BUSINESS ETHICS

INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT

A CONCEPT PAPER ON “CHILD ABUSE”

SUBMITTED BY: RAVI THAKUR

ROLL NO: 191140

SECTION A

MBA (FT) 2019-21

INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT, NIRMA UNIVERSITY, AHMEDABAD

 Child Abuse
Defining it:

It is understood that child abuse is a social issue. Related cases may be categorized as to
whether they are child abuse or not. But when we talk about the holistic approach in knowing
it, it is necessary to give definition to it. By defining it, we are making a standard for it, and
can identify which kind of cases fall in this standard and which kind of cases would not.
What is evident from reading a few research papers regarding the definition of child abuse is
that the ultimate point that has been put up is same, but the method used to reach up to that
point is not same. As in, suppose in United States, they form a group consisting of
professionals who deal with child abuse and child neglect cases on a daily basis, such as
lawyers, paediatricians, police officers and social workers. In addition, a sample of actual
cases of child abuse from different counties are taken into account. The professionals studied
the cases and measures were developed to assess the relative seriousness of the specific
incidents of abuses and neglect. The group came up with a collective consensus. The
consensus was that “It is a socially defined phenomena, similar to other forms of social
deviance.” It can be in many forms which will be discussed and elaborated in the subsequent
lines.

Child abuse is harm to, or neglect of a child by another person, whether adult or child.
Child abuse happens in all cultural, ethnic and income groups. Now what was written above
is that there can be multiple forms of child abuse. It can be physical, emotional, verbal,
sexual or through neglect. All of these, in one way or the other cause damage to child in
some form. It may even cause serious injury to the child and in some extreme cases, it may
even result into death.

Ultimately, the bottom line is that child abuse is any kind of physical, sexual or psychological
maltreatment of the child. The most common case in child abuse is that of sexual abuse.
Generally, in the western countries, this is done by the caretakers. That is what is found in
most of the study. As most of the parents are working and they keep a maid or a caretaker to
attend the child for the remaining part of the day once he/she is back from school. As
reported by the county police in one of the findings, the caretaker or babysitter, in a playful
manner, so that the child does not have any doubt arising or does not feel insecure, try to
touch him/her and sexually exploit them. Further real incidences reported in different

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countries and India will be shown. More emphasis will be laid with respect to Indian context,
where such cases are extremely high.

History:

There has been an entire record of cases in documented history that can be related to child
abuse or child maltreatment. But because there was no particular definition regarding this or
it can be said that conceptuality did not exist, importance was not given to such cases. In the
1960’s, professional inquiries into this topic began. It was only in the year 1962, when the
paper “The Battered Child-Syndrome” was published, child abuse entered mainstream
awareness. Before the publication of this article, injuries to children, even till large extent,
were not commonly recognized to as intentional trauma. So, slowly and gradually, when this
awareness was spread across the USA, it was recognized in other countries of the world also.

India’s new National Policy for Children reaffirms the promise of the original 1974 policy in
pledging protective care to children “before, during and after birth and throughout the period
of growth.” In India, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) was
established in the year 2007, with the mandate of enquiry and investigation. However, as
expected, there is a wide gap between:

i. Policy and implementation

ii. Practice and outcome

And millions of children in India fall through this gap between i and ii.

Introduction to child abuse in India:

In our Indian subcontinent, there still exists many groups, such as the Baiga, where still
incestuous marriage is practiced. Incestuous refers to any kind of sexual activity between two
persons who are too close to have it, and in our culture, this is a taboo and is strictly
prohibited. Marriage between fathers and daughters, mothers and sons, between siblings, and
even in cases between grandparents and grandchildren. Children cannot do anything because
they are told this is the legacy that is being followed and cannot be changed. Though this was
an extreme example that is portrayed here, but what it shows is that even today in India, this
extreme type of child abuse is present. Extreme because this is performed by one’s own
family members and not by an outsider.

