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Protecting children from trafficking and sexual abuse

“The Strongest thing we have isn’t our fists, it’s our words. It’s what we do. So Fight”

- Alex, Childhood Victim of Sex Trafficking & Informant for FBI raids

Introduction:-

We live in a Country where people practice major diverse religions of the world. A country
where “Unity in diversity” prevails with a vast population of diverse customs, creeds, and
colors is unique. In A.R. Desai words “India presents a Spectacle of museum of tongues”.

India’s population has reached 1.21 billion, with vast number of people living in every nook
and corner of the country. Society needs a proper system to execute for making the life of
humans easy-going. Law is something that will bring peace, punctuality and a rule of conduct
in the society.

India has the longest written Constitution i.e.; a basic law which gives people their Rights.
Those are the ‘Fundamental Rights’. These rights are acquired by birth. Our constitution gave
few rights to our country’s children as well. Children are future assets of our country, so the
state should carry essential steps in protecting them. It is important to note that our
Constitution has assigned an official order for the special protection of children by making
special provisions for them. Today, our society is facing several challenges relating to child
sexual abuse and trafficking. People sometimes pretend to ignore these challenges instead of
confronting them due to fear of thinking that their reputation will be at stake. Our Silence
encourages the culprits to do more brutal acts. This will lead to injustice to the victims.
People must find solutions to such issues instead of ignoring them.

Role of parents in protecting their little ones

Children are the most precious assets and are the gifts of God. They are to be protected.
Parents have utmost responsibility to protect and take care of their children from the sexual
abuse & assault. The moment they become parents, their responsibility comes into action.
They are the ones with whom children interact more. Their relationship is to be based on trust
and faith. So, the relation between them is a major thing to be concerned as the children grow
on the basis of their relationship with their parents. Parents should teach their children
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regarding the challenges that they may face once they step out in the real world. They should
educate their child how to protect themselves from the bad persons. After all, there is a saying
that “God helps those who help themselves”. Parents must make them aware of
understanding good and bad touches, obscene photos, good and bad behaviour etc…. because
it is immensely difficult to accumulate information from the children who are victimized as
they are unable to understand fully about the sexual abuse and they feel very awkward talking
about their experience on such a delicate subject with anyone else.

Nearly 20% of world children live in India. So, many numbers of children are in need of care
and protection. Although India is a developing country, it does have some loopholes.
Honestly, Child Sexual Abuse is a genuine trouble in India. The root cause of this problem is
lack of strict and effective legislation and the silence of Homo sapiens against the criminals.
Children are those innocent chaps who are unaware of such abuses. Although they are
mischievous sometimes, they are the pure-hearted and carry an innocent smile on their face.
They are the genuine souls on the earth.

Before we go into the roots of child trafficking & sexual abuse it is pivotal to understand
who is a “Child” and what “Children’s rights” are.

Who is a child?

Child means every human being below the age of eighteen years unless under the law
applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier.1

Children’s rights

Article 15 (3): Nothing in this article shall prevent the State from making any special
provision for women and children;

Article 21A: Free and compulsory education for all children of the age of 6 to 14 years;

Article 24: Prohibition of employment of children in factories, etc. -No child below the
age of fourteen years shall be employed to work in any factory or mine or engaged in any
other hazardous employment;

1 Article 1 of Committee on the rights of the

child,http://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/crc.aspx
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Article 39: also says that the state shall, in particular, direct its policy towards securing: the
tender age of children are not abused and that children are given opportunities and facilities
to develop in a healthy manner and in conditions of freedom and dignity and that childhood.

Although Constitution gives rights and directions to children for protecting them, it did not
give much effect. Still, children in our country, be it street children or the children who are
nourished properly, are getting victimized each and every day. Some or the other way they are
being victims of trafficking and sexual assault.

Child trafficking & sexual abuse in India

Child trafficking and sexual abuse is violation of children’s rights. One has no right to
confine them or their freedom. Child sexual abuse means an abuse of the child by touching
him/her inappropriately in their private parts, an adult having sexual intercourse without the
consent of the child, committing rape of that child, sexually assaulting the child.

Other severe forms of child abuse are:

1. Sexual assaults,
2. Making the child fondle private parts,
3. Making the child exhibit private body parts,
4. Photographing a child in nude and forcible kissing.2

Child sexual abuse is a crime that is not often reported by the people. This does not mean that
this offence is of no grave issue. On the contrary, it is growing issue in the world. This
offence creates terror in the minds of children as well as on their parents. Many people do not
know how to react to such situations. They feel helpless; they think it is better to bear that
pain, rather than falling in unnecessary legal procedures and getting themselves in danger.

One thing that every parent must understand is that, it is more important to punish the
offender than silence the voice of the effected/their children. Because by punishing the
offender you are not only delivering justice to your child but also preventing that person from
harming other innocent children as well. It is to be noted that, your child will feel more safe
and secure only when he /she realizes that the culprit no longer roams in the society.

2 “Study
on Child Abuse: India 2007”(PDF) published by the Government of India, (Ministry
of women and Child Development)
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Along with sexual abuse, child trafficking is a major concern in this contemporary world.
Girl children are being trafficked to brothel houses for prostitution. Irrespective of age many
rogues are kidnapping children and are being lured with drugs, just to earn money. On the
other hand, boy children were equally trafficked. They are picked from slums and for purpose
of begging their hands and legs are being amputated, so that they do have the resemblance of
beggars. Their organs are being amputated and are sent to mother parts of the world. Children
are kept as labourers in hotels, bars, brothels and other places. Offenders make sure that the
children’s age is written 18 or above in reports, so that they may not get caught.

It is really shocking that along with women, children are also not safe in our country. To give
protection to our children many organisations and institution were performing their functions.

