18.6.11
DNA
100 may have exploited 14-year-old in Kerala
The Kerala police is hunting for at least 70 persons who allegedly sexually exploited a 14-year old girl in connivance with her father.
The police believe that over 100 persons might be involved in the sexual exploitation of the girl, and 29 have been arrested recently.
The girl said her father, who used to do odd roles in Malayalam films, first exploited her and then let others in the industry and outside to do the same.
Hailing from Paravoor in Ernakulam district, the girl revealed her trauma to a close relative, following which a police complaint was filed three months ago.
Police said 71 accused are absconding and the police are hunting for them in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. The victim had named some persons and a few more have to be identified.
June 27, 2011
22.6.11
Indian Express
Training for cops to deal with sexual abuse victims
For a victim of sexual abuse, the horror often does not end with the crime. The victim relives the pain and humiliation repeatedly starting from the time he or she approaches the police to register a complaint. In a bid to sensitise the police, a city-based NGO is training policemen on handling child sexual abuse cases.
Muskaan, an initiative under Aalochana, Centre for Documentation and Research on Women, is training policemen on the psychological, social, and legal aspects of sexual abuse cases. “In most cases, the culprits are close relatives who make the victims feel ashamed of themselves,” Radhika Rawat of Muskaan said.
Recently, state Director General of Police Ajit Parasnis had said that growing crime against minors was one of the biggest concerns for the police. Sharmila Raje, another team member said, “We approached Police Commissioner Meeran Borwankar and expressed our concern about the way the issue of chld sexual abuse is dealt with at police stations. We suggested training for the police. With her approval, we have begun our training with sub inspectors and writers at police stations. We have covered all police stations under Zone I and will be covering the other three zones in the coming days.”
Indian Express
Training for cops to deal with sexual abuse victims
For a victim of sexual abuse, the horror often does not end with the crime. The victim relives the pain and humiliation repeatedly starting from the time he or she approaches the police to register a complaint. In a bid to sensitise the police, a city-based NGO is training policemen on handling child sexual abuse cases.
Muskaan, an initiative under Aalochana, Centre for Documentation and Research on Women, is training policemen on the psychological, social, and legal aspects of sexual abuse cases. “In most cases, the culprits are close relatives who make the victims feel ashamed of themselves,” Radhika Rawat of Muskaan said.
Recently, state Director General of Police Ajit Parasnis had said that growing crime against minors was one of the biggest concerns for the police. Sharmila Raje, another team member said, “We approached Police Commissioner Meeran Borwankar and expressed our concern about the way the issue of chld sexual abuse is dealt with at police stations. We suggested training for the police. With her approval, we have begun our training with sub inspectors and writers at police stations. We have covered all police stations under Zone I and will be covering the other three zones in the coming days.”
Kids are no longer safe
Express News Service , The New Indian Express
Posted on Jun 25, 2011 at 12:26pm IST
KOCHI: Incidents of sexual abuse have been hitting headlines for years now. But some of the incidents that have cropped up recently seem to be a little too disturbing. For, it is no longer the woman but the child who is the target and that too with the active participation of the parent.
Is this a new phenomenon in our society or is it just a continuation of our history?
“We cannot say this is completely new. There is no data to say that. But now such incidents are coming out in the open. It must be said that on an average the number of parents committing sexual abuse is just two percent. But the fact that it is happening cannot be ignored,” says M K G Nair, director of Child Development Centre, Trivandrum Medical College.
Cities seem to be on the forefront as far as such incidents are concerned.
Experts say this might be due to under reporting in villages while others feel these can be some of the side-effects of modernity seen in cities. “In rural areas, people are more connected. In my experience I have seen that when such incidents take place, the neighbours get to know and the local people intervene. But in cities this network is limited,” says M P Antony, project officer, Rajagiri Outreach.
At a time when children are increasingly becoming the focus of a parent’s life, such incidents have a tendency to shock society. “These were problems generally associated with the western society.
But in the west there are also several mechanisms to counter the issue. But we have ended up in a situation where we have all the problems but no solutions. A child here is extremely vulnerable because there are hardly any avenues for him/her to voice their problems,” said Sachidananda Kamath, president, Indian Medical Association, Kochi.
Counselling centres in schools which experts believe can put some check on the incidents.
Sex education of children from a young age could reduce their vulnerability to such abuse. “It has been scientifically proven that children who are given adequate sex education are five times less vulnerable to sexual abuse. “As part of the Integrated Child Development Programme (ICDS) the government has started a programme which makes counselling in schools compulsory. But the programme is yet to take off. “We are launching a state-wide scheme on similar lines under the CM’s 100-day programme.
It will include 10 lakh children from 300 Anganwadis. It might not be a revolution but it is at least a step forward,” said Nair.
Express News Service , The New Indian Express
Posted on Jun 25, 2011 at 12:26pm IST
KOCHI: Incidents of sexual abuse have been hitting headlines for years now. But some of the incidents that have cropped up recently seem to be a little too disturbing. For, it is no longer the woman but the child who is the target and that too with the active participation of the parent.
Is this a new phenomenon in our society or is it just a continuation of our history?
“We cannot say this is completely new. There is no data to say that. But now such incidents are coming out in the open. It must be said that on an average the number of parents committing sexual abuse is just two percent. But the fact that it is happening cannot be ignored,” says M K G Nair, director of Child Development Centre, Trivandrum Medical College.
Cities seem to be on the forefront as far as such incidents are concerned.
Experts say this might be due to under reporting in villages while others feel these can be some of the side-effects of modernity seen in cities. “In rural areas, people are more connected. In my experience I have seen that when such incidents take place, the neighbours get to know and the local people intervene. But in cities this network is limited,” says M P Antony, project officer, Rajagiri Outreach.
At a time when children are increasingly becoming the focus of a parent’s life, such incidents have a tendency to shock society. “These were problems generally associated with the western society.
But in the west there are also several mechanisms to counter the issue. But we have ended up in a situation where we have all the problems but no solutions. A child here is extremely vulnerable because there are hardly any avenues for him/her to voice their problems,” said Sachidananda Kamath, president, Indian Medical Association, Kochi.
Counselling centres in schools which experts believe can put some check on the incidents.
Sex education of children from a young age could reduce their vulnerability to such abuse. “It has been scientifically proven that children who are given adequate sex education are five times less vulnerable to sexual abuse. “As part of the Integrated Child Development Programme (ICDS) the government has started a programme which makes counselling in schools compulsory. But the programme is yet to take off. “We are launching a state-wide scheme on similar lines under the CM’s 100-day programme.
It will include 10 lakh children from 300 Anganwadis. It might not be a revolution but it is at least a step forward,” said Nair.
June 14, 2011
14.6.11
Times of India
Court roots for greater awareness on tackling sexual assaults on kids
MUMBAI: The Bombay high court has pitched for greater awareness of the three 'R's--recognise, resist and report--to tackle sexual assaults on children. Justice Roshan Dalvi's observations came while upholding the 10 years rigorous imprisonment awarded to a Raigad resident who had raped a nine-year-old standard III student seven years ago.
"It is when society, as also families, fail to follow these principles that offences of the kind alleged by the prosecution, in this case (rape of a child), take place," said Justice Dalvi. The judge said that while such crimes were universal, in rural areas, sexual abuse of children was left unobserved. "It is, therefore, that the crime persists with regular frequency over the most innocent victims," said the judge.
The judge called the assault on the victim a "gross violation of human rights" and refused to show the accused, Laxman Kokare, leniency. The defence had urged lesser punishment, saying Kokare was the father of two minors. "This would mean that the father of two minor children can sexually molest the minor children of other fathers. It would be scandalous to suggest that such persons who are a menace to innocent minor children can be seen by the court with any amount of leniency," said the judge.
On July 9, 2004, when the victim was on her way to school, Kokare had lured her with a chocolate and sexually assaulted her. A few days earlier, he had made a similar attempt. The victim later went to school, where the teacher noticed bleeding and sent her home.
Later in the day, she told her 17-year-old sister, who lodged a complaint with the police.
A sessions court had sentenced Kokare to 10 years, which he challenged. The high court held that Kokare was guilty of aggravated rape. It, however, noted the casualness with which the school and others treated the incident.
"It appears from evidence, the awareness required to be disseminated was absent in the home of the victim, her neighbourhood, as also her school. The violation on her person was taken in the stride by her siblings, neighbours, as also her teacher," said the judge.
The court reflected on preventive measures required in society and said, "The criminal justice system, which comes at the top of the ladder of society and which comes into play much after the offence is committed, can only deal with the punitive effect of such offence, the preventive and protective measures having failed in society."
14.6.11
Times of India
State to pay victims of crime
MUMBAI: Victims of sexual assault and any other form of violence who suffer severe injuries, or their kin in case of fatalities, will no longer have to appeal in court to get monetary compensation. The Maharashtra government is readying a draft victim rehabilitation policy to ensure that those who suffer severe mental trauma and grievous injuries get financial aid from the state.
"The process to assist 'victims of body injuries' has begun. The department is working on the modalities like the content of the policy, the compensation amount and criteria for entitlement," said Pravin Dixit, principal secretary, home department.
On Friday, Dixit chaired a debut meeting at Mantralaya to discuss the nature of the policy for grievously injured victims. The two-hour meeting was attended by senior IPS official Gulabrao Pol, joint secretary of the home department R D Sankhe and officials of the legal department.
The state government's initiative comes following an amendment to Section 357A of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) approved by the government of India. It obliges every state government to prepare a scheme for providing funds to compensate the victim of a crime or his or her dependents.
"A corpus meant exclusively for compensating 'victims of body injuries' was discussed," said a senior official present at the meeting. Victims of rape cases or crimes where a person loses a limb or any part of the body will be covered in the new compensation policy, the official added.
"The policy prepared by the home department will be tabled for approval by the state government's finance, planning, law and judiciary departments. It will then be forwarded to the Union government for its approval and suggestions if any," Dixit said.
According to the policy, immediately after the incident of crime, a victim will be entitled to compensation as the policy is not linked to the outcome of court cases. "Irrespective of whether the accused is convicted or acquitted, the victim will get monetary help as finalized by the government," Dixit said.
If the state government is to be believed, every year 5,000 to 6,000 cases of severe injuries are registered in the state. "The victim will have to make a claim for the compensation. Those who do not claim will not be entitled to financial assistance," a senior Mantralaya official said. "The victim will have to get a medical certificate from doctors (the panel is yet to be decided) and the claim will be verified by the legal aid cell committee."
Still at a nascent stage, the policy will take a while to be fine-tuned. A similar policy is already in place in Punjab, whereby a compensation of Rs 1 lakh is given for loss of life and Rs 40,000 for over 40% damage to a body organ. In cases of rape, the compensation is Rs 30,000 and Rs 20,000 for an injury that causes mental trauma.
Times of India
Court roots for greater awareness on tackling sexual assaults on kids
MUMBAI: The Bombay high court has pitched for greater awareness of the three 'R's--recognise, resist and report--to tackle sexual assaults on children. Justice Roshan Dalvi's observations came while upholding the 10 years rigorous imprisonment awarded to a Raigad resident who had raped a nine-year-old standard III student seven years ago.
"It is when society, as also families, fail to follow these principles that offences of the kind alleged by the prosecution, in this case (rape of a child), take place," said Justice Dalvi. The judge said that while such crimes were universal, in rural areas, sexual abuse of children was left unobserved. "It is, therefore, that the crime persists with regular frequency over the most innocent victims," said the judge.
The judge called the assault on the victim a "gross violation of human rights" and refused to show the accused, Laxman Kokare, leniency. The defence had urged lesser punishment, saying Kokare was the father of two minors. "This would mean that the father of two minor children can sexually molest the minor children of other fathers. It would be scandalous to suggest that such persons who are a menace to innocent minor children can be seen by the court with any amount of leniency," said the judge.
On July 9, 2004, when the victim was on her way to school, Kokare had lured her with a chocolate and sexually assaulted her. A few days earlier, he had made a similar attempt. The victim later went to school, where the teacher noticed bleeding and sent her home.
Later in the day, she told her 17-year-old sister, who lodged a complaint with the police.
A sessions court had sentenced Kokare to 10 years, which he challenged. The high court held that Kokare was guilty of aggravated rape. It, however, noted the casualness with which the school and others treated the incident.
"It appears from evidence, the awareness required to be disseminated was absent in the home of the victim, her neighbourhood, as also her school. The violation on her person was taken in the stride by her siblings, neighbours, as also her teacher," said the judge.
The court reflected on preventive measures required in society and said, "The criminal justice system, which comes at the top of the ladder of society and which comes into play much after the offence is committed, can only deal with the punitive effect of such offence, the preventive and protective measures having failed in society."
14.6.11
Times of India
State to pay victims of crime
MUMBAI: Victims of sexual assault and any other form of violence who suffer severe injuries, or their kin in case of fatalities, will no longer have to appeal in court to get monetary compensation. The Maharashtra government is readying a draft victim rehabilitation policy to ensure that those who suffer severe mental trauma and grievous injuries get financial aid from the state.
"The process to assist 'victims of body injuries' has begun. The department is working on the modalities like the content of the policy, the compensation amount and criteria for entitlement," said Pravin Dixit, principal secretary, home department.
On Friday, Dixit chaired a debut meeting at Mantralaya to discuss the nature of the policy for grievously injured victims. The two-hour meeting was attended by senior IPS official Gulabrao Pol, joint secretary of the home department R D Sankhe and officials of the legal department.
