Are We failing Our Children?

Are We failing Our Children?


Today I raise the issue of almost a billion unprivileged children whom we ignore, marginalize and even brutalize day in and day out. It might sound strange to some of you to consider children as an underprivileged group. Often, we see them as being a well-cared for and pampered group. This description fits some children but not the majority of them who are deprived of basic necessities and are abused in various ways. We fail to realize that even under the best of circumstances, children, more so female children, are abused physically, sexually and emotionally. Much of such abuse does not come to light because the perpetrators of these abuses may be close relatives, or friends. The incidents go unreported because the victims are too scared to complain or the parents do not like to wash their dirty linen in public. Of late, particularly after the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child by the United Nations General Assembly in 1989, there has been a growing awareness regarding the continuing, even accelerating, infringements of the rights of children. An increasing concern is being expressed both at the national as well international levels. With greater transparency - parents are more open to public discussion of issues relating to child abuse - and greater media and non-governmental organization (NGO) activism, more and more people are learning about the magnitude and the growing seriousness of the problem of child deprivation and abuse. Economic Development and Child Abuse Economic development, which raises the income of households and thereby helps to reduce the child deprivation, also creates conditions under which children become much more vulnerable. The rural poor are often forced to move to urban areas in search of jobs having lost their land as a result of debts and the lack of alternative employment opportunities in rural areas. With economic development the importance of agriculture declines relative to the industrial and the service sectors. Since these sectors are predominantly urban, the population drifts to the urban centres. The resulting urbanization tends to undermine the joint family system. When the earning member of the family moves to an urban area, housing shortage compels the family to leave the grand parents at their original place of abode. The high cost of urban living forces both parents of the children to take up employment outside the home. This applies as much to poor families as to the more well-to-do ones. This has serious consequences for the children. For lack of resources, poor parents make children leave schools and begin to work at an early age. Schools are either inadequately provided or even non-existent in slums where relatively poor families end up. These urban slums lack even the basic amenities such as toilets, drainage and drinking water. Parents in poor families can hardly afford good nurseries, kindergartens or schools. In the absence of the care of parents or grand parents, many children end up on the streets and come into contact with street gangs, pimps and other anti-social elements. These elements initiate these children into illegal activities such as begging, pick-pocketing, drug peddling and prostitution. Such children on the streets are invariably treated as criminals and mishandled by the police Nor do these children get a fair treatment in courts of justice. When they end up in prisons or correctional homes, they get abused in various ways. The children in more well-to-do families fare better in terms of living conditions, schooling and other amenities, but these children-known as latch-key children- face other problems. Because of the high cost of living in cities, often, both parents have to work. As a result, parents are away from home when the children arrive back from schools. They may have to spend an hour or two alone before the parents return home. During this period the children fix their own refreshments with one kind of fast food or another and watch television or play video games. As a result of inappropriate food and the lack of physical activity many children become obese. Obesity is a growing problem in most countries, both developed and developing. Incessant watching of violence on the television and playing computer games with considerable amount of violence in them tend to attract the children to violence. The social tolerance of violence means that parents do not hesitate to give the replica of deadliest killing machines as presents to their children. Through the Internet chat clubs, some children come in contact with people who lure them out of the house and abuse them. Globalization and Child Abuse With economic development comes the increasing pace of globalization. The drastic reduction in the cost and time in long distance travel, tourism has been increasing phenomenally. In some countries tourism has become a considerable source of foreign exchange available for growth as well as development. As a result, most countries developed and developing are promoting tourism. There is no doubt that tourism raises income and employment for poor and thereby assists in ameliorating poverty. Tourism also brings with it its vices. It is not unknown that tourists often indulge in activities in foreign countries which they would not do at home either for fear of law enforcement or for fear of social ostracism. Sex tourism, particularly sex with young children comes in this category. With tourism, there has been a phenomenal increase in child-sex related tourism. The increasing demand for young children, both boys and girls, is met by child trafficking by national and international vice-rings. With sex tourism, the increase in the