Sexual Abuse of the Girl Child

This is a subject, which has always pained me. The sexual abuse of young children is a shameful and heinous act to say the least.

During the last 5 years specifically one has come across a number of such cases. The victim’s age ranging from 3 to 13 years. Every time a case is heard or reported in the newspaper like most mothers especially those having a girl child I feel as if my own child has been violated. There is an uncontrollable anger against the culprits. The issue gets media attention for a week or so and then the case gets forgotten. Many a time the person goes scott free or is meted out a penalty and simple punishment of 3-4 years of imprisonment.

The incident that provoked me to write this piece is the news of a British couple who had come to India to look for the man who had raped and killed their 17-year-old daughter in a most gruesome manner. The tenacity and grit shown by the Fosters was commendable and if all parents can respond with such courage and determination in their hour of sorrow and deep helplessness. It would be a big deterrent to people of this vicious mentality. After a crime is committed the only thing one can ask for is the arrest and punishment meted out to the culprit. What has to be done to see that such cases are properly investigated and justice is meted out? On the contrary one only finds a graphic description of the event and two months later if lucky a small article mentioning the case being filed in the court and the alleged killers details in some obscure part of the paper.

I feel among crimes, the crimes against these innocent kids who become the targets of diseased individuals are the most deplorable. It usually kills the child or if ill fated to be alive leaves it to exist with this mental trauma through out its life. The anguish and helplessness felt by the parents who hold themselves responsible to protect the child cannot be described.

What should be the right justice for such crimes? The significance of the verdict lay not in meting out the appropriate punishment but in serving as a deterrent for other like-minded people. I was in the process of penning these thoughts when the verdict of another case was announced which had occurred 14 years back, the victim a 13-year-old schoolgirl. The culprit was awarded a death sentence after a lengthy case spanning 14 years. There was a lot of uproar about meting out a death sentence. The protest came from some human right organizations the culprits family and celebrities. Higher heads of government like the President were sent mercy petitions, which were however rejected, and the man was sent to the hangman. I felt the decision was justified and human right organizations need to be more sensitive to the victims and their family than to such individuals. As a mother I felt that delivering such capital punishment to the culprit would protect other innocent children from being victimized.

When sexual abuse has occurred, a child can develop a variety of distressing feelings, thoughts and behaviors. Sexually abused children end up becoming child abusers or prostitutes, or have other serious problems when they reach adulthood. Therefore this problem needs to be dealt with firmly taking into account all these perspectives.

Child sexual abuse has been reported up to 80,000 times a year, but the number of unreported instances is far greater, because the children are afraid to tell anyone what has happened, and the legal procedure for validating an episode is difficult. The problem should be identified, the abuse stopped, and the child should receive professional help. The long-term emotional and psychological damage of sexual abuse can be devastating to the child.