The state government's initiative comes following an amendment to Section 357A of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) approved by the government of India. It obliges every state government to prepare a scheme for providing funds to compensate the victim of a crime or his or her dependents.
"A corpus meant exclusively for compensating 'victims of body injuries' was discussed," said a senior official present at the meeting. Victims of rape cases or crimes where a person loses a limb or any part of the body will be covered in the new compensation policy, the official added.
"The policy prepared by the home department will be tabled for approval by the state government's finance, planning, law and judiciary departments. It will then be forwarded to the Union government for its approval and suggestions if any," Dixit said.
According to the policy, immediately after the incident of crime, a victim will be entitled to compensation as the policy is not linked to the outcome of court cases. "Irrespective of whether the accused is convicted or acquitted, the victim will get monetary help as finalized by the government," Dixit said.
If the state government is to be believed, every year 5,000 to 6,000 cases of severe injuries are registered in the state. "The victim will have to make a claim for the compensation. Those who do not claim will not be entitled to financial assistance," a senior Mantralaya official said. "The victim will have to get a medical certificate from doctors (the panel is yet to be decided) and the claim will be verified by the legal aid cell committee."
Still at a nascent stage, the policy will take a while to be fine-tuned. A similar policy is already in place in Punjab, whereby a compensation of Rs 1 lakh is given for loss of life and Rs 40,000 for over 40% damage to a body organ. In cases of rape, the compensation is Rs 30,000 and Rs 20,000 for an injury that causes mental trauma.
June 13, 2011
11.6.2011
Hindustan Times
Scheme for rape victims by mid-August
Following the finance ministry’s acquiescence, a Centrally-sponsored scheme, not a fund, will be launched in two months time to monetarily compensate victims of rape, a government source told HT. The Centre will finance the scheme for the first year, but for subsequent years it will operate on a shared basis with the states, the source added.
“We have been pursuing this scheme for restorative justice and would like it to be launched at the earliest as now only creation of certain structures at the state and district levels is left. This scheme has been formalised after wide consultations,” women and child development minister Krishna Tirath said.
THE SCHEME
Based on the principles of restorative justice, the proposed scheme seeks to provide the rape victim a helping hand to help cope with the trauma and to tide over immediate and long-term needs.
Money-wise, the immediate and interim amount to be offered would be R70,000, while R1,30,000 would be offered for victim’s long-term needs.
The scheme also envisages setting up of criminal injuries relief and rehabilitation boards at the district, state and central levels for consideration of claims and ensuring effective coordination.
In certain cases, where victim is a minor or physically challenged, the rehabilitation boards will have the jurisdiction to increase the compensation amount to Rs 3 lakh.
THE HURDLE
The proposal had run into a hitch after the Planning Commission suggested that it should be financed from a fund and not operated in the form of a Centrally-sponsored scheme.
NCW’s role
The formulation of the scheme was initiated by the National Commission for Women in 1995 following a SC directive.
Hindustan Times
Scheme for rape victims by mid-August
Following the finance ministry’s acquiescence, a Centrally-sponsored scheme, not a fund, will be launched in two months time to monetarily compensate victims of rape, a government source told HT. The Centre will finance the scheme for the first year, but for subsequent years it will operate on a shared basis with the states, the source added.
“We have been pursuing this scheme for restorative justice and would like it to be launched at the earliest as now only creation of certain structures at the state and district levels is left. This scheme has been formalised after wide consultations,” women and child development minister Krishna Tirath said.
THE SCHEME
Based on the principles of restorative justice, the proposed scheme seeks to provide the rape victim a helping hand to help cope with the trauma and to tide over immediate and long-term needs.
Money-wise, the immediate and interim amount to be offered would be R70,000, while R1,30,000 would be offered for victim’s long-term needs.
The scheme also envisages setting up of criminal injuries relief and rehabilitation boards at the district, state and central levels for consideration of claims and ensuring effective coordination.
In certain cases, where victim is a minor or physically challenged, the rehabilitation boards will have the jurisdiction to increase the compensation amount to Rs 3 lakh.
THE HURDLE
The proposal had run into a hitch after the Planning Commission suggested that it should be financed from a fund and not operated in the form of a Centrally-sponsored scheme.
NCW’s role
The formulation of the scheme was initiated by the National Commission for Women in 1995 following a SC directive.
June 12, 2011
11.6.11
Times of India
Experts divided on definition of child
LUCKNOW: The government intending to put a curb on increasing child sexual abuse by introducing a bill with stringent punishment gained support from academicians, jurists, and professionals from the field of child care and development at the regional consultation on the proposed law against child sexual abuse. However, experts were not unanimous as who shall be considered a child. The consultation was organised by Dr Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University in collaboration with national commission for protection of child rights, New Delhi.
Member, Bihar State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, Lalita Singh said, Anyone who is below 18 years is a child. This is a fact which is popular worldwide. She however, disagreed on Section 7 of the bill, which provides for no punishment if the consent for sexual act has been obtained with a person aged between 16 to 18 years. It is wrong to act on a childs consent, who is between 16-18 years, said Lalita.
Times of India
Experts divided on definition of child
LUCKNOW: The government intending to put a curb on increasing child sexual abuse by introducing a bill with stringent punishment gained support from academicians, jurists, and professionals from the field of child care and development at the regional consultation on the proposed law against child sexual abuse. However, experts were not unanimous as who shall be considered a child. The consultation was organised by Dr Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University in collaboration with national commission for protection of child rights, New Delhi.
Member, Bihar State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, Lalita Singh said, Anyone who is below 18 years is a child. This is a fact which is popular worldwide. She however, disagreed on Section 7 of the bill, which provides for no punishment if the consent for sexual act has been obtained with a person aged between 16 to 18 years. It is wrong to act on a childs consent, who is between 16-18 years, said Lalita.
June 10, 2011
10.6.2011
Times of India
FORENSIC TESTS FOR RAPE TO BE SENSITIVE
High Court Directs State Govt To Implement Scientific Norms To Examine Victims Of Sexual Assault
The Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court asked the Maharashtra government to circulate amongst hospitals and police stations,the newly formulated pro-formas (forms) on forensic medical examination of rape victims.
The court bench of Justices Bhushan Dharmadhikari and Pramod Kode,while hearing a public interest litigation (PIL),asked the state government to file a compliance report within eight weeks.The intention is to ensure implementation of new detailed forensic tests for rape victims to bring in greater sensitivity and scientific authority into the process.
The state will now distribute fresh instruction manuals,forms for examination of rape accused,age estimation,requisition letter for chemical analysis and a new format to seek final opinion,to medical officers across all state hospitals and police stations.
The PIL was filed by Child Welfare Committee (CWC) chairperson Dr Ranjana Pardhi and lawyer Vijay Patait on the basis of a report submitted by Dr Indrajit Khandekar.The report was titled Pitiable and horrendous quality of forensic medical examination of sexually assaulted victims.The PIL was supported by Mumbai-based NGO CEHAT,which had filed an intervention application and given suggestions on ways to make the investigation more humane on rape victims and also more scientific and to rule out the degrading two-finger test on victims.The new norms will do away with the outdated and heavily criticised finger test,which was used by doctors to determine whether the girl is habituated to sexual intercourse or not.
Dr Khandekar,an assistant professor in the department of forensic medicine at Sewagrams Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences,had pointed out how the accused exploited loopholes in law leading to their acquittal.The plea in court was thus to have the government bring in a uniform protocol and training for doctors and nurses.
Flavia Agnes,leading womens activist and lawyer,said in 2003 itself,the law of evidence was amended and it did away with the need to record past sexual history of a rape victim.The amended law prohibited testing a woman on her general immoral character.Agnes said,Hence the continuation of a onefinger,two-finger testing of the victim to suggest her habitualness ought to have been scrapped The latest development is a welcome step.
Lawyers say the guidelines will ensure that trials will now be based on medical evidence and not on moral opinions.
Decade Of Disturbing Figures
Anew rape protocol is the need of the hour given the rising incidence of such crimes in the state.Mumbai is second only to Delhi,the rape capital of the country,with 182 women raped in 2009 alone up from 141 a decade ago.The state-wide figures are no better,with a worrying 10% jump in the number of women raped over the past decade.The actual number of rapes are considered to be much higher as not all women muster up the courage to report the crime.A new protocol may help improve Maharashtras paltry conviction rate.Only 19.1% of rape offenders were convicted under section 376 of the IPC in the state in 2009,way below the already-shameful all-India average of 26.9%.
Times of India
FORENSIC TESTS FOR RAPE TO BE SENSITIVE
High Court Directs State Govt To Implement Scientific Norms To Examine Victims Of Sexual Assault
The Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court asked the Maharashtra government to circulate amongst hospitals and police stations,the newly formulated pro-formas (forms) on forensic medical examination of rape victims.
The court bench of Justices Bhushan Dharmadhikari and Pramod Kode,while hearing a public interest litigation (PIL),asked the state government to file a compliance report within eight weeks.The intention is to ensure implementation of new detailed forensic tests for rape victims to bring in greater sensitivity and scientific authority into the process.
The state will now distribute fresh instruction manuals,forms for examination of rape accused,age estimation,requisition letter for chemical analysis and a new format to seek final opinion,to medical officers across all state hospitals and police stations.
The PIL was filed by Child Welfare Committee (CWC) chairperson Dr Ranjana Pardhi and lawyer Vijay Patait on the basis of a report submitted by Dr Indrajit Khandekar.The report was titled Pitiable and horrendous quality of forensic medical examination of sexually assaulted victims.The PIL was supported by Mumbai-based NGO CEHAT,which had filed an intervention application and given suggestions on ways to make the investigation more humane on rape victims and also more scientific and to rule out the degrading two-finger test on victims.The new norms will do away with the outdated and heavily criticised finger test,which was used by doctors to determine whether the girl is habituated to sexual intercourse or not.
Dr Khandekar,an assistant professor in the department of forensic medicine at Sewagrams Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences,had pointed out how the accused exploited loopholes in law leading to their acquittal.The plea in court was thus to have the government bring in a uniform protocol and training for doctors and nurses.
Flavia Agnes,leading womens activist and lawyer,said in 2003 itself,the law of evidence was amended and it did away with the need to record past sexual history of a rape victim.The amended law prohibited testing a woman on her general immoral character.Agnes said,Hence the continuation of a onefinger,two-finger testing of the victim to suggest her habitualness ought to have been scrapped The latest development is a welcome step.
Lawyers say the guidelines will ensure that trials will now be based on medical evidence and not on moral opinions.
Decade Of Disturbing Figures
Anew rape protocol is the need of the hour given the rising incidence of such crimes in the state.Mumbai is second only to Delhi,the rape capital of the country,with 182 women raped in 2009 alone up from 141 a decade ago.The state-wide figures are no better,with a worrying 10% jump in the number of women raped over the past decade.The actual number of rapes are considered to be much higher as not all women muster up the courage to report the crime.A new protocol may help improve Maharashtras paltry conviction rate.Only 19.1% of rape offenders were convicted under section 376 of the IPC in the state in 2009,way below the already-shameful all-India average of 26.9%.
May 27, 2011
27.5.11
DNA
NO MORE TWO FINGER TEST IN RAPE CASE
In a significant move and the first for the country, the state has decided to make forensic examination of sexual assault victims more victim-friendly. Apart from the sensitisation of the procedure, the state has also drawn seven detailed pro formas for the medical officers examining the victim and the accused.
The detailed pro formas which are a dramatic shift from the earlier 3-page pro forma, include recording the patient’s medical history, a list of specimen collection, opinion writing, and most importantly, a follow-up examination which will involve check-ups on the victim’s mental condition or whether she has contracted any sexually transmitted diseases, among other things.
“While the victim’s statement is given more weight, a medical report supports that evidence. The report is important in cases of both false implications and genuine cases. In case the victim turns hostile, the medical report can be used to nail the accused, like in the case of actor Shiney Ahuja,” said assistant public prosecutor, Lata Chedda who has handled many rape cases.
The eight-member committee, appointed by the Directorate of Health Services (DHS) as per the orders of the Bombay high court, is chaired by Dr SD Nanadkar, head of Forensic Medicine at JJ Hospital. It includes Dr SM Patil, the chief surgeon of Nagpada Police Hospital, Dr Rekha Davar, head of obstetrics and gynaecology and Dr Nikhil Datar, honorary gynaecologist with Cooper Hospital. The committee submitted the new pro formas before the court on April 27.
“We will consent to the report and tell the court that it can be implemented. We also want the central government to implement these procedures,” said advocate Vijay Patait, who filed a PIL on the basis of a study by Dr Indrajit Khandekar, assistant professor of forensic medicine, Mahatma Gandhi Insitute of Medical Sciences, Wardha, pointing out the loopholes of medical examination of sexual assault victims. The next hearing is on June 6.
“Having a protocol will surely help. Currently, various people are doing these examinations according to their own set of rules and knowledge. This system, however, will have to be administered and audited well by the state,” said Dr Datar.
“The system of follow-up in particular will help recognise sexually transmitted diseases, mental trauma, and injuries that cannot be identified immediately after the assault. Also, this system will ensure the patient is jointly examined by the forensic expert and the gynaecologist,” said Dr Khandekar.
