challenge for the authorities and society is to ensure that children are encouraged to report abuse.

India is home to almost 19% of the world's children. More than one-third of the country's population - 440m people - is made up of children below 18 years of age.

According to one study, at least 40% of these children are in need of care and protection.

The country has millions of child workers.

Many are employed in hazardous industries and also in homes and small restaurants, which makes them vulnerable to violence and exploitation.

Last year the government banned children under 14 from being employed in homes and at restaurants to avoid their exploitation and abuse, but millions of children continue to work in these sectors.

India is a signatory to various international laws on the protection of children, but implementation of these laws is often lax.


BBC NEWS | South Asia | Abuse of Indian children 'common'

 

[Spring Onion]

Dear Poster of the thread please keep in mind by comparing the news i posted from BBC and the one you posted from BBC, in both it is proven that People of India and People in Pakistan both have no different attitude towards child abuse so next time when you try to troll by posting such things do have the same for your country in mind.

We all need to fight such social evils.

I hope i made my point clear

 

[abdul1]

So because India has something should be same in Pakistan? You are so dependent on us for everything or what?

Meanwhile I opened the thread regarding abuse on boy and here I get reply about abuse on girls in India and in your article posted it seems people from our country are ready to think and act on removing the evil not like your country who think it as matter of pride. Instead of coming with something constructive sadly this is pathetic attempt to derail

 

[mjnaushad]

How come you reached a article written in 1999. If you searched :CHILD ABUSE: then you must have also found many on indian childrens but you only posted this one.

Shame on you.

 

[Relucent]

Jana ji aap toh very chatur hai.This thread is abt child abuse in pakistan.Why bring in India??.
I agree with u that this is a shameful practice.Hard steps should be taken to stop this.But again i feel child abuse will be difficult to stop until poverty and illitracy levels are brought down.