CHILD ABUSE (MUET-mid 2000)

The children of today are the adults of

tomorrow.There are our assets whom we have
to nurture with love, care and guidance.Yet,
there is such a crime that is termed as
‘child abuse’-a heinous act that requires
urgent attention and a clear understanding
of the issues involved.The underlying causes
of child abuse should be examined, and the
forms that these take have to be looked into
so that appropriate suggestions can be made
to address the problem.

Firstly, many cases of child abuse occur

in homes where marital problems have led to
parents going their separate ways and
eventually resorting to divorce. The single
parent may remarry or have a live-in
boyfriend or girlfriend. Having no blood
ties with the children, such newcomers to
the family view the children in the
household as a burden and as a result,
develop feelings of hatred and resentment
towards them.

There is also a high incidence of child

abuse cases among families affected by
poverty.The breadwinner is entrusted with
the task of providing for the family but
when he is unable to do so, he feels
inadequate and may resort to forms of
escapism such as consuming alcohol and
taking drugs. Under the influence of such
intoxicants, he may not be in control of his
actions and thus, may hurt his children.

Besides poverty and its resultant

effects, stress at the workplace can lead to
anger and frustration among parents.Parents
vent these negative feelings on their
children by abusing them. They know that the
children are vulnerable and will not be able
to retaliate.

Babysitters too have been known to abuse

children under their care. Many working
parents, especially those from the lower
income groups, tend to place their children
with babysitters.Often these parents do not
investigate the background of the child
minders or the live-in relatives who may
have questionable behaviour patterns.
Furthermore, there are times when the
children are left in the care of such
babysitters for long period of time. In such
situations, the children may be abused
without the parents realising it.

Children can be abused in several ways-

physically, mentally and sexually. Physical
abuse involves being hit by objects, scalded
by hot liquids or burnt with lighted
cigarette butts or chained up and deprived
of basic necessities. Mental abuse, on the
other hand, is difficult to detect as the
children are verbally abused and therefore
do not show any outward injuries. Such
children suffer from low self-esteem and in
time grow up to be introverted or troubled
individuals. Even worse is the sexual abuse
of children who are too young to understand
what is being done to them. To them, molest,
rape and sodomy are acts that are totally
beyond their comprehension and therefore are
unable to talk about it to others.

The problem of child abuse can be solved.

For one, abusive parents should be
counselling, depending on the severity of
the crime.In instances of physical and
sexual abuse, the perpetrators should be
imprisoned for long periods of time and only
released when they have been completely
rehabilitated.In the case of
poverty-stricken families, steps should be
taken to alleviate their financial woes by
providing assistance and skills training to
the parents. This will enable them to earn a
decent living and at the same time be better
parents to their children. All those who
wish to earn an income by babysitting should
have a licence from the locals authorities.
On their part, the local authorities should
investigate the applicant’s background,
provide them with training and monitor them
for a period of time before issuing the
babysitters with licences. This will
certainly reduce the number of child abuse
cases by babysitters.
 Therefore, it appears that some of the
underlying causes of child abuse include
breakdown of the family unit, inability to
cope with poverty and the existence of
unscrupulous babysitters.Whether it is
physical, mental or sexual abuse, there are
ways to solve the problem, namely by
counselling or imprisoning the perpetrators,
eradicating poverty and recognising
babysitting as a licenced profession.