NEW ADDITIONS:
1. Detailed history taken in the victim’s words
2. Name of person accompanying the victim
3. List of 24 samples to be taken, as opposed to 8 in the old proforma
4. Purpose of sample collection explained clearly eg, vaginal swab should be
examined for seminal DNA, blood group
5. Injury details to be more descriptive
6. Additional tests for injuries that cannot be seen by the naked eye, such as
UV ray examination, colonoscopy and oblique analoscopy
7. Final report pending follow – up examination and forensic reports
27.5.11
Times of India
25 yrs’ RI for Dutch child sex abuser - First Conviction Under Amended IT Act
Chennai: Wilhelmus Weijdeveld, a 58-year old Dutch national arrested on charges of child sexual abuse and possession of child pornography in November 2009, was on Thursday convicted and sentenced to 25 years’ imprisonment by a fast-track court here. But he will serve 10 years as the sentences run concurrently. This is probably the first case of arrest and conviction in the country under the amended Information Technology Act, 2008.
Weijdeveld, who has been living in India for more than three decades, was arrested in Choolaimedu on November 6, 2009, based on an Interpol alert that he was uploading child pornography from the city. Later, he came out on bail as the police failed to file the chargesheet within the stipulated time. But he was soon taken into custody under the Foreigners Act and lodged in a special cell at Chengalpattu.
Fast-track court-IV judge K Anbazhagan on Thursday convicted and sentenced him to undergo 10 years imprisonment each under Sections 367 (kidnapping) and 377 (unnatural offences) of the IPC and five years under Section 67B (publishing of material depicting children in sexually explicit acts in electronic form) of the Information Technology Act. The judge, however, said the convict could undergo the three jail terms concurrently. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on the convict.
“It is the result of great team work. We painstakingly gathered foolproof evidence. Though it started as a technology crime, investigations revealed that he was also sexually abusing children,” additional DCP M Sudhakar, who probed the case, told TOI.
26.5.11
DNA
Four Bandra schoolboys held guilty of gang rape
Mumbai: The four juvenile boys, who attended St Catherine of Siena school, Bandra, and were accused of raping an eight-year-old girl in the school premises, have been held guilty. The Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) held them guilty under section 376 (2) (g) of the Indian Penal Code.
The order, which stated that peer pressure and early exposure to sexuality led the juveniles to rape, pronounced on Tuesday. Principal magistrate of JJB SC Khalipa directed that the boys be sent to the Don Bosco High School in Calanguta Bardez, Goa.
Khalipa said, "The boys should be released forthwith and given to the Special Juvenile Police Unit, which will take them to the Don Bosco High School." The school is believed to have assured proper care and security for the boys.
The Bandra police, which had registered an FIR against the boys in April, were looked at with great suspicion having accused juveniles of rape with no supporting medical evidence. However, the police seemed content with the inquiry after the JJB too upheld the guilty plea of the boys as voluntary. "We had to face criticism from various circles during the investigation. However, the board's decision has proved that the police's thinking was right," said senior inspector Samad Sheikh.
The JJB had earlier ordered that the boys be counselled on sexuality, self-control and legal laws by the NGO Aangan during their stay in the observation home from April 5.The counselling reportedly revealed several other gory realities of the shelter.
Sources said, the boys have named a caretaker at the shelter and accused him of showing blue films. They also complained about the behaviour of another staff member who was seen "misbehaving with the female staff."
The boys revealed names of some elder boys in the shelter who allegedly abused and assaulted them. They questioned that when there were others indulging in similar acts at the shelter why were they the only ones to be caught.
JJB has asked the police to probe these allegations.
DNA
NO MORE TWO FINGER TEST IN RAPE CASE
In a significant move and the first for the country, the state has decided to make forensic examination of sexual assault victims more victim-friendly. Apart from the sensitisation of the procedure, the state has also drawn seven detailed pro formas for the medical officers examining the victim and the accused.
The detailed pro formas which are a dramatic shift from the earlier 3-page pro forma, include recording the patient’s medical history, a list of specimen collection, opinion writing, and most importantly, a follow-up examination which will involve check-ups on the victim’s mental condition or whether she has contracted any sexually transmitted diseases, among other things.
“While the victim’s statement is given more weight, a medical report supports that evidence. The report is important in cases of both false implications and genuine cases. In case the victim turns hostile, the medical report can be used to nail the accused, like in the case of actor Shiney Ahuja,” said assistant public prosecutor, Lata Chedda who has handled many rape cases.
The eight-member committee, appointed by the Directorate of Health Services (DHS) as per the orders of the Bombay high court, is chaired by Dr SD Nanadkar, head of Forensic Medicine at JJ Hospital. It includes Dr SM Patil, the chief surgeon of Nagpada Police Hospital, Dr Rekha Davar, head of obstetrics and gynaecology and Dr Nikhil Datar, honorary gynaecologist with Cooper Hospital. The committee submitted the new pro formas before the court on April 27.
“We will consent to the report and tell the court that it can be implemented. We also want the central government to implement these procedures,” said advocate Vijay Patait, who filed a PIL on the basis of a study by Dr Indrajit Khandekar, assistant professor of forensic medicine, Mahatma Gandhi Insitute of Medical Sciences, Wardha, pointing out the loopholes of medical examination of sexual assault victims. The next hearing is on June 6.
“Having a protocol will surely help. Currently, various people are doing these examinations according to their own set of rules and knowledge. This system, however, will have to be administered and audited well by the state,” said Dr Datar.
“The system of follow-up in particular will help recognise sexually transmitted diseases, mental trauma, and injuries that cannot be identified immediately after the assault. Also, this system will ensure the patient is jointly examined by the forensic expert and the gynaecologist,” said Dr Khandekar.
NEW ADDITIONS:
1. Detailed history taken in the victim’s words
2. Name of person accompanying the victim
3. List of 24 samples to be taken, as opposed to 8 in the old proforma
4. Purpose of sample collection explained clearly eg, vaginal swab should be
examined for seminal DNA, blood group
5. Injury details to be more descriptive
6. Additional tests for injuries that cannot be seen by the naked eye, such as
UV ray examination, colonoscopy and oblique analoscopy
7. Final report pending follow – up examination and forensic reports
27.5.11
Times of India
25 yrs’ RI for Dutch child sex abuser - First Conviction Under Amended IT Act
Chennai: Wilhelmus Weijdeveld, a 58-year old Dutch national arrested on charges of child sexual abuse and possession of child pornography in November 2009, was on Thursday convicted and sentenced to 25 years’ imprisonment by a fast-track court here. But he will serve 10 years as the sentences run concurrently. This is probably the first case of arrest and conviction in the country under the amended Information Technology Act, 2008.
Weijdeveld, who has been living in India for more than three decades, was arrested in Choolaimedu on November 6, 2009, based on an Interpol alert that he was uploading child pornography from the city. Later, he came out on bail as the police failed to file the chargesheet within the stipulated time. But he was soon taken into custody under the Foreigners Act and lodged in a special cell at Chengalpattu.
Fast-track court-IV judge K Anbazhagan on Thursday convicted and sentenced him to undergo 10 years imprisonment each under Sections 367 (kidnapping) and 377 (unnatural offences) of the IPC and five years under Section 67B (publishing of material depicting children in sexually explicit acts in electronic form) of the Information Technology Act. The judge, however, said the convict could undergo the three jail terms concurrently. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on the convict.
“It is the result of great team work. We painstakingly gathered foolproof evidence. Though it started as a technology crime, investigations revealed that he was also sexually abusing children,” additional DCP M Sudhakar, who probed the case, told TOI.
26.5.11
DNA
Four Bandra schoolboys held guilty of gang rape
Mumbai: The four juvenile boys, who attended St Catherine of Siena school, Bandra, and were accused of raping an eight-year-old girl in the school premises, have been held guilty. The Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) held them guilty under section 376 (2) (g) of the Indian Penal Code.
The order, which stated that peer pressure and early exposure to sexuality led the juveniles to rape, pronounced on Tuesday. Principal magistrate of JJB SC Khalipa directed that the boys be sent to the Don Bosco High School in Calanguta Bardez, Goa.
Khalipa said, "The boys should be released forthwith and given to the Special Juvenile Police Unit, which will take them to the Don Bosco High School." The school is believed to have assured proper care and security for the boys.
The Bandra police, which had registered an FIR against the boys in April, were looked at with great suspicion having accused juveniles of rape with no supporting medical evidence. However, the police seemed content with the inquiry after the JJB too upheld the guilty plea of the boys as voluntary. "We had to face criticism from various circles during the investigation. However, the board's decision has proved that the police's thinking was right," said senior inspector Samad Sheikh.
The JJB had earlier ordered that the boys be counselled on sexuality, self-control and legal laws by the NGO Aangan during their stay in the observation home from April 5.The counselling reportedly revealed several other gory realities of the shelter.
Sources said, the boys have named a caretaker at the shelter and accused him of showing blue films. They also complained about the behaviour of another staff member who was seen "misbehaving with the female staff."
The boys revealed names of some elder boys in the shelter who allegedly abused and assaulted them. They questioned that when there were others indulging in similar acts at the shelter why were they the only ones to be caught.
JJB has asked the police to probe these allegations.
May 9, 2011
29.4.11
Mumbai Mirror
HC pulls up cops for Kavdas job
Shahpur police slammed for not recording statements of those complaining of sexual abuse and starvation and not turning them into key witnesses
The Shahpur police was slammed for its shoddy job on the Kavdas orphanage investigation by the apex committee and the Thane Child Welfare Committee (CWC).
On Thursday, the parties probing the orphanage horror reiterated Mumbai Mirror's report which picked ten glaring oversights on the part of the police team investigating the case.
The apex committee members as well as Thane CWC counsel told the court that the police has not looked beyond the incident of rape of one the minors and missed out on the crucial charges of starvation, attempt to murder and even murder of one of the inmates, thereby trivialising the plight of the kids there.
"Police has done a poor investigation. Although the kids in their interviews alleged starvation, no education, and repeated assault, no heed was paid to these charges.
In fact the kids said that one of the inmates, Divya, was beaten to death by Pundalik Gole. Most importantly the male inmates also alleged sexual assault.
Police did not even care to record their statements," said Asha Bajpai, chairman of High Court appointed apex committee and amicus curiae.
Dr Harish Shetty, another member of the apex committee told the HC that the case of rape against Gole too was weak as the police did not record the statements of the girls in front of a magistrate.
"Moreover, all the trustees and employees should have been booked for starvation and beatings. There is also evidence of financial mismanagement at the orphanage. The police has simply turned a blind eye to this fact restricting their investigation to rape of one of the inmates," he said.
Niteen Pradhan, counsel for Thane CWC too pointed out that in their statements the five female inmates of Kavdas home have categorically stated that apart from Gole another person by the name of Chavan too sexually abused them.
"The employees at the home have admitted that there used to be six people on duty at night. All six should be charged because the sexual abuse happened at night. The least the police could have done is turn them into prime witnesses. Also severe sections of Juvenile Justice Act should have been applied so that the accused does not get away scot free," Pradhan told the court.
All the parties demanded further investigation from a special police team so that a stronger case can be built against the accused. The HC accepted that there was a need for further investigation and that it would decide on the same in the next hearing scheduled for May 4.
HC lauds Mirror team
The apex committee members and CWC Thane Counsel present in HC lauded Mumbai Mirror report dated April 27 picking 10 loopholes in the police investigation. When they pointed to the court that the Mirror reporters who had done the story were present in court, HC sought them out and appreciated their efforts.
Division Bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice DY Chandrachud asked if the two reporters were lawyers, to which both replied in negative. "Good job," is what the bench had to say.
29.4.11
Mumbai Mirror
Not five but 10 girls abused in Panvel
The police team investigating the plight of 19 girls at Kalyani Mahila and Balak Seva Sanstha told the High Court that other than evidence of rape of five inmates, they have found proof of several other offences committed by the trustees of the home.
“Medical examination of all the girls has revealed that not five but 10 girls were sexually abused. We have decided to book the accused on charges of unnatural with the minor girls,” said ACP Rashmi Karandikar, who is heading the investigation team.
Police sources have revealed that some of the girls were forced to have anal and oral sex with random men who visited the home.
Highlighting the deplorable state of the girls here, member of the Mumbai-Konkan Divisional Committee Naina Athale said that anyone who wanted to abuse an inmate could simply walk into the home and use a packet of chana as a bait to take a girl ‘upstairs’ where the assault would take place.
Karandikar added that one of the inmates also had strangulation marks on her neck and the trustees will be booked for attempt to murder as well. “Besides, during my investigation I have found that there were severe financial irregularities in the functioning of the home.
Licence was granted to the ashram on the basis of fake documents. Most importantly, several inmates in their statements said that one of the inmates Sita was beaten to death by the trustees.
I have sent my report urging state to file fresh case of murder, cheating and forgery against the trustees of Panvel home. Since my scope of inquiry is restricted only to sexual abuse I cannot register these cases on my own,” she said.
This prompted the apex committee to request the court to allow Karandikar to go beyond charges of sexual assault. The court asked additional government pleader Jyoti Pawar to find out from the state if ACP Karandikar’s scope of investigation can be expanded.
29.4.11
Times of India
No child was sexually abused,claims govt
The government had conducted claimed medical tests of more than 1,000 children in all the 27 homes in Maharashtra in less than three weeks and found no trace of sexual abuse.But a close look shows the methods were haphazard,faulty and unscientific.This was revealed at the Bombay HC on Thursday during a hearing on the state of shelter homes.
The tests have not been done in a uniform manner.At a home in Solapur,the medical exam was conducted by a general practitioner.In Satara,a medical camp was held for 67 children;for them,the column for sexual abuse in the report was left blank, said psychiatrist Dr Harish Shetty,a member of the HCappointed panel to look into shelter homes state.TISS professor Asha Bajpai,who heads the panel,said abuse could not be reported merely by looking at a child.