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Leaving this extreme family cases of sexuality aside and coming to the common cases of
child abuse that exists in India, still the most reported one is sexual abuse. In India, the most
accurate scientific studies based on lengthy interviews, report that 30% of men and 40% of
women remember having been sexually molested during their childhood – defining
molestation as actual genital contact, and not just exposure. About half of these are directly
related with family members and the other half with outsiders, similar to the caretakers in the
United States. These seductions occurred at much earlier ages than what had previously been
assumed, with 81 percent of them occurring before puberty and astonishing 42 percent under
age 7. It is believed that these data represent only a portion of the true rates because for the
data only conscious memories were counted, and the earliest seductions of children are
almost never remembered except during psychotherapy.

Why it happens?

Explanations say that external forces or a socio-demographic variable within the society
causes child abuse. Majorly. This theory has 3 different sub fields:

1. Social situational
2. Social habitability
3. Social controls

The first one, that is the social-situational explanation, proposes that the cases of physical
abuses and violence arises out of two factors: social stress and cultural norms. If the social
structure in which a family/parent lives becomes more stressful, there is a greater possibility
that family violence will surface as an attempt to gain control over these irritating and tense
events. For the second factor, cultural norms, the explanation says that if a parent was
frequently exposed to harsh physical punishment as a child, he/she may have great propensity
towards viewing such behaviour as normative and inhibition against physical force maybe
lessened. This point is debatable, but it talks of one of the factors that exists in the reasons as
to why child abuse happens.

The Social-habitability point says that abuses and neglect also arise from the heterogeneous
combination of the individual’s habit as well as the community and society where he/she is
staying.

In Social control view, as the name suggests, some parents use violence against their children
because they have no fear of being hit back. They have the feeling that they are the

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controlling member in their family and everything has to go as per them. They do not worry
about any kind of repercussions of any child abuses or physical violence. Social learning
theory lays emphasis on the learned nature of parenting and the fact that many parents have
lack of knowledge and skill to carry out the highly complex task of child-rearing.

The Paradigm shift:

Researches regarding the causes of child abuse has recently undergone a paradigm shift. The
research had been initiated by National Research Council’s Panel on Research on Child
Abuse and Neglect. Their results signalled the first important step away from the simple
cause and effect models. It was because the Panel recognized that the simple cause and effect
model had certain limitations, mainly related to their narrow focus on the parents. This model
limits themselves by asking only about the isolated set of personal characteristics that might
cause parents to abuse or neglect their children. And over and above this, these models also
fail to account for the occurrence of different forms of abuse in one child. Also, they could
not give proper weightage to the value of various risk factors involved in child abuse.
Ultimately, it failed to predict future cases of child abuse.

The panel substituted an “ecologic” model, to replace the old static model. This model
considers the origin of all forms of child abuse to be a complex interactive process. This new
model views child abuse within a system of risk and protective factors interacting across four
levels: (1) The individual (2) The family (3) The community and (4) The society. At the same
time, some factors are more closely linked with some forms of abuse than others.

Child Abuse: Confronting the reality

The study on child abuse in India, brought out by the ministry of women and child
development, throws up an alarming picture of the extent to which children are ill-treated in
the country, though a close look at the methodology used indicates some overestimation.
Child abuse and neglect is an issue that demands an urgent response from society and the
state. Compounding factors like poverty and gender also need to be addressed.

The study included a large sample of 12,447 child respondents, young adults and other
stakeholders across 13 states of India. It covered children in the age group of 5 years to 18
years and young adults in the age group of 18 to 24 years. The sample had fair divisions
among gender, mother tongue, caste and religion. The study included various forms of abuse
experienced by the children and includes physical, sexual and emotional abuse. In addition, it

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also covered the neglect experienced by girls. The study indicated a great percentage of abuse
experienced by Indian children. This shows that despite having laws and the required body to
implement it, there is no real ground level change that can be observed with regards to cases
related to child abuse.

