Child abuse on increase in the Country: Enfold

Bangalore, Mar 17 (UNI) Child abuse was on increase and according to a study one in three girl and one in five boys were sexually abused in the Country, Dr Sangeeta Saksena, Founder of Enfold, a Non-Governmental Organisation said today.

Talking to newsmen here, she said that to create awareness against child abuse a working group consisting of the government, NGOs and social activists was formed to prevent the menace.

Dr Sangeeta said that according to a study by Rahi, a Delhi based NGO, of the 600 English speaking middle and upper class women in Delhi, Mumbai, Madras, Kolkata and Goa about 76 per cent had been sexually abused in childhood and 71 per cent of them from family friends or relatives.

She said that the Indian family, as a social unit, had been largely unsuccessful in containing the Child sexual abuse. Lot of children left alone to deal with the situation. The way children lacked awareness about sexual abuse as maintaining the family honour was accorded top priority ignoring the children future. The Society as a whole has failed to provide a safe environment for the child, she alleged.

Dr Sangeeta said that Enfold conducted a workshop inviting people from cross section of the society including teachers, physicians, social workers, doctors, advocates and government officials and discussed the problem at length.

She said that experts at the day-long workshop suggested creation of a 'protocol' focussed to implement at all the schools and to create a special environment facilitating children to air their grievances relating to sexual abuse without any fear or hesitation.

There is also need to educate the faculty of the schools about tackling the problem she said.

UNI