30.4.11
Times of India
Court panel shocked by no abuse report
State Papers Show It Was Callous In Conducting Med Tests On Kids At Shelter Homes
Mumbai: Can a person detect sexual abuse through an examination of eyes,nose,throat,heart,liver and tonsils Or can one say a girl was sexually assaulted in 2011,through a medical examination conducted in 2010.The state government certainly seems to think that it can be done.Moreover,it also believes that a childs ability to calculate has bearing on whether or not she was abused.
After experts stumbled upon incidents of sexual abuse in two shelter homes for mentally challenged children in Maharashtra,the chief justice of the Bombay high court directed the governments department of women and child development to conduct medical tests on all 1,000-odd children living in the 27 shelter homes a across the state.On April 1,less than three weeks of the order being passed,the government apparently finished all the tests and claimed that it had found no trace of sexual abuse at any of the homes.
During the hearing on Thursday,even Chief Justice Mohit Shah seemed shocked with the findings.You should not conduct these examinations only because you want to comply with the court orders,but because it is your duty to do so, he told the department.
TOI trawled through the medical reports,only to find an absurd list of documents submitted by the government.Many of the reports included observations on childrens IQ and behaviour,with no mention of any check on sexual abuse.The government even submitted medical reports conducted in 2010,a year before the court order.
For instance,at the home for mentally deficient children in Satara,Asha Bhavan,the children were taken to a medical camp for their tests of sexual abuse.The report stated that there was no abuse and mentioned stable or aggressive against a childs name.
The reports of the Shankarlal Mundada Home in Jalna,mention details of the childrens IQ levels but do not have anything to do with sexual abuse.Some reports focused solely on a childs behaviour.The one prepared for children at Prem Daan in Navi Mumbai had observations like snatching things and hitting others and habit of stealing,but the persons concerned never seemed to have checked if those children were ever assaulted or molested or raped.There was clearly no examination of sexual abuse.
At the Ekvir Home in Nagpur,the medical reports dealt solely with the tests of chest,eyes,nose,tonsils,teeth,heart and glands.From that,the officials could not possible detect sexual abuse.
The reports for the Sojar Home and the Shri Hanuman Shikshan Prasarak Mandal,both in Solapur,included a column for injuries or marks of violence,but the space was left blank.Similarly,the column of urogenital examination in the reports of Shri Hanuman Shikhsan Prasarak Mandal was mostly left blank or filled with an illegible scrawl.In some cases,the column bore cryptic comments like higher functions could not be tested.
Shocked by the claim that none of the children in the shelter homes was sexually violated,Asha Bajpai,chairperson of the court-appointed panel investigating the condition of childrens homes,slammed the government for the method of checks adopted by it.You cannot detect sexual abuse of a mentally challenged child at a medical camp.You need to build a rapport with these children and meet them a number of times before they open up to you, she said.Psychiatrist Dr Harish Shetty,who is also on the panel,called the state department callous and being criminally negligent in executing health check-ups.The hurry reflects a lack of sensitivity and fear of exposing the corrupt collusion between the department of women and child development and the home department officials, he said.
Mumbai Mirror
HC pulls up cops for Kavdas job
Shahpur police slammed for not recording statements of those complaining of sexual abuse and starvation and not turning them into key witnesses
The Shahpur police was slammed for its shoddy job on the Kavdas orphanage investigation by the apex committee and the Thane Child Welfare Committee (CWC).
On Thursday, the parties probing the orphanage horror reiterated Mumbai Mirror's report which picked ten glaring oversights on the part of the police team investigating the case.
The apex committee members as well as Thane CWC counsel told the court that the police has not looked beyond the incident of rape of one the minors and missed out on the crucial charges of starvation, attempt to murder and even murder of one of the inmates, thereby trivialising the plight of the kids there.
"Police has done a poor investigation. Although the kids in their interviews alleged starvation, no education, and repeated assault, no heed was paid to these charges.
In fact the kids said that one of the inmates, Divya, was beaten to death by Pundalik Gole. Most importantly the male inmates also alleged sexual assault.
Police did not even care to record their statements," said Asha Bajpai, chairman of High Court appointed apex committee and amicus curiae.
Dr Harish Shetty, another member of the apex committee told the HC that the case of rape against Gole too was weak as the police did not record the statements of the girls in front of a magistrate.
"Moreover, all the trustees and employees should have been booked for starvation and beatings. There is also evidence of financial mismanagement at the orphanage. The police has simply turned a blind eye to this fact restricting their investigation to rape of one of the inmates," he said.
Niteen Pradhan, counsel for Thane CWC too pointed out that in their statements the five female inmates of Kavdas home have categorically stated that apart from Gole another person by the name of Chavan too sexually abused them.
"The employees at the home have admitted that there used to be six people on duty at night. All six should be charged because the sexual abuse happened at night. The least the police could have done is turn them into prime witnesses. Also severe sections of Juvenile Justice Act should have been applied so that the accused does not get away scot free," Pradhan told the court.
All the parties demanded further investigation from a special police team so that a stronger case can be built against the accused. The HC accepted that there was a need for further investigation and that it would decide on the same in the next hearing scheduled for May 4.
HC lauds Mirror team
The apex committee members and CWC Thane Counsel present in HC lauded Mumbai Mirror report dated April 27 picking 10 loopholes in the police investigation. When they pointed to the court that the Mirror reporters who had done the story were present in court, HC sought them out and appreciated their efforts.
Division Bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice DY Chandrachud asked if the two reporters were lawyers, to which both replied in negative. "Good job," is what the bench had to say.
29.4.11
Mumbai Mirror
Not five but 10 girls abused in Panvel
The police team investigating the plight of 19 girls at Kalyani Mahila and Balak Seva Sanstha told the High Court that other than evidence of rape of five inmates, they have found proof of several other offences committed by the trustees of the home.
“Medical examination of all the girls has revealed that not five but 10 girls were sexually abused. We have decided to book the accused on charges of unnatural with the minor girls,” said ACP Rashmi Karandikar, who is heading the investigation team.
Police sources have revealed that some of the girls were forced to have anal and oral sex with random men who visited the home.
Highlighting the deplorable state of the girls here, member of the Mumbai-Konkan Divisional Committee Naina Athale said that anyone who wanted to abuse an inmate could simply walk into the home and use a packet of chana as a bait to take a girl ‘upstairs’ where the assault would take place.
Karandikar added that one of the inmates also had strangulation marks on her neck and the trustees will be booked for attempt to murder as well. “Besides, during my investigation I have found that there were severe financial irregularities in the functioning of the home.
Licence was granted to the ashram on the basis of fake documents. Most importantly, several inmates in their statements said that one of the inmates Sita was beaten to death by the trustees.
I have sent my report urging state to file fresh case of murder, cheating and forgery against the trustees of Panvel home. Since my scope of inquiry is restricted only to sexual abuse I cannot register these cases on my own,” she said.
This prompted the apex committee to request the court to allow Karandikar to go beyond charges of sexual assault. The court asked additional government pleader Jyoti Pawar to find out from the state if ACP Karandikar’s scope of investigation can be expanded.
29.4.11
Times of India
No child was sexually abused,claims govt
The government had conducted claimed medical tests of more than 1,000 children in all the 27 homes in Maharashtra in less than three weeks and found no trace of sexual abuse.But a close look shows the methods were haphazard,faulty and unscientific.This was revealed at the Bombay HC on Thursday during a hearing on the state of shelter homes.
The tests have not been done in a uniform manner.At a home in Solapur,the medical exam was conducted by a general practitioner.In Satara,a medical camp was held for 67 children;for them,the column for sexual abuse in the report was left blank, said psychiatrist Dr Harish Shetty,a member of the HCappointed panel to look into shelter homes state.TISS professor Asha Bajpai,who heads the panel,said abuse could not be reported merely by looking at a child.
30.4.11
Times of India
Court panel shocked by no abuse report
State Papers Show It Was Callous In Conducting Med Tests On Kids At Shelter Homes
Mumbai: Can a person detect sexual abuse through an examination of eyes,nose,throat,heart,liver and tonsils Or can one say a girl was sexually assaulted in 2011,through a medical examination conducted in 2010.The state government certainly seems to think that it can be done.Moreover,it also believes that a childs ability to calculate has bearing on whether or not she was abused.
After experts stumbled upon incidents of sexual abuse in two shelter homes for mentally challenged children in Maharashtra,the chief justice of the Bombay high court directed the governments department of women and child development to conduct medical tests on all 1,000-odd children living in the 27 shelter homes a across the state.On April 1,less than three weeks of the order being passed,the government apparently finished all the tests and claimed that it had found no trace of sexual abuse at any of the homes.
During the hearing on Thursday,even Chief Justice Mohit Shah seemed shocked with the findings.You should not conduct these examinations only because you want to comply with the court orders,but because it is your duty to do so, he told the department.
TOI trawled through the medical reports,only to find an absurd list of documents submitted by the government.Many of the reports included observations on childrens IQ and behaviour,with no mention of any check on sexual abuse.The government even submitted medical reports conducted in 2010,a year before the court order.
For instance,at the home for mentally deficient children in Satara,Asha Bhavan,the children were taken to a medical camp for their tests of sexual abuse.The report stated that there was no abuse and mentioned stable or aggressive against a childs name.
The reports of the Shankarlal Mundada Home in Jalna,mention details of the childrens IQ levels but do not have anything to do with sexual abuse.Some reports focused solely on a childs behaviour.The one prepared for children at Prem Daan in Navi Mumbai had observations like snatching things and hitting others and habit of stealing,but the persons concerned never seemed to have checked if those children were ever assaulted or molested or raped.There was clearly no examination of sexual abuse.
At the Ekvir Home in Nagpur,the medical reports dealt solely with the tests of chest,eyes,nose,tonsils,teeth,heart and glands.From that,the officials could not possible detect sexual abuse.
The reports for the Sojar Home and the Shri Hanuman Shikshan Prasarak Mandal,both in Solapur,included a column for injuries or marks of violence,but the space was left blank.Similarly,the column of urogenital examination in the reports of Shri Hanuman Shikhsan Prasarak Mandal was mostly left blank or filled with an illegible scrawl.In some cases,the column bore cryptic comments like higher functions could not be tested.
Shocked by the claim that none of the children in the shelter homes was sexually violated,Asha Bajpai,chairperson of the court-appointed panel investigating the condition of childrens homes,slammed the government for the method of checks adopted by it.You cannot detect sexual abuse of a mentally challenged child at a medical camp.You need to build a rapport with these children and meet them a number of times before they open up to you, she said.Psychiatrist Dr Harish Shetty,who is also on the panel,called the state department callous and being criminally negligent in executing health check-ups.The hurry reflects a lack of sensitivity and fear of exposing the corrupt collusion between the department of women and child development and the home department officials, he said.
April 25, 2011
CSA Awareness Month
Excerpts from the interview of Arpan's Founder-CEO with Ms.Chandni Parekh, Social Psychologist
- What words should adults use in helping children identify touches? Is it okay to say 'good touch/bad touch'?
No. Safe touch and Unsafe touch is best to use as children who get sexually abused will retain the word ‘bad’ in their heads and apply to themselves in the future which can result in them thinking that something bad happened to them and that they are bad too. Cognitive distortions can happen so it’s best to say safe and unsafe touch.
- At what age should parents talk to their child about personal safety or sexual abuse?
As an infant itself parents can begin talking to them about personal safety. Even at 1 yr we teach children to stay away from fire, not to touch electrical points, etc. so it can begin at a very early age itself. Its not necessary to talk to children about ‘sexual abuse’ but personal safety as a broader topic which involves everything about children keeping themselves safe and so including safety from sexual abuse as well but without teaching what sexual abuse is. That can be taught later and age appropriately.
- How do you suggest schools educate students about child sexual abuse?
Arpan has developed a Personal Safety Education (PSE) program for schools to incorporate into their curriculum and implement with age 6 yrs – 10 yr children.
PSE is a comprehensive program that not only introduces personal safety messages to children, but also identifies parents and teachers as important stakeholders in a child’s life and aims at building their capacities in protecting children from sexual abuse.
Over the years Arpan has conducted capability building sessions for teachers and counsellors of schools like: The Cathedral & John Connon School- Colaba, Goenka Group of Schools(In western Suburbs & Thane), Greenlawns High School- Worli, St. Thomas School, Goregaon, Canossa High School- Mahim and more in and outside Mumbai.
Arpan has facilitated incorporation of PSE into Life Skills Program curriculum (for Primary School) at 5 schools under the Bombay Cambridge Gurukul (BCG) Group. This process involved training of the teachers in conducting PSE classes themselves with children and also helping the schools to come up with protocols & strategies to deal with sexual abuse cases that are reported by students. We have directly taught over 4000 children so far.
In a review exercise conducted in one of the schools with two grades, it was observed that 30 children were able to say ‘No’ to attempted and ongoing abuse after the skills they learnt in the PSE program. This data was taken one year after completion of PSE program with the children.
Schools should take up this program and build it into their curriculum so that children get the personal safety messages regularly.
- If a student reports abuse to a teacher or counsellor, what should be the next few steps that the school should take?
With the consent of the child the parents should be informed and depending on who the abuser is. Action should be taken to first make the abuse stop. If it’s a parent who is the offender then the non-offending parent should be called in. Whatever is practically possible should be done to make the abuse stop. If the case is of incest and that too if it’s a parent it can get very tricky to handle. The major role will then be played by the non-offending parent on how assertively can he or she make sure the child is not abused again.