incidence of sexually transmitted diseases including AIDS among children has been causing worldwide concern. Among the other causes of child deprivation and abuse one can include both man-made and natural disasters. Man-made disasters such as wars in several countries in Africa, in Afghanistan and Iraq have killed and orphaned children the world over. Millions of children in Africa have been forced to become child soldiers handling deadly weapons, millions of girls have been raped and forced to become prostitutes for the soldiers. HIV/AIDS, possibly a hybrid of natural and man-made disasters has killed or orphaned millions of children. Among the natural disasters, the recent Tsunami has also led to the orphaning and destitution of children. Magnitude of the Problem An accurate assessment of the number of children suffering various kinds of deprivation and abuse is difficult to come by. Yet estimates by the United Nations agencies such as the International Labour Organization (ILO), United Nations International Children’s Organization (UNICEF) and other international agencies as well as some national estimates and the NGOs researches do provide some sense of the magnitude. According to the most recent estimates, the total world population has reached 6.6 billion. A third of the total comprises children below the age of 18, nearly 90 percent of these children live in developing countries.[i] According to UNICEF, as many as 1 billion children in the world live in poverty and suffer other deprivations. 16 percent of the children under the age of 5 years living in the developing world are severely malnourished. Nearly half of these 90 million malnourished children live in South Asia.[ii] This means that one out of every four children under five in South Asia is severely malnourished. Almost 640 million children, or one out of three, living in developing countries, lack adequate shelter. As many as 400 million or one in five have no access to safe drinking water. Nearly 270 million children are deprived of medical and health facilities. Nearly 500 million children have no access to sanitation facilities. At least 140 million school going children in developing countries—13 percent of those aged 7-18 years—have never attended school. In South Asia one in four girls of school going age (against one in seven boys) has never gone to school.[iii] As many as 300 million children in developing countries do not have access to television, radio, telephone or newspapers so they are also deprived of informal education. As a result of various kinds of deprivation nearly one sixth of the developing countries’ children are born with a low birth weight. One child in four children under 5 years of age is moderately or severely underweight.[iv] In South Asia, these numbers are even higher; nearly 29 percent of the infants (under 1-year) are born with low birth weight and as many as 45 percent of children under 5-years of age are moderately or severely underweight. Currently, the infant mortality rate per thousand in developing countries stands at 57 against only 6 for the industrialized countries. The mortality rate of children under the age of 5 in developing countries is as high as 83 against only 6 for industrialized countries. The equivalent numbers for South Asia are 63 and 84.[v] Deprivations and Abuse Reinforcing It is well-known that these deprivations abuses often go together and reinforce each other. For instance, on the one hand poverty is the main cause of inadequate nutrition, housing, health care, sanitation and education; on the other hand, lack of sanitary conditions of living by causing various kinds of diseases reduces the capacity to learn as well as the potential to work. Similarly, a lack of education does not only inhibit future potential for employment and earning, it also inhibits the capacity to appreciate the significance of sanitary conditions of living. Similarly, poverty forces parents to send children to work as domestic servants or workers on farms, in workshops and mines at an early age where they are often ill treated, badly paid and forced to work in unhealthy workshops impairing their health. Working under such conditions and ill treatment and abuse cripples the children’s personality by undermining their self-esteem and creating a sense of hopelessness. All this creates an atmosphere of despondency in which the child workers cease to attempt to improve their present state even when an opportunity may arise. It is known that child domestic workers if when given time to attend school do not make serious effort to develop their potential. Clearly, this adversely affects future earning potential of such children. In societies where income and wealth form the main basis for political power, the poor and the underprivileged suffer lack not only the will but also the power to get out of the poverty trap. Of course, there are exceptions, but it has been experienced world over that poverty thus breeds poverty for future generations. Child Abuse It is by now, widely recognized that millions of children world over, are subjected daily to violence, physical, sexual and emotional, at home, at school and at work. As a UN study by Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro (henceforth the UN Study) points out, ‘such violence exists in every country in the world, cutting across culture, class, education, income and ethnic origin. In every region, in contradiction to human rights obligations and children’s developmental needs, violence against children is socially approved, and is frequently legal and State-authorized.’[vi] Violence against children is often perpetrated by the very ‘people who are part of their lives, parents, schoolmates, teachers, employers, boyfriends or girl friends spouses and partners.’