I’m working in the area of child counselling and protection, and was disturbed to come across a study that revealed a staggering 53% of the surveyed children reporting one or more forms of sexual abuse in India.

Abuse of children, particularly sexual abuse, is rarely admitted in India. It doesn't happen here is what we normally say. But by remaining silent, we have aided and abetted the abuse of children.

The issue of child abuse has been raised in the past by non-governmental organisations, but this is the first time an attempt has been made by the government to document the scale of the problem in the Child Abuse
INDIA 2007 report.

The study took two years to complete, and covered 13 states where 12,247 children (between five and 12) and 2,324 young adults (over the age of 12) were quizzed.

A substantial number of the abusers were "persons in trust and care-givers" who included parents, relatives and school teachers.
A disturbing finding of the study had been that 70% had not reported the abuse to anyone.

Let us hope that better policies to protect children are put into place.
It is time that in our country parents and adults learn that children are not property, and that they have rights too.