The next step will be through either the school counselor or an external counselor. The child is assessed on the impact of abuse and accordingly counseling is done for the child as well as the family members.
It’s not easy for the child definitely but even family members need support specially in cases of incest where betrayal is felt very strongly.
If the abuse has happened in the past then too the counselor should check for residual impact and address it through counseling sessions.
If the abuser is a stranger or a known person its easier (comparatively to incest) to make sure the abuse stops and that person doesn’t have access to the child. In any case counseling must be done to make sure the child is not showing any symptoms as a result of the abuse.
- What techniques do you think could be employed in counselling children who've been or are being abused?
First of all the abuse must stop.
Next is to create an environment of safety first. The child must be able to feel supported and safe and secure.
Help the child grieve the loss of a lover (abuser). This is very specific to cases where abuse has been going on for a long period of time and where the child has accommodated the abuse and the abuser and the child is liking both. Stopping the abuse can be then quite distressing for the child because the child associates sex with love. Children also experience pleasure like adults. Human bodies naturally respond to sexual touches. Even a baby does. So children over a period of time start enjoying the abuse because they are feeling pleasure which is absolutely natural. Only they are not aware that this is inappropriate behavior. Children will miss the sex and sexual touching.
This is also applicable where the child might not like the abuser but is liking the abuse.
The effects of abuse can be very varying depending on
• Age
• Gender
• Type of abuse
• Duration of abuse
• Who the offender is
• Degree of violence used
• Mental health of child before abuse
• Coping mechanisms
• Social support
Understanding the above, a plan should be made to counsel the child beginning with teaching appropriate behaviours, appropriate relationships and sexuality, addressing the feelings of the child, creating a comforting and supportive environment and involving family members to help with creating the comfort and support. In the event of there being no family, the guardians or caretakers need to be given adequate information to play the supportive role for the child.
There are various mainstream and alternate therapies that counselors use to address trauma. Depending on the counselors skills in various therapies different methodologies can be used.
Mainstream therapies include Trauma model, Traumagenic dynamics (Finkelhor and Browne), EMDR, Somatic experiencing, etc.
Alternate therapies include, dance movement therapy, arts based therapy, play therapy, etc. Group therapy is also done. In our experience while group work is powerful individual counseling and therapy is extremely vital in processing trauma and changing belief systems of the individual which bring about significant change. Alternate therapies have also good impact. Depending on the age of the child, adult and the impact of abuse and the counselors own skills, the kind of therapy can be decided.
It’s comparatively much easier to heal child survivors than adult survivors as more the time passes after the abuse more the impact is seen. Lot of cognitive behaviours get manifested. With adults large part of the therapeutic work should be planned around building self esteem, self love and self acceptance. That addresses the shame and guilt in the adult which is the most difficult to get rid of. However we have seen changes take place and its extremely heartening to see significant shifts come in an individual’s life as a result of the therapeutic process.
If you want more details on the healing processes please write to me on pooja@arpan.org.in
Special note:
For Parents - Please do not make your own assessment of whether your child is ok or not after being sexually abused. Only a trained counselor will be able to judge impact. Please take your child for counseling and let the counselor judge whether your child needs counseling or not and if the child does then please take him/or her for it without fail. You’ll be doing your child a huge favour.
For friends of survivors – Be supportive to your friend and encourage your friend slowly to go in for counseling.
For adult survivors – You don’t need to fight this battle alone or only with a friend. Seek help from a counselor. Believe me when I say, it’s a liberating process from being survivors into becoming thrivers. Please reach out. We are there to help and support you. You could write to support@arpan.org.in and or call 98190.86444.
- Can you share names of counsellors that you might recommend to schools or parents for cases of sexual abuse?
Arpan itself addresses cases of sexual abuse since this is our area of work. We take on cases of both children and adults. We can be contacted on support@arpan.org.in and or 98190.86444.
We have dealt with over 250 cases so far.
We also have a database of counselors who can handle cases of sexual abuse. Anybody can get in touch with us for contact details. Complete confidentiality is maintained with us.
- Do you have any recommendations for how we can keep kids on the streets and in children's homes safe?
Children wherever should be taught personal safety skills. If they are empowered with these skills chances of abuse can become less. However one can’t say it’ll stop completely despite children having these skills. Wherever there will be huge amounts of trust and or authority children might give in.
In children’s homes caretakers and other staff in those homes should be made aware about child sexual abuse and skills are given to them also on handling disclosure and addressing cases of sexual abuse within the home. They can also be trained on teaching personal safety skills regularly to children.
The streets are open ground. It’s very difficult to protect children on streets. They themselves will be the best at protecting themselves by running away from the situation.
- What has been your experience with schools and other NGOs? Are most schools open and willing to have sessions on PS/CSA? Do you have any comments on the work done by other NGOs in this field? Is there any message for schools or other NGOs?
Schools have been welcoming the idea of teaching children personal safety skills. Though in the beginning they had their reservations but now with the growing no. of cases of sexual abuse being reported schools are realizing that this is an important issues to address. So far all the schools we have gone to have said yes to either training their teachers and the teachers implementing the personal safety education program or us teaching the children directly. Some of the schools we have worked with are mentioned above.
Even NGOs are calling us for training their staff. We have trained staff of many NGOs like Childline, Prerana, Mobile Creches, Aakanksha, Doorstep School, World Vision, REAP, Saathi, CCDT, and many others. Some of them have taken up a campaign on spreading awareness on CSA post our training. It’s helped their staff address the issue of CSA in their environments and respond appropriately to cases that come up.
My message to schools is to continue to see the importance in empowering your children with personal safety skills and make it a top priority in your life skill curriculum. If you don’t have a life skill curriculum put one in place and teach children personal safety skills. Preventing a child from sexual abuse is literally like saving a life. The impact as we all know can be so damaging that it can take years to deal with it.
My message to NGOs is keep training your staff regularly on the issue of CSA so that the old staff remembers the intricacies of the issue again and the new staff is freshly trained to be able to deal with the issue. In your own areas of work take up the issue and do whatever you can to spread awareness with all your stake holders. If you run schools, teach the children and parents. If you run a shelter home, teach the children and staff. If you work with adults address the issue with them. If statistics are correct then with every second child or adult it could have been a past experience. Create awareness and help the survivors heal.
Both to schools and NGOs – Put certain child protection policies in your organizations and ensure it is implemented. Work towards how you can make your own environments safe for children.
- How would you like the media to contribute to the work you do?
Publish articles on child sexual abuse so that more and more people become aware about it. Today the biggest challenge we face is overcoming people’s denial and disbelief on the issue. The more they hear and read about it the more acceptable and open they will become to learning and finding out more so that they can protect their children.
Media has been playing a huge role in this and should continue to. Media can also publish articles on the kind of work organizations like Arpan are doing and the impact we are making so that people can access our services and get help either for counseling or on understanding how to teach children personal safety skills.
- Is there any video or film addressing issues of child sexual abuse that you like?
Yes.
‘Children we Sacrifice’ by Gracy Poore made many years ago has been a good resource of information and of experiences of adult survivors.
Animated films by Stairway Foundation, ‘Daughter’, ‘Good Boy’ and ‘Silent Leaves Falling’ are very good films that we always use in our trainings. They bring out the issues of incest, paedophilia, child trafficking and internet pornography in a very good way.
- Awareness, advocacy and service delivery (working with victims and/or abusers) - can you throw some light on how we have fared in each area?
Arpan’s been working on all these areas Prevention and Healing for almost 5 years now and I feel very proud that we have worked hard and worked well. We have reached out to 13,000 children and adults directly with our prevention and healing work as well as indirectly with over 4000 children and adults by training teachers.
We have also been advocating for bringing in child sexual offences as laws that are missing in India. We have been involved in drafting the laws with a core group of Lawyers and NGO professionals we have been hosting and sending our recommendations regularly to the relevant ministries and govt. officials.
Advocacy, Direct services as well as Research have been our areas so that we are able to address the issue of CSA more holistically.
With our prevention work we have seen children being able to report abuse after our programs, saying ‘NO’ to attempted abuse and running away from the situation, children teaching their siblings and their other friends about these skills. We see an average increase of approx. 25% in the knowledge, attitude and skills in both children and teachers post our trainings with them. (We map this by conducting pre and post tests.)
Parents feel much empowered and these are somethings they have shared with us.
“It was a very good experience both for parents & students, it has helped the parents since the child is now aware of the concepts which are at times difficult to discuss. It definitely has increased the confidence & self-esteem of children.”
“I think this education is very important for every parent, so that they can share and understand their child's problem better.”
Our healing work with survivors has seen significant changes in thoughts, beliefs and behaviours as a result of our counseling. Our most challenging work has been with rescued minors who’ve been very violated but it’s heartening to see the changes in them as a result of our regular and intensive interventions with them with counseling as well as psychiatric support.
Themes of change that have taken place with this group of girls are:
1. Reduction in anxiety symptoms,
2. lot of bodily physiological symptoms of severe anxiety have reduced,
3. greater empathy,
4. greater self awareness,
5. more assertiveness
6. transition from self harm to reduced or no self harm,
7. better learning and implementation of life skills
8. to take time before speaking/ reacting etc),
9. increase in internal motivation to change
are some of the changes we are seeing…
“I have been angry ever since my childhood. I used to shout and hit. Initially I would not approach the counselor who came for us. I would look at her angrily. I could not trust her. I would hurt myself a lot. I would slit my hands. Now I don't do that. I have learned to take care of myself”- rescued minor undergoing counseling at Arpan
“I can see a change in me being able to contain my feelings at work and also not needing to cry so easily. I learnt a lot about trauma and how it could have affected my thinking patterns.. Also learnt so much about myself and my relations. I wish I could come twice a week for counseling.” - adult survivor of child sexual abuse, age 29 yrs undergoing counseling at Arpan
We’ve also been regularly working towards building capacities of mental health professionals through trainings on mainstream and alternative therapies. Its resulted in significant changes in skills of these professionals.
- Does paucity of funds hinder your work?
Raising funds is challenging but has never been a hindrance. Whatever we have planned we have always been able to achieve. Our work has been doubling every year and support is coming for it. Important thing is to do good work and present it properly. People are always happy to support good work creating measurable impact.
- Would you like to add anything else?
About Arpan
Arpan is a registered NGO based in Mumbai working on the issue of child sexual abuse with a team of dedicated and skilled professionals since the year 2006.
Our Mission is to empower individuals, families, communities and society with prevention and intervention skills to reduce the occurrence of child sexual abuse and heal its psychological, social, sexual and physical consequences
Our Activities include:
Empowering:
- Parents, teachers, NGO professionals, caretakers and student professionals with prevention and intervention skills to help prevent CSA through awareness and training
- Children and adolescents with personal safety skills to protect themselves from CSA through teaching in classroom setups in schools
- Mental health professionals with therapeutic skills to deal with CSA cases effectively through regular trainings and workshops
- Child, adult survivors and rescued minors to heal from trauma caused by CSA through counseling and other therapeutic activities like dance, yoga
- Sex offenders with therapeutic assistance to prevent re offence through counseling
Advocating with:
- Policy Makers for specific laws on CSA to prevent and reduce the occurrence of CSA.
- School and Educational systems to incorporate personal safety skills into their curriculum to empower children and adolescents
- Pooja Taparia, Founder – CEO, Arpan
Excerpts from the interview of Arpan's Founder-CEO with Ms.Chandni Parekh, Social Psychologist
- What words should adults use in helping children identify touches? Is it okay to say 'good touch/bad touch'?
No. Safe touch and Unsafe touch is best to use as children who get sexually abused will retain the word ‘bad’ in their heads and apply to themselves in the future which can result in them thinking that something bad happened to them and that they are bad too. Cognitive distortions can happen so it’s best to say safe and unsafe touch.
- At what age should parents talk to their child about personal safety or sexual abuse?
As an infant itself parents can begin talking to them about personal safety. Even at 1 yr we teach children to stay away from fire, not to touch electrical points, etc. so it can begin at a very early age itself. Its not necessary to talk to children about ‘sexual abuse’ but personal safety as a broader topic which involves everything about children keeping themselves safe and so including safety from sexual abuse as well but without teaching what sexual abuse is. That can be taught later and age appropriately.
- How do you suggest schools educate students about child sexual abuse?
Arpan has developed a Personal Safety Education (PSE) program for schools to incorporate into their curriculum and implement with age 6 yrs – 10 yr children.
PSE is a comprehensive program that not only introduces personal safety messages to children, but also identifies parents and teachers as important stakeholders in a child’s life and aims at building their capacities in protecting children from sexual abuse.
Over the years Arpan has conducted capability building sessions for teachers and counsellors of schools like: The Cathedral & John Connon School- Colaba, Goenka Group of Schools(In western Suburbs & Thane), Greenlawns High School- Worli, St. Thomas School, Goregaon, Canossa High School- Mahim and more in and outside Mumbai.
Arpan has facilitated incorporation of PSE into Life Skills Program curriculum (for Primary School) at 5 schools under the Bombay Cambridge Gurukul (BCG) Group. This process involved training of the teachers in conducting PSE classes themselves with children and also helping the schools to come up with protocols & strategies to deal with sexual abuse cases that are reported by students. We have directly taught over 4000 children so far.
In a review exercise conducted in one of the schools with two grades, it was observed that 30 children were able to say ‘No’ to attempted and ongoing abuse after the skills they learnt in the PSE program. This data was taken one year after completion of PSE program with the children.