[vii] The UN Study further points out that: 1. According to the estimates of the World Health Organization (WHO), as many as 53,000 children died worldwide as a result of homicide in 2002.[viii] 2. Evidence from many countries from every region indicates that up to 80 percent or more children suffer physical punishments, with thirty percent or more experiencing severe punishment, 3. In both developed and developing countries bullying is commonly practiced in schools, and as many as 20 to 65 percent children in developing countries experience bullying in schools; 4. According to WHO estimates, in 2002 nearly 150 million girls and 73 million boys were subjected to sexual violence including forced sexual intercourse; 5. The WHO indicates that between 100 and 140 million girls and women of the world have undergone some form of genital mutilation or cutting.[ix] In Sub-Saharan Africa alone 3 million girls and women are subjected each year to this harmful social convention; 6. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), in 2004 as many as 218 million children were engaged in child labour, this included 126 million in hazardous work.[x] It is also estimated that as many as 5.7 million children in 2000 were working as ‘bonded’ labour; 1.8 million in prostitution and pornography and 1.2 million were victims of child trafficking.[xi] A detailed study of child abuse in India by the Ministry of Women and Child development, Government of India comes to similar grim conclusions.[xii] The study (henceforth the Government of India Study) found that just over two thirds of the respondents were physically abused.[xiii] In Assam, Mizoram, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh the corresponding rates ranged between 82 and 85 percent. Much of the physical abuse took place in the family environment and was inflicted by parents in an atmosphere of domestic violence, alcoholism and drug abuse. In nearly 15 percent of cases physical abuse resulted in serious physical injury such as swelling or bleeding.[xiv] Two out of three children reported receiving corporal punishment at school. Nearly 60 percent of the children put in institutions were subjected to physical abuse by the staff. The rate of physical abuse of juveniles in conflict with law in observational and special homes was much higher than children in need and care who are placed in children’s home or sheltered homes.[xv] Children at work suffer a similar fate. A study by the Save the Children and Tulir, ‘Abuse among Child Domestic workers of West Bengal’ shows that as many as 70 percent of the domestic child workers are physically abused.[xvi] The Government of India Study also reported that nearly 60 percent of the respondents had experienced physical abuse in employment.[xvii] The Government of India Study also looked into the sexual abuse of children and came to the conclusion that a little more than half the children responding to the survey had suffered one form of sexual abuse or another including severe forms of sex abuse.[xviii] The study also found that sexual abuse of children started as early as 5 years of age (victim’s age) and peaked at 12 to 15 years of age. Contrary to common perception, a greater percentage of boys were victims of sex abuse. The Government of India Study found that in 9 out of 13 Indian states surveyed, there was a higher percentage of sexual abuse of boys than girls. In Delhi two out of every three boys were subjected to sex abuse against only one out of two girls.[xix] Nationwide the difference was much smaller, 53 percent for boys against 47 percent for girls. In another study on child sexual abuse by Save the Children and Tulir in Chennai, it was found that at least 42 percent of school children were victims of one form of sex abuse. This study also showed that sex abuse was more prevalent in upper and the upper-middle classes than in lower-middle and the poorer classes. The incidents of sex abuse were present in both nucleus as well as extended families. It was also found that the majority of the abusers were usually known, (such as cousins, uncles, friends and class mates) to the child.[xx] Most studies suggest that the abusers are not strangers but close relatives and friends whom the child knows very well. The abusers include cousins, uncles, and friends of the family. Incidents of incest are not uncommon in India. A recent survey by RAHI, a Delhi-based NGO reported that 76 percent of respondents (college young women) to its survey had been abused when they were children – 40 percent of those by a family member. The report, ‘Voices from the Silent Zone,’ suggests that nearly three-quarters of upper and middle class Indian women are abused by a family member - often an uncle, a cousin or an elder brother.[xxi] Research by a Delhi-based NGO, Sakshi, suggests that nearly 80 percent of women from all classes experienced sexual abuse within their own families or by acquaintances. In over 20 percent of cases the victims were subjected to serious and continuing forms of sexual abuse by close relatives.[xxii] Apart from the physical and sexual abuse, a child is subjected to various emotional abuses quite often by parents. They, inadvertently or otherwise humiliate a child by comparing him or her to somebody else. Often, girls are belittled for being born as girls and as a burden to the family. Girls feel so neglected or humiliated that nearly half of them reported wishing that they were born as boys. To say that some one else is more intelligent or better looking belittles the victim and undermines his or her self-esteem. Particularly, a child domestic worker is victimized by abusive language not only for the victim but also for the victim’s parents.
