Heard of child abuse?

What is child abuse?

Child abuse or child maltreatment is physical, sexual, and/or psychological maltreatment or neglect of a child or children, especially by a parent or a caregiver. Child abuse may include any act or failure to act by a parent or a caregiver that results in actual or potential harm to a child and can occur in a child's home, or in the organizations, schools, or communities the child interacts with. (Wikipedia)

What are the types of child abuse?

1.Physical abuse: Hitting or physically hurting children.

2. Emotional abuse: Treating kids in a way that will hurt their mental health and messing with their mental development.

3. Sexual abuse: Exploiting children for sexual purposes or involving them in a sexual act.

4.Neglect: When the caregiver doesn't provide or do the necessary things a child needs during their growing years.

How to know if a child suffers from it?

Children aren't always able to talk about what they go through. Maybe they don't recognize the abuse. Maybe they don't know how to vocalize it. If a child starts refusing to go to a particular place or to talk to a particular person without any reason, always ask him/her why. If a child starts having unexplainable bruises on his/her body, it's a bad sign. A child may show very extreme behavior changes if they are suffering from child abuse. Children showing signs of trauma are easy to find. Never forget to check the body for marks. All these are ways to see if a child is suffering from child abuse.

What next?

On hearing about the abuse, react quickly with care. Believe what the child told you. Validate his/her feelings. Tell them that they are safe( take them to a safe place) and never make them feel guilty. Call necessary authorities fast. All the necessary steps to address the situation should be taken. It can be very traumatic for the child, so consider taking the child to therapy.

How is the child affected by child abuse?

Child abuse leaves the child with long-term scars that they won't forget. Some will develop psychological issues as they grow. But therapy is recommended for everyone. It leaves long-term scars on the body too. Abuse can mess with the child's future relationships during adulthood. It can highly mess with the child's confidence too. It also causes trauma that the child has to suffer maybe his/ her whole life, restricting some things in life that the child could have enjoyed.

Why is this topic prominent now?

Child abuse is happening on a large scale in India. A high number of children are sexually exploited every day here. Most houses may have a story of an uncle touching a child in a bad way. Many children can't recognize what's happening. Many children can't speak out because of the stigma around it in our country.

Physical abuse takes place on a very large scale in the country. 90% of it is done by people close to the child i. e it happens in their household( Parents). It's way too common than everyone thinks. Physically hitting your child still is done in India, even after all these years.

Where can we report child abuse?

There is a lot of helplines that you can call. One of the most famous helpline is Childline (1098). Police can also be contacted. There are several laws protecting children from abuse, make use of it.

What can we do to stop this?

Spread awareness in a way that will help children to recognize abuse. Several parents (when abuse happens in a household) justify the physical abuse they do to their kids by saying that they do feed them and shelter them, so it's okay. Most kids tend to take this in and believe that this is okay. This leads to them doing this to their kids in the future. So awareness plays a major role in reducing child abuse. Also, the laws on child protection should be more well known to people. The laws should be strengthened too in such a way it scares abusive parents or other abusers.

Abuse is abuse even if it's your parents. Speak out. Ask for help. Help the survivors.

Ameesha. K. Faisal 1st year BA Mass communication and Journalism