Some of the major findings of the study are:

Physical abuse:

1. Two out of every three children were physically abused

2. Out of 69 percent of physically abused children in 13 sample states, 54.68 percent
were boys
3. The states of Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar and Delhi have almost consistently
reported higher rates of abuse in all forms as compared to other states.
4. Out of the children physically abused in family situations, 88.6 percent were
physically abused by parents and
5. 65 percent of school going children reported facing corporal punishment, i.e., two out
of three children were victims of corporal punishment

Sexual abuse:

1. 53.22 percent children reported having faced one or more forms of sexual abuse
2. Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar and Delhi reported the highest percentage of sexual
abuse among both boys and girls
3. 21.9 percent child respondents reported facing severe forms of sexual abuse and 50.76
percent experienced other forms of sexual abuse while 5.69 percent reported being
sexually assaulted
4. 7.5 percent abusers are persons known to the child or in a position of trust and
responsibility in the child’s life.

Now, from this data, the Indian scenario can be perfectly established. This data is not from a
private survey or data collected by any NGO. This is the survey conducted by the
government. And it reflects the situation that exists in the society. Yes, it is understood that
there is no way to confirm the responses made by these children. They could have bluffed,
similar to how many girls falsify rape case charge on others. Plus, many small children do not
have that memory of such young age. But still their responses are recorded. But then, there is
no other way than to go by the responses of the children and young adults included in the

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sample. There is something that has to be done to control these numbers. We have the law;
we have the system. Maybe somewhere, strictness of the punishment is an issue. Education
also plays an important role and hence focus has to be laid on the grassroot level as well and
not only on the top. The way we perceive these kinds of inhuman things also make a
difference. If we voice our opinions and try to make an impact as a whole, things will change
for good gradually.

Summary and Conclusion:

Child abuse is a social issue and an obstacle towards holistic development of any country.
There are various forms of child abuses such as physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional or
psychological abuse, verbal abuse, corporal abuse etc. Out of all these, sexual abuse is the
most common one. Since the scope of child abuse is such large, many respondents have
reportedly faced it in their childhood (even corporal punishments in school is seen as a form
of child abuse then most of the children have faced it in their school days). Various reasons
and theories as to why child abuse happens as been showed up. The prevailing scenario in
India has been shown, and is supported by the study and findings from Ministry of women
and child development, government of India. The final results are alarming and there is a
constant need to reduce it and make India a better and safe place for our children.

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REFERENCES:
GOOGLE SCHOLAR:
1. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED186107 (Defining child abuse)

2. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?
doi=10.1.1.691.7155&rep=rep1&type=pdf (CHILD ABUSE IN INDIA)

3. https://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/30202556/childhoodandtrauma-
book.pdf?response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename
%3DChild_sexual_abuse.pdf&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-
Credential=AKIAIWOWYYGZ2Y53UL3A%2F20190826%2Fus-east-
1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20190826T072020Z&X-Amz-
Expires=3600&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-
Signature=906d192bed4cf4f0b2dd4e4de88f743c494ac7423dee24ca7e919396b33acd
6c#page=117

J-STOR:
1. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4419782?
Search=yes&resultItemClick=true&searchText=child&searchText=abuse&searchUri
=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dchild%2Babuse%26amp%3Bacc
%3Doff%26amp%3Bwc%3Don%26amp%3Bfc%3Doff%26amp%3Bgroup
%3Dnone&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_SYC-4341%2Ftest&refreqid=search
%3A5b74bd9026910f6393562378e08ffeb0&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents (Child
Abuse: Confronting the reality, study of government of India)

2. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27809047?
Search=yes&resultItemClick=true&searchText=child&searchText=abuse&searchUri
=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dchild%2Babuse%26amp%3Bacc
%3Doff%26amp%3Bwc%3Don%26amp%3Bfc%3Doff%26amp%3Bgroup
%3Dnone&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_SYC-4341%2Ftest&refreqid=search
%3A5b74bd9026910f6393562378e08ffeb0&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents (NEWS
AND VIEWS on child abuses)

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OTHERS:

1. https://www.med.or.jp/english/journal/pdf/2013_05/302_309.pdf (Be Human, Stop

child abuse)

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