[i] UNICEF, The State of the World’s Children: Children Under Threat, 2005, (N.Y:UNICEF, 2004), p. 10 [ii] Ibid., p.20. [iii] Ibid. p. 22. [iv] UNICEF, The State of the World’s Children: Women and Children, 2007 ( N.Y. UNICEF, 2006), Executive Summary, pp. 28, 39. [v] UNICEF, The State of the World’s Children, 2007 (Executive Summary) [vi] UN General Assembly, Report of the Independent Expert for the United Nations Study on Violence Against Children, 29 August 2006, p.5. [vii] Ibid., p.9. [viii] Ibid., p.9, see also WHO, Global estimates of due to violence against Children, Background Paper for the United Nations Study on Violence Against Children Geneva, 2006. [ix] UNICEF, Changing a Harmful Social Convention: Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting, Innocenti Digest No. 12 Innocenti Research Center, Florence, 2005. [x] ILO, The End of Child Labour Within Reach: Global Report, Geneva 2006. [xi] ILO, A Future Without Child Labour: Global Report,, Geneva, 2003. [xii] Government of India, Ministry of Home and Child Development, Study on Child Abuse, India 2007, prepared by Loveleen Kacker, New Delhi 2007. [xiii] Ibid,. pp. 44-5. According to the ILO, physical abuse of a child is an ‘incident resulting in actual or potential physical harm from an interaction or lack of interaction, which is reasonably within the control of a parent or person in position of responsibility, power or trust.’ Quoted in Ibid. p.43. [xiv] Ibid., p. 51. [xv] Ibid. p. 55. [xvi] Save the Children and Tulir (Centre for Prevention and Healing Child Sexual abuse),. Abuse among the Child Domestic Workers—A Research study in West Bengal’ West Bengal Office of Save the Children, Calcutta, 2006, p. 11. [xvii] Government of India, Ministry of Home and Child Development, op. cit., , p.58. [xviii] The report mentions the following as severe forms of sex abuse: assault including rape and sodomy, touching or fondling a child, forcing a child to expose her private parts and photographing a child in the nude. Other forms of sexual abuse included: forced kissing, sexual advances towards a child in travel, sexual advances towards a child during marriages, exposing oneself before a child and showing pornographic material to a child. (Ibid. p. 73) [xix] Ibid., p. 75. [xx] Save the Children and Tulir, ‘Research on Prevaalence & Dynamics of Child sexual Abuse among Schoolgoing Children in Chennai,’ .Save the Children, Sweden Regional Office for South and c\Central Imdia, Lalitpurm 2006, pp. 10-2. [xxi] RAHI, Voices from the Silent Zone,’ http://www.rahifoundation.org/Programmes/Programmes/document.2004-11-16.2705569041. See also BBC, India’s Hidden Incest,’ 22 January 1999. [xxii] Preeti Vasishtha, ‘Give them a clean childhood,’ Indian Express, Bombay,10 August 1998.

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