CHILDLINE

In 1996, CHILDLINE INDIA FOUNDATION (CIF) launched CHILDLINE, the country's

first toll-free tele-helpline3 for street children in distress. As of March 2015, total of 36
Million calls since inception have been serviced by CHILDLINE service and operates in 366
cities/districts in 34 States/UTs through its network of over 700 partner organisations across
India.

With assistance from a woman rescued from commercial sex trade back in 2010,
CHILDLINE and a police team (Delhi and Andhra) have rescued 72 commercial sex workers,
including 16 minors from brothels at GB Road in Delhi.

ANCHORAGE SHELTER CASE (Landmark Case in India about CSA)

Facts:

In 2001, a child called over phone to CHILDLINE 4 foundation from Coloba, Anchorage
shelter home. This shelter was under the control of 2 British ex- naval officers. They
promised the street children of Mumbai that they will provide them with food and shelter and
took the children and made them to do obscene acts forcibly with some adults. Later, the
foundation filed a FIR and a lawsuit in Mumbai sessions court and the sessions court
convicted them. Later, they appealed to high court and HC accepted the appeal. In 2011, the
Supreme Court upheld the case and convicted those officers.

3 http://childlineindia.org.in/
4 Supra
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RAHI FOUNDATION

It was established in 1996 mainly for women survivors of Child Sexual Abuse. It is in New
Delhi, India, works across the country.5

CRY

It is an NGO in India that works for children’s rights. Its abbreviation is “Child rights and
you”. This organisation is founded in 1979 by “Rippan Kapur”. For nearly 4 decades CRY
and its 200 partner NGO’s have worked with parents and communities across 23 states to
ensure sustainable changes in the lives of over 2 million under privileged children.6

UNCRC

The first UN document specially focused on child rights was the “Declaration on the Rights
of the Child”, but instead of being a legally binding document it was more like a moral guide
of conduct for governments. It was not until 1989 that the global community adopted the
United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, making it the first international legally
binding document concerning child rights. The convention consists of 54 articles covering all
four major categories of child rights: Right to life, Right to development, Right to protection,
and Right to participation. It came into force on the 2nd September 1990.7

Recent Statistics of Child Abuse

With the help of many organisations and other institutions it is said that around 25% of rapes
of children in the year of 2015 were committed by their employers. 8,800 child rape cases
were reported and registered using POSCO8and kidnapping of minors went to 81%.

Nearly 95% of rape cases of children are done by the persons they knew. Boys were equally
raped and trafficked as girls or even more by their acquaintances. Uttar Pradesh led the
highest number of cases of child sexual abuse (Nearly 3000 cases) followed by Madhya
Pradesh (Nearly 1000 Cases)9

5 http://www.rahifoundation.org/about.html

6 https://www.cry.org/

7 http://childlineindia.org.in/United-Nations-Convention-on-the-Rights-of-the-Child.htm

8 www.savethegirlchildren.in

9 Supra,NCRB
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SUGGESTIONS

Child trafficking and sexual abuse is a scary thing and a nightmare that a child can ever face
in his life. This problem has to be cut down from its roots. For this, we must educate our
children. Sex education has to be taught to them to combat sexual violence among children. A
parent at home, teachers at school, has to teach their children to say “No” to such thing when
such an evil or an obscene act is being performed on them.

Children must be provided with courage and we have to let them know that everyone is by
their side and will never let any harm happen to them. Tell your children to fight back in case
any person tries to sexually abuse him/her. Tell them to tighten their fists, just push them
hard and scream saying “NO”. You cannot do this to me and run away from there and go to
the safest place they can find. Later tell it to the parents or teacher or any person whom they
trust most. Children should not stop telling it to their trusted ones until they believe it.

After finding the truth, the person may be in a shock. But they must ensure to their children
that this will not happen again to them. Because, your child will never bluff on such sensitive
issue. Parents must file an FIR in a police station against the offender or call up a Childline.

CONCLUSION

In every person’s life, the most precious thing of which its value cannot be determined is their
CHILDHOOD. No one is given a right to snatch it away from them. Childhood is the time
when the child can live happily without any worries, tensions or any burdens. So, let us all
strive together to provide children with all the happiness and their requirements. My humble
prayer to all parents out there, please don’t let injustice happen to your children. Let us not
make them succumb to the injuries of which they didn’t commit. Guilt is to be carried by the
offenders, not by the victims. There is no mistake on part of children because childhood is
such a tender age that they cannot dare to openly talk about it nor understand what is actually
happening with them.

Everyone faces challenges in their life. But facing sexual abuse at such a tender age is
something very immensely challengeable. So, parents must understand that if their child says
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something of this sort to you please don’t ignore it. Instead of ignoring, listen to them,
understand their pain, feel it and respect their feelings, trust your child and act accordingly.

Think about how your child is feeling and not about what society is saying. Instead of
regretting tomorrow, it is better you take appropriate action today. Because, the pain and
depression that they went through, chases them throughout their life. By now we might have
understood that child sexual abuse and trafficking is not a trivial issue to deal with. It takes
guts to come forward and let know that something bad happened with them. We must
appreciate their courage and should not double their trauma by addressing them as rape
victims.

Many organisations, institutions were established specially for children. Today, these
organisations to a great extent help the elders to open up. Moreover, lodging of complaints
and approaching child line by the parents is improving day by day. They are at least
complaining about sexual abuse through tele-helplines, instead of hiding it. Everyone has to
understand that time once gone will never come back. Same way we cannot change our past.
So, it is better if we alert our present generation that such things can also happen and warn
them to be cautious.

One thing I want to say to all the growing adults out there that whenever they come across
these kinds of brutal crimes -Raise your voice, break your silence and speak up!!!Save the
childhood, be brave and don’t let injustice happen to you or around you.
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