Schools should take up this program and build it into their curriculum so that children get the personal safety messages regularly.
- If a student reports abuse to a teacher or counsellor, what should be the next few steps that the school should take?
With the consent of the child the parents should be informed and depending on who the abuser is. Action should be taken to first make the abuse stop. If it’s a parent who is the offender then the non-offending parent should be called in. Whatever is practically possible should be done to make the abuse stop. If the case is of incest and that too if it’s a parent it can get very tricky to handle. The major role will then be played by the non-offending parent on how assertively can he or she make sure the child is not abused again.
The next step will be through either the school counselor or an external counselor. The child is assessed on the impact of abuse and accordingly counseling is done for the child as well as the family members.
It’s not easy for the child definitely but even family members need support specially in cases of incest where betrayal is felt very strongly.
If the abuse has happened in the past then too the counselor should check for residual impact and address it through counseling sessions.
If the abuser is a stranger or a known person its easier (comparatively to incest) to make sure the abuse stops and that person doesn’t have access to the child. In any case counseling must be done to make sure the child is not showing any symptoms as a result of the abuse.
- What techniques do you think could be employed in counselling children who've been or are being abused?
First of all the abuse must stop.
Next is to create an environment of safety first. The child must be able to feel supported and safe and secure.
Help the child grieve the loss of a lover (abuser). This is very specific to cases where abuse has been going on for a long period of time and where the child has accommodated the abuse and the abuser and the child is liking both. Stopping the abuse can be then quite distressing for the child because the child associates sex with love. Children also experience pleasure like adults. Human bodies naturally respond to sexual touches. Even a baby does. So children over a period of time start enjoying the abuse because they are feeling pleasure which is absolutely natural. Only they are not aware that this is inappropriate behavior. Children will miss the sex and sexual touching.
This is also applicable where the child might not like the abuser but is liking the abuse.
The effects of abuse can be very varying depending on
• Age
• Gender
• Type of abuse
• Duration of abuse
• Who the offender is
• Degree of violence used
• Mental health of child before abuse
• Coping mechanisms
• Social support
Understanding the above, a plan should be made to counsel the child beginning with teaching appropriate behaviours, appropriate relationships and sexuality, addressing the feelings of the child, creating a comforting and supportive environment and involving family members to help with creating the comfort and support. In the event of there being no family, the guardians or caretakers need to be given adequate information to play the supportive role for the child.
There are various mainstream and alternate therapies that counselors use to address trauma. Depending on the counselors skills in various therapies different methodologies can be used.
Mainstream therapies include Trauma model, Traumagenic dynamics (Finkelhor and Browne), EMDR, Somatic experiencing, etc.
Alternate therapies include, dance movement therapy, arts based therapy, play therapy, etc. Group therapy is also done. In our experience while group work is powerful individual counseling and therapy is extremely vital in processing trauma and changing belief systems of the individual which bring about significant change. Alternate therapies have also good impact. Depending on the age of the child, adult and the impact of abuse and the counselors own skills, the kind of therapy can be decided.
It’s comparatively much easier to heal child survivors than adult survivors as more the time passes after the abuse more the impact is seen. Lot of cognitive behaviours get manifested. With adults large part of the therapeutic work should be planned around building self esteem, self love and self acceptance. That addresses the shame and guilt in the adult which is the most difficult to get rid of. However we have seen changes take place and its extremely heartening to see significant shifts come in an individual’s life as a result of the therapeutic process.
If you want more details on the healing processes please write to me on pooja@arpan.org.in
Special note:
For Parents - Please do not make your own assessment of whether your child is ok or not after being sexually abused. Only a trained counselor will be able to judge impact. Please take your child for counseling and let the counselor judge whether your child needs counseling or not and if the child does then please take him/or her for it without fail. You’ll be doing your child a huge favour.
For friends of survivors – Be supportive to your friend and encourage your friend slowly to go in for counseling.
For adult survivors – You don’t need to fight this battle alone or only with a friend. Seek help from a counselor. Believe me when I say, it’s a liberating process from being survivors into becoming thrivers. Please reach out. We are there to help and support you. You could write to support@arpan.org.in and or call 98190.86444.
- Can you share names of counsellors that you might recommend to schools or parents for cases of sexual abuse?
Arpan itself addresses cases of sexual abuse since this is our area of work. We take on cases of both children and adults. We can be contacted on support@arpan.org.in and or 98190.86444.
We have dealt with over 250 cases so far.
We also have a database of counselors who can handle cases of sexual abuse. Anybody can get in touch with us for contact details. Complete confidentiality is maintained with us.
- Do you have any recommendations for how we can keep kids on the streets and in children's homes safe?
Children wherever should be taught personal safety skills. If they are empowered with these skills chances of abuse can become less. However one can’t say it’ll stop completely despite children having these skills. Wherever there will be huge amounts of trust and or authority children might give in.
In children’s homes caretakers and other staff in those homes should be made aware about child sexual abuse and skills are given to them also on handling disclosure and addressing cases of sexual abuse within the home. They can also be trained on teaching personal safety skills regularly to children.
The streets are open ground. It’s very difficult to protect children on streets. They themselves will be the best at protecting themselves by running away from the situation.
- What has been your experience with schools and other NGOs? Are most schools open and willing to have sessions on PS/CSA? Do you have any comments on the work done by other NGOs in this field? Is there any message for schools or other NGOs?
Schools have been welcoming the idea of teaching children personal safety skills. Though in the beginning they had their reservations but now with the growing no. of cases of sexual abuse being reported schools are realizing that this is an important issues to address. So far all the schools we have gone to have said yes to either training their teachers and the teachers implementing the personal safety education program or us teaching the children directly. Some of the schools we have worked with are mentioned above.
Even NGOs are calling us for training their staff. We have trained staff of many NGOs like Childline, Prerana, Mobile Creches, Aakanksha, Doorstep School, World Vision, REAP, Saathi, CCDT, and many others. Some of them have taken up a campaign on spreading awareness on CSA post our training. It’s helped their staff address the issue of CSA in their environments and respond appropriately to cases that come up.
My message to schools is to continue to see the importance in empowering your children with personal safety skills and make it a top priority in your life skill curriculum. If you don’t have a life skill curriculum put one in place and teach children personal safety skills. Preventing a child from sexual abuse is literally like saving a life. The impact as we all know can be so damaging that it can take years to deal with it.
My message to NGOs is keep training your staff regularly on the issue of CSA so that the old staff remembers the intricacies of the issue again and the new staff is freshly trained to be able to deal with the issue. In your own areas of work take up the issue and do whatever you can to spread awareness with all your stake holders. If you run schools, teach the children and parents. If you run a shelter home, teach the children and staff. If you work with adults address the issue with them. If statistics are correct then with every second child or adult it could have been a past experience. Create awareness and help the survivors heal.
Both to schools and NGOs – Put certain child protection policies in your organizations and ensure it is implemented. Work towards how you can make your own environments safe for children.
- How would you like the media to contribute to the work you do?
Publish articles on child sexual abuse so that more and more people become aware about it. Today the biggest challenge we face is overcoming people’s denial and disbelief on the issue. The more they hear and read about it the more acceptable and open they will become to learning and finding out more so that they can protect their children.
Media has been playing a huge role in this and should continue to. Media can also publish articles on the kind of work organizations like Arpan are doing and the impact we are making so that people can access our services and get help either for counseling or on understanding how to teach children personal safety skills.
- Is there any video or film addressing issues of child sexual abuse that you like?
Yes.
‘Children we Sacrifice’ by Gracy Poore made many years ago has been a good resource of information and of experiences of adult survivors.
Animated films by Stairway Foundation, ‘Daughter’, ‘Good Boy’ and ‘Silent Leaves Falling’ are very good films that we always use in our trainings. They bring out the issues of incest, paedophilia, child trafficking and internet pornography in a very good way.
- Awareness, advocacy and service delivery (working with victims and/or abusers) - can you throw some light on how we have fared in each area?
Arpan’s been working on all these areas Prevention and Healing for almost 5 years now and I feel very proud that we have worked hard and worked well. We have reached out to 13,000 children and adults directly with our prevention and healing work as well as indirectly with over 4000 children and adults by training teachers.
We have also been advocating for bringing in child sexual offences as laws that are missing in India. We have been involved in drafting the laws with a core group of Lawyers and NGO professionals we have been hosting and sending our recommendations regularly to the relevant ministries and govt. officials.
Advocacy, Direct services as well as Research have been our areas so that we are able to address the issue of CSA more holistically.
With our prevention work we have seen children being able to report abuse after our programs, saying ‘NO’ to attempted abuse and running away from the situation, children teaching their siblings and their other friends about these skills. We see an average increase of approx. 25% in the knowledge, attitude and skills in both children and teachers post our trainings with them. (We map this by conducting pre and post tests.)
Parents feel much empowered and these are somethings they have shared with us.
“It was a very good experience both for parents & students, it has helped the parents since the child is now aware of the concepts which are at times difficult to discuss. It definitely has increased the confidence & self-esteem of children.”
“I think this education is very important for every parent, so that they can share and understand their child's problem better.”
Our healing work with survivors has seen significant changes in thoughts, beliefs and behaviours as a result of our counseling. Our most challenging work has been with rescued minors who’ve been very violated but it’s heartening to see the changes in them as a result of our regular and intensive interventions with them with counseling as well as psychiatric support.
Themes of change that have taken place with this group of girls are:
1. Reduction in anxiety symptoms,
2. lot of bodily physiological symptoms of severe anxiety have reduced,
3. greater empathy,
4. greater self awareness,
5. more assertiveness
6. transition from self harm to reduced or no self harm,
7. better learning and implementation of life skills
8. to take time before speaking/ reacting etc),
9. increase in internal motivation to change
are some of the changes we are seeing…
“I have been angry ever since my childhood. I used to shout and hit. Initially I would not approach the counselor who came for us. I would look at her angrily. I could not trust her. I would hurt myself a lot. I would slit my hands. Now I don't do that. I have learned to take care of myself”- rescued minor undergoing counseling at Arpan
“I can see a change in me being able to contain my feelings at work and also not needing to cry so easily. I learnt a lot about trauma and how it could have affected my thinking patterns.. Also learnt so much about myself and my relations. I wish I could come twice a week for counseling.” - adult survivor of child sexual abuse, age 29 yrs undergoing counseling at Arpan
We’ve also been regularly working towards building capacities of mental health professionals through trainings on mainstream and alternative therapies. Its resulted in significant changes in skills of these professionals.
- Does paucity of funds hinder your work?
Raising funds is challenging but has never been a hindrance. Whatever we have planned we have always been able to achieve. Our work has been doubling every year and support is coming for it. Important thing is to do good work and present it properly. People are always happy to support good work creating measurable impact.
- Would you like to add anything else?
About Arpan
Arpan is a registered NGO based in Mumbai working on the issue of child sexual abuse with a team of dedicated and skilled professionals since the year 2006.
Our Mission is to empower individuals, families, communities and society with prevention and intervention skills to reduce the occurrence of child sexual abuse and heal its psychological, social, sexual and physical consequences
Our Activities include:
Empowering:
- Parents, teachers, NGO professionals, caretakers and student professionals with prevention and intervention skills to help prevent CSA through awareness and training
- Children and adolescents with personal safety skills to protect themselves from CSA through teaching in classroom setups in schools
- Mental health professionals with therapeutic skills to deal with CSA cases effectively through regular trainings and workshops
- Child, adult survivors and rescued minors to heal from trauma caused by CSA through counseling and other therapeutic activities like dance, yoga
- Sex offenders with therapeutic assistance to prevent re offence through counseling
Advocating with:
- Policy Makers for specific laws on CSA to prevent and reduce the occurrence of CSA.
- School and Educational systems to incorporate personal safety skills into their curriculum to empower children and adolescents
- Pooja Taparia, Founder – CEO, Arpan
April 24, 2011
24.4.11
Times of India
NO KIDDING !
Childhood is the time to revel in the innocence of the age, with no adult concerns clouding the mind. But there's a big bad monster in this happy story of childhood. The monster that is CSA (Child Sexual Abuse). "The problem is that many parents are uneasy talking about it and this can damage the child," says socialite Kalyani Chawla.
Statistics show that boys are as vulnerable as girls to abuse. A 2006 study by TULIR, showed that 48 per cent of boys reported having been abused while the abuse amongst the girls surveyed was 39 per cent. Designer Rina Dhaka shares, " Children are soft targets. It's essential to create the right home environment, where you keep a dialogue open and build your child's trust."
However, amidst all this gloom, there may be some cause for cheer. The comprehensive law being tabled in the Rajya Sabha to deal with sexual offences against children, called the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Bill, 2011, might be soon passed as a legislation." The bill defines clearly what constitutes CSA, and the proposed law aims at protecting children against penetrative sexual assault, sexual harassment, pornography and also provides for the establishment of much-needed special courts for the speedy trial of CSA cases. The bill proposes stiffer punishment for offenders, going up to 10 years of imprisonment.
"Finally, we can look forward to a law that covers the entire range of offending sexual behaviours that constitute CSA," says Anuja Gupta, executive director of RAHI Foundation.
The other good news is that this generation of parents too is getting more aware about the real and immediate threat children face from sexual predators. Wardha Nadiadwala has security cameras installed in the kids' room to ensure they are monitored at all times. She says, "I never leave them alone." Mona Siddiqui made sure that her daughter Hana, now aged four, got lessons early on. Says she, "I've also shown her what kind of hugging and stroking is okay, and what is not." Anchor, model and actor Pooja Bedi began talking about this to her daughter Alia, now 13, when she was six. "I told her that she was to come and tell me if she was touched in places she was not comfortable with. I did the same with my son," she shares.
Actor Raveena Tandon says, "Parents should constantly monitor their child and be alert for any signs which point to abuse, and reassure the child that it is not their fault if something does happen." Parents also need to be 'nosy'. Says actor Renuka Shahane, "I always ask my two sons about how their day went if I haven't been home."
"We need to keep the lines of communication open with our children, trust the child and create a sense of security in the child," advises Bedi.
Tips for parents
- Teach your children about good/safe touch and bad/unsafe touch.
- Build a strong emotional bond with your children.
- Build open channels of communication with your children.
- Know the people your child spends time with.
- Avoid leaving your child unsupervised.
- Keep tabs on your children's activities.
Statistics on Child Sexual Abuse in India
- More than 53 per cent children report facing one or more forms of sexual abuse.
- Almost 22 per cent children faced severe sexual abuse, 6 per cent of the respondents were sexually assaulted.
- Fifty per cent of sexual offenders were known to the victim or were in positions of trust (family member, close relative, friend or neighbour).
- Children in the 5-12 years group faced higher levels of abuse, which go largely unreported.
- Boys are equally at risk as girls.
- The severest sexual abuse occurred in age group of 11-16 years.
Times of India
NO KIDDING !
Childhood is the time to revel in the innocence of the age, with no adult concerns clouding the mind. But there's a big bad monster in this happy story of childhood. The monster that is CSA (Child Sexual Abuse). "The problem is that many parents are uneasy talking about it and this can damage the child," says socialite Kalyani Chawla.
Statistics show that boys are as vulnerable as girls to abuse. A 2006 study by TULIR, showed that 48 per cent of boys reported having been abused while the abuse amongst the girls surveyed was 39 per cent. Designer Rina Dhaka shares, " Children are soft targets. It's essential to create the right home environment, where you keep a dialogue open and build your child's trust."
However, amidst all this gloom, there may be some cause for cheer. The comprehensive law being tabled in the Rajya Sabha to deal with sexual offences against children, called the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Bill, 2011, might be soon passed as a legislation." The bill defines clearly what constitutes CSA, and the proposed law aims at protecting children against penetrative sexual assault, sexual harassment, pornography and also provides for the establishment of much-needed special courts for the speedy trial of CSA cases. The bill proposes stiffer punishment for offenders, going up to 10 years of imprisonment.
"Finally, we can look forward to a law that covers the entire range of offending sexual behaviours that constitute CSA," says Anuja Gupta, executive director of RAHI Foundation.
The other good news is that this generation of parents too is getting more aware about the real and immediate threat children face from sexual predators. Wardha Nadiadwala has security cameras installed in the kids' room to ensure they are monitored at all times. She says, "I never leave them alone." Mona Siddiqui made sure that her daughter Hana, now aged four, got lessons early on. Says she, "I've also shown her what kind of hugging and stroking is okay, and what is not." Anchor, model and actor Pooja Bedi began talking about this to her daughter Alia, now 13, when she was six. "I told her that she was to come and tell me if she was touched in places she was not comfortable with. I did the same with my son," she shares.
Actor Raveena Tandon says, "Parents should constantly monitor their child and be alert for any signs which point to abuse, and reassure the child that it is not their fault if something does happen." Parents also need to be 'nosy'. Says actor Renuka Shahane, "I always ask my two sons about how their day went if I haven't been home."
"We need to keep the lines of communication open with our children, trust the child and create a sense of security in the child," advises Bedi.
Tips for parents
- Teach your children about good/safe touch and bad/unsafe touch.
- Build a strong emotional bond with your children.
- Build open channels of communication with your children.
- Know the people your child spends time with.
- Avoid leaving your child unsupervised.
- Keep tabs on your children's activities.
Statistics on Child Sexual Abuse in India
- More than 53 per cent children report facing one or more forms of sexual abuse.
- Almost 22 per cent children faced severe sexual abuse, 6 per cent of the respondents were sexually assaulted.
- Fifty per cent of sexual offenders were known to the victim or were in positions of trust (family member, close relative, friend or neighbour).
- Children in the 5-12 years group faced higher levels of abuse, which go largely unreported.
- Boys are equally at risk as girls.
- The severest sexual abuse occurred in age group of 11-16 years.
April 20, 2011
20.4.11
TIMES OF INDIA
Panchayat lets rapist walk free, minor victim dies
LUCKNOW: In a preposterous edict, a village panchayat in Ghaziabad ordered the rapist of a five-year-old girl to be slapped a few times even as the traumatised child died of excessive loss of blood.
Shanti (name changed), the only daughter of Mangu Giri and Sunita, was brutally assaulted by one Om Pal (24) in Shahpur village in Ghaziabad late on Sunday while they bought grocery from a neighbourhood market.
As the couple returned home, they heard the screams of their daughter and rushed in, only to find her in the grips of Om Pal, who also happens to be their distant relative. The shocked parents shouted for help and Om was caught with the help of neighbours.
Next, the Shahpur village panchayat sat in judgment and asked the accused to apologise to Shanti's parents. ''The panchayat also declared the accused to be slapped a few times for his crime. But Om Pal's parents told me they had already thrashed him,'' said Mangu to the police on Tuesday.
The panchayat also ordered Mangu, a labourer at a brick kiln, not to take his profusely bleeding daughter to hospital as it would needlessly involve the police. Mangu and Sunita were forced to keep Shanti at home and tried household remedies which were of no use.
TIMES OF INDIA
Panchayat lets rapist walk free, minor victim dies
LUCKNOW: In a preposterous edict, a village panchayat in Ghaziabad ordered the rapist of a five-year-old girl to be slapped a few times even as the traumatised child died of excessive loss of blood.
Shanti (name changed), the only daughter of Mangu Giri and Sunita, was brutally assaulted by one Om Pal (24) in Shahpur village in Ghaziabad late on Sunday while they bought grocery from a neighbourhood market.
As the couple returned home, they heard the screams of their daughter and rushed in, only to find her in the grips of Om Pal, who also happens to be their distant relative. The shocked parents shouted for help and Om was caught with the help of neighbours.
Next, the Shahpur village panchayat sat in judgment and asked the accused to apologise to Shanti's parents. ''The panchayat also declared the accused to be slapped a few times for his crime. But Om Pal's parents told me they had already thrashed him,'' said Mangu to the police on Tuesday.
The panchayat also ordered Mangu, a labourer at a brick kiln, not to take his profusely bleeding daughter to hospital as it would needlessly involve the police. Mangu and Sunita were forced to keep Shanti at home and tried household remedies which were of no use.
April 19, 2011
17.4.11
DNA
PINK BOARD JUNGLE
For 15-year-old Ipsita Pal, end of school barely translated into the excitement most teenagers feel before entering college. Instead, she suffered from mood swings and scored badly in her ICSE preliminary exams.
Pal comes across as a reserved teenager, but is surprisingly candid about that “crazy, confusing phase where little made sense.”
“I was in love with my best friend - a girl. I don’t think I can even articulate what was going on in my head then,” Pal says in a rush.
“I had always seen my girlfriends gushing about liking guys. Love gave them such a high. But I felt none of that. I was ashamed and terrified because everything around you points towards liking the opposite sex,” explains Pal.
She adds that she was afraid of approaching a teacher because they never discussed similar dilemmas.
“If things went wrong, I would have been left with an added embarrassment - that of a teacher knowing about my feelings.”
Over months, Pal lost her appetite, sleep and her friends, too.
“The friend I loved moved to another city to pursuer college, and I had irrational fears about approaching other girls…what if I developed feelings for them too?”
Pal’s parents took her to two counsellors suspecting exam anxiety or, at most, depression.
“Neither took any time to speak to me, and put me on medication right away. It only reinforced the guilt I felt. I started believing that my feelings were unnatural, shameful and something I had to ‘cure’.”
Dr Zirak Marker was the third psychologist Pal visited.
“When a teenager approaches you with confusion about his/her sexuality, one has to be very careful about not disclosing too much or too little. Sexuality develops over a long period of time.”
Instead of concentrating on whether Pal was a lesbian or not, Dr Marker took time to understand her and took her off medication.
“You cannot reinforce an idea in a teenager’s mind - about heterosexuality or homosexuality.” In due course, Pal’s parents were taken into confidence. “Unlike most parents, Pal’s parents assured her that they loved her just the same - whether she loves a boy or a girl.
Dealing with confusion about one’s sexuality in school is difficult to begin with. Most signs around reinforce that heterosexual attraction and feelings for the opposite sex are ‘normal’ and anything that doesn’t conform to this notion is ‘abnormal’.
Worse, homophobia and bullying in schools makes it impossible for an adolescent to think his/her feelings through, says Mansi Hasan, child psychologist.
“The issue in school children today isn’t just about whether they can make sense of their sexual identities or not. It is also about the homophobia they see all around them. The word ‘gay’ is used as an abuse,” says Hasan.
Recently, the principal of an international school in the city approached Hasan to conduct a sex education workshop mainly because homosexual exploration was on the rise amongst boys and girls.
“Even 3-4 years ago, we didn’t include homosexuality in our workshops, but now we do touch upon it. In this school’s case, a fifth-grader made other boys uncomfortable by touching them inappropriately. When we conducted the workshop, we found his classmates to be severely homophobic.”
Hasan also started speaking to the boy separately and realised he himself was quite confused about his reasons for exploring his classmates.
“It is too early to ‘decide’ or explore whether the boy is homosexual or not - that is something the child will have to decide for himself. At this age, what is important is to create a safe atmosphere for the child. The boy, for instance, was bullied and mocked for “being gay”. Thanks to the information available online and on TV, even children as young as him do understand these concepts to some extent. He has started playing out the mockery to find out what it really meant,” explains Hasan.
Two years ago, when Mohit Prabhu was 13 years old, his mother took him to a psychologist because he, in an unusually frank chat, told his school counsellor that he often got aroused while playing with a male friend at home.
“For a long time, I had to help Mohit accept that arousal, whether with a boy or a girl, is something that he cannot ‘control’. After a year or two, he tried going around with girls but told me that he didn’t feel the same around them. I have not yet had a frank chat with him discussing his homosexuality, but he is more comfortable with how he feels. His parents, however, are still in denial.” The best way forward, says psychiatrist Dr Harish Shetty, is to let nature takes its course - and parents must be prepared for whatever their child chooses.
Dr Marker cites an instance of a boy who came to him because he had realised he was homosexual and was anxious about what “his future held for him”.
“His parents accompanied him, but after five to six sessions, his mother started approaching me secretly, demanding I stop asking him to accept the situation and concentrate on “curing” him instead.
"Sex education workshops are best done keeping parents in the loop too. It is futile if you work towards making a child comfortable, and do little to make his home environment conducive to his feelings,” says Dr Marker.
Dr Shetty says asks students to write their queries on paper anonymously. “Children are getting bolder and experience feelings more complex than we can imagine. Sex education workshops mustn’t be about moral judgements - once you let a child know that his feelings - homosexual or heretosexual - will be respected, h/she’ll not look for information from dubious sources.
DNA
PINK BOARD JUNGLE
For 15-year-old Ipsita Pal, end of school barely translated into the excitement most teenagers feel before entering college. Instead, she suffered from mood swings and scored badly in her ICSE preliminary exams.
Pal comes across as a reserved teenager, but is surprisingly candid about that “crazy, confusing phase where little made sense.”
“I was in love with my best friend - a girl. I don’t think I can even articulate what was going on in my head then,” Pal says in a rush.
“I had always seen my girlfriends gushing about liking guys. Love gave them such a high. But I felt none of that. I was ashamed and terrified because everything around you points towards liking the opposite sex,” explains Pal.
She adds that she was afraid of approaching a teacher because they never discussed similar dilemmas.
“If things went wrong, I would have been left with an added embarrassment - that of a teacher knowing about my feelings.”
Over months, Pal lost her appetite, sleep and her friends, too.
“The friend I loved moved to another city to pursuer college, and I had irrational fears about approaching other girls…what if I developed feelings for them too?”
Pal’s parents took her to two counsellors suspecting exam anxiety or, at most, depression.
“Neither took any time to speak to me, and put me on medication right away. It only reinforced the guilt I felt. I started believing that my feelings were unnatural, shameful and something I had to ‘cure’.”
Dr Zirak Marker was the third psychologist Pal visited.
“When a teenager approaches you with confusion about his/her sexuality, one has to be very careful about not disclosing too much or too little. Sexuality develops over a long period of time.”
Instead of concentrating on whether Pal was a lesbian or not, Dr Marker took time to understand her and took her off medication.
“You cannot reinforce an idea in a teenager’s mind - about heterosexuality or homosexuality.” In due course, Pal’s parents were taken into confidence. “Unlike most parents, Pal’s parents assured her that they loved her just the same - whether she loves a boy or a girl.
Dealing with confusion about one’s sexuality in school is difficult to begin with. Most signs around reinforce that heterosexual attraction and feelings for the opposite sex are ‘normal’ and anything that doesn’t conform to this notion is ‘abnormal’.
Worse, homophobia and bullying in schools makes it impossible for an adolescent to think his/her feelings through, says Mansi Hasan, child psychologist.
“The issue in school children today isn’t just about whether they can make sense of their sexual identities or not. It is also about the homophobia they see all around them. The word ‘gay’ is used as an abuse,” says Hasan.
Recently, the principal of an international school in the city approached Hasan to conduct a sex education workshop mainly because homosexual exploration was on the rise amongst boys and girls.
“Even 3-4 years ago, we didn’t include homosexuality in our workshops, but now we do touch upon it. In this school’s case, a fifth-grader made other boys uncomfortable by touching them inappropriately. When we conducted the workshop, we found his classmates to be severely homophobic.”
Hasan also started speaking to the boy separately and realised he himself was quite confused about his reasons for exploring his classmates.
“It is too early to ‘decide’ or explore whether the boy is homosexual or not - that is something the child will have to decide for himself. At this age, what is important is to create a safe atmosphere for the child. The boy, for instance, was bullied and mocked for “being gay”. Thanks to the information available online and on TV, even children as young as him do understand these concepts to some extent. He has started playing out the mockery to find out what it really meant,” explains Hasan.
Two years ago, when Mohit Prabhu was 13 years old, his mother took him to a psychologist because he, in an unusually frank chat, told his school counsellor that he often got aroused while playing with a male friend at home.
“For a long time, I had to help Mohit accept that arousal, whether with a boy or a girl, is something that he cannot ‘control’. After a year or two, he tried going around with girls but told me that he didn’t feel the same around them. I have not yet had a frank chat with him discussing his homosexuality, but he is more comfortable with how he feels. His parents, however, are still in denial.” The best way forward, says psychiatrist Dr Harish Shetty, is to let nature takes its course - and parents must be prepared for whatever their child chooses.
Dr Marker cites an instance of a boy who came to him because he had realised he was homosexual and was anxious about what “his future held for him”.
“His parents accompanied him, but after five to six sessions, his mother started approaching me secretly, demanding I stop asking him to accept the situation and concentrate on “curing” him instead.
"Sex education workshops are best done keeping parents in the loop too. It is futile if you work towards making a child comfortable, and do little to make his home environment conducive to his feelings,” says Dr Marker.
Dr Shetty says asks students to write their queries on paper anonymously. “Children are getting bolder and experience feelings more complex than we can imagine. Sex education workshops mustn’t be about moral judgements - once you let a child know that his feelings - homosexual or heretosexual - will be respected, h/she’ll not look for information from dubious sources.
March 31, 2011
Express buzz
31st March, 2011
Save our daughters
HYDERABAD: Sexual harassment has been used as a weapon to suppress and subjugate women over the centuries, and in all societies.
“Child abuse at home is not something unusual. It’s been there in large extended families,” points out Kalpana Kannabiran, president of the Asmita Resource Centre for Women, and explains: “When the violation takes place within the home, as is very often the case, the abuse is effectively condoned by tacit silence, and by the passivity displayed by the State and the law-enforcing machinery.” Because the crime is perpetrated most often by a father, stepfather, grandfather, brother or uncle, the rights of the child are usually sacrificed in order to protect the name of the family.
The violence, and its perpertrator, are thus shielded by a cloak of invisibility.
Then there is the horror of forced prostitution. Sunitha Krishnan, founder of the citybased Prajwala, an institution that works to stop human trafficking and has rescued 4268 girls to date, gives an account of the kind of cruelty inflicted on young children to break them into the flesh trade: “For instance, a 12-year-old Laila, it was a never ending saga of pain and fear. Enslaved in a cellar for three years, she was subjected to physical abuse and mental torture by a number of men. An 8-year-old girl can be beaten up badly or confined with a snake to terrorise her into submission.
And there have been cases of men throwing chilli powder in the vagina of the girls to induce an orgasm”
APATHY REIGNS
Dire poverty is another factor that has blighted the lives of girl children. Compelled to work as domestic servants, they are open to physical, including sexual, abuse by her employers. And there is also the devadasi phenomenon.
“In the poor rural areas of Telangana, where debt bondage is rife, it is believed that it is the daughter’s duty to sacrifice herself for the well-being of the family. Young women and girls (devadasis) are ‘dedicated’ to the service of a temple. The devadasis pratha does exist, but now it is closely tied to the caste system,” observes Kalpana.
As for the menace on the streets, that is a pervasive reality for most women and girls. Kalpana recalls her own experience: “At the age of 45, I myself was violently manhandled by a 20- year-old right in front of my house. Neighbours chose to be mere spectators.’’ So what advice does she have for those of her gender? Don’t be foolhardy, but when faced with a tough situation don’t be cowed.
“So many women come to my speaking engagements and training sessions as sheep and walk out determined, strong, empowered and ready to take control of their own lives,” she says.
UNENDING NIGHTMARE
Abusive husbands are another menace quite a few women have to contend with. And imagine the plight of someone who meets this fate while trying to escape another unendurable one. Take the case of Karuna (*name changed) who was barely out of college when a friend proposed marriage. She accepted and eventually they left for the United States where the husband proved to be abusive. Unable to bear the torment, she obtained a divorce and stayed back to pursue her studies rather than return home.
But why did Karuna accept the very first proposal that came her way? The answer is chilling.
“Not because I really liked the guy, but I was desperate to escape from the clutches of my father.” It turns out that he had abused her sexually since she was 15.
And worse was to come when her mother died: “It only got more convenient for him. It was sickening, but then he was my dad, who was also showering me with affection and taking care of me… I breathed not a word to anyone, but at the first opportunity I left him. But the the man I chose was worse…” Then there is the case of Ankita* who too had no inkling of what she was in for when she married Arnab*. For more than a decade now, she has been subjected to mental and physical abuse. It started in the very first year of marriage, but despite her economic independence and professional success this 37-year-old marketing executive has chosen to conform to social pressures and “save” the marriage. From this one can glean the condition of other victims of domestic violence who haven’t had access to a sound education or a well-paid job. Conversely, as more women join the workforce, there is growing concern that their very success triggers the resentment of the spouse and often ends in abuse.
Shocking cases of sexual abuse have been tumbling out of schools too. Last year, one Mohammed Salauddin Ayub Khan, 55, the director of the elite Parkwood International School in Vikarabad near the city, was arrested for repeatedly raping a Plus One student over four months.
The girl, who hailed from Mumbai, became pregnant and the matter came to light. According to activists, the number of students who get molested every year in schools in the State is nothing short of a couple of hundred.
And this number is arrived at only on bases of reported cases, most of which come from private schools. The heavy lid of silence generally screens off the abuse in Government schools whether in the city or elsewhere.
Taking cognisance of the menace, the Hyderabad district educational officer has set up a call centre with two 10-digit numbers to receive grievances from parents, students, teachers and school managements. They can lodge their complaints with: 9346283557 or 9346284556
31st March, 2011
Save our daughters
HYDERABAD: Sexual harassment has been used as a weapon to suppress and subjugate women over the centuries, and in all societies.
“Child abuse at home is not something unusual. It’s been there in large extended families,” points out Kalpana Kannabiran, president of the Asmita Resource Centre for Women, and explains: “When the violation takes place within the home, as is very often the case, the abuse is effectively condoned by tacit silence, and by the passivity displayed by the State and the law-enforcing machinery.” Because the crime is perpetrated most often by a father, stepfather, grandfather, brother or uncle, the rights of the child are usually sacrificed in order to protect the name of the family.
The violence, and its perpertrator, are thus shielded by a cloak of invisibility.
Then there is the horror of forced prostitution. Sunitha Krishnan, founder of the citybased Prajwala, an institution that works to stop human trafficking and has rescued 4268 girls to date, gives an account of the kind of cruelty inflicted on young children to break them into the flesh trade: “For instance, a 12-year-old Laila, it was a never ending saga of pain and fear. Enslaved in a cellar for three years, she was subjected to physical abuse and mental torture by a number of men. An 8-year-old girl can be beaten up badly or confined with a snake to terrorise her into submission.
And there have been cases of men throwing chilli powder in the vagina of the girls to induce an orgasm”
APATHY REIGNS
Dire poverty is another factor that has blighted the lives of girl children. Compelled to work as domestic servants, they are open to physical, including sexual, abuse by her employers. And there is also the devadasi phenomenon.
“In the poor rural areas of Telangana, where debt bondage is rife, it is believed that it is the daughter’s duty to sacrifice herself for the well-being of the family. Young women and girls (devadasis) are ‘dedicated’ to the service of a temple. The devadasis pratha does exist, but now it is closely tied to the caste system,” observes Kalpana.
As for the menace on the streets, that is a pervasive reality for most women and girls. Kalpana recalls her own experience: “At the age of 45, I myself was violently manhandled by a 20- year-old right in front of my house. Neighbours chose to be mere spectators.’’ So what advice does she have for those of her gender? Don’t be foolhardy, but when faced with a tough situation don’t be cowed.
“So many women come to my speaking engagements and training sessions as sheep and walk out determined, strong, empowered and ready to take control of their own lives,” she says.
UNENDING NIGHTMARE
Abusive husbands are another menace quite a few women have to contend with. And imagine the plight of someone who meets this fate while trying to escape another unendurable one. Take the case of Karuna (*name changed) who was barely out of college when a friend proposed marriage. She accepted and eventually they left for the United States where the husband proved to be abusive. Unable to bear the torment, she obtained a divorce and stayed back to pursue her studies rather than return home.
But why did Karuna accept the very first proposal that came her way? The answer is chilling.
“Not because I really liked the guy, but I was desperate to escape from the clutches of my father.” It turns out that he had abused her sexually since she was 15.
And worse was to come when her mother died: “It only got more convenient for him. It was sickening, but then he was my dad, who was also showering me with affection and taking care of me… I breathed not a word to anyone, but at the first opportunity I left him. But the the man I chose was worse…” Then there is the case of Ankita* who too had no inkling of what she was in for when she married Arnab*. For more than a decade now, she has been subjected to mental and physical abuse. It started in the very first year of marriage, but despite her economic independence and professional success this 37-year-old marketing executive has chosen to conform to social pressures and “save” the marriage. From this one can glean the condition of other victims of domestic violence who haven’t had access to a sound education or a well-paid job. Conversely, as more women join the workforce, there is growing concern that their very success triggers the resentment of the spouse and often ends in abuse.
Shocking cases of sexual abuse have been tumbling out of schools too. Last year, one Mohammed Salauddin Ayub Khan, 55, the director of the elite Parkwood International School in Vikarabad near the city, was arrested for repeatedly raping a Plus One student over four months.
The girl, who hailed from Mumbai, became pregnant and the matter came to light. According to activists, the number of students who get molested every year in schools in the State is nothing short of a couple of hundred.
And this number is arrived at only on bases of reported cases, most of which come from private schools. The heavy lid of silence generally screens off the abuse in Government schools whether in the city or elsewhere.
Taking cognisance of the menace, the Hyderabad district educational officer has set up a call centre with two 10-digit numbers to receive grievances from parents, students, teachers and school managements. They can lodge their complaints with: 9346283557 or 9346284556
March 18, 2011
18.3.11
DNA
Govt spares rape victims the finger humiliation
The government has made finger test, which adds insult to rape victims’ injury, optional. It can now be conducted only when there is no other evidence to confirm rape or sexual assault and that too only with the consent of victims.
The health ministry has issued a note to all central government hospitals, asking doctors to desist from conducting the test as a practice. Medically known as p/v (per vagina) test, it involves a doctor inserting fingers in the vagina to determine its laxity.
The test is seen as physically invasive by women as it often determines a victim’s previous sexual experiences as well. According to women activists, defence lawyers often use this finding to discredit rape victims.
The change of examination pattern has been ordered by health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad following a representation by National Commission for Women.
A team of technical experts has also simplified the pro forma of medical examination report for sexual exploitation to remove irrelevant information sought from victims and cut down unnecessary tests.
This pattern is expected to be followed by state government and private hospitals as well.
The health ministry note states that medical tests on rape victims have to be carried out in a more sensitive manner and should be less humiliating.
Accordingly, doctors will now have to first conduct pubic hair combing and examination of external genitalia to check swelling, injury, bruises, etc, on victims’ private parts to establish rape or sexual assault.
“P/v test has to be conducted only if there is a dire need for further examination or there are no other visible signs of rape/assault or for other findings. We have also simplified the format to remove ambiguity and doubts of various women’s groups pursuing the issue,” a health ministry official said.
DNA
Govt spares rape victims the finger humiliation
The government has made finger test, which adds insult to rape victims’ injury, optional. It can now be conducted only when there is no other evidence to confirm rape or sexual assault and that too only with the consent of victims.
The health ministry has issued a note to all central government hospitals, asking doctors to desist from conducting the test as a practice. Medically known as p/v (per vagina) test, it involves a doctor inserting fingers in the vagina to determine its laxity.
The test is seen as physically invasive by women as it often determines a victim’s previous sexual experiences as well. According to women activists, defence lawyers often use this finding to discredit rape victims.
The change of examination pattern has been ordered by health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad following a representation by National Commission for Women.
A team of technical experts has also simplified the pro forma of medical examination report for sexual exploitation to remove irrelevant information sought from victims and cut down unnecessary tests.
This pattern is expected to be followed by state government and private hospitals as well.
The health ministry note states that medical tests on rape victims have to be carried out in a more sensitive manner and should be less humiliating.
Accordingly, doctors will now have to first conduct pubic hair combing and examination of external genitalia to check swelling, injury, bruises, etc, on victims’ private parts to establish rape or sexual assault.
“P/v test has to be conducted only if there is a dire need for further examination or there are no other visible signs of rape/assault or for other findings. We have also simplified the format to remove ambiguity and doubts of various women’s groups pursuing the issue,” a health ministry official said.
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