We millennials are called the reckless,wild youth who are chasing impractical things in life. Well, if I may ask you what made us that way? Better yet,who made us that way?

According to some statistics, “The number of cases registered for child abuse raised from 8,904 in the year 2014 to 14,913 in the year 2015, under the POSCO Act. Sexual offences and kidnapping account for 81% of the crimes against minors.” In 94.8% of the cases , this abuse is inflicted by someone know to the child rather than some stranger.These acquaintances include neighbors who were the biggest abusers (35.8%) and 10% were their direct family members.

In India,a child is abused every 15 minutes according to the latest government figures. India being the land of centuries old rich culture have somehow imbibed in their ‘tradition’ to scar a child growing up,atleast this is what this staggeringly high rate of child abuse shouts at us.Child abuse affects one in ways unimaginable for childhood is a tender age which can make or break you. At this stage,our minds are like moulds and take shapes of whatever thrown in front of us. This is why this generations is known to have more issues because most of them weren’t not taught how to deal with them at an earlier stage. They never experienced support which comes under emotional and psychological abuse mostly inflicted by the ones close to you. All they experienced was hours and hours of trauma when they had all that beautiful time they could’ve put into themselves.

Child abuse takes away one’s childhood in many forms namely in terms of physical abuse,emotional abuse and sexual abuse. Physical abuse is the most common one in traditional Indian households for they feel that children can only be disciplined by physically harming them.This is why the idea of violence gets imbibed in children too as they feel physical harm can be use as a way to silence someone as this is what they go through at their place.This also makes it hard for children to express their feelings in a healthy manner.

Emotional abuse encompasses the toll it takes on the mental health of the child. This usually starts with how in this fast paced world parents usually get so busy with their corporate lives that they forget their little kids waiting eagerly to spend time with them. This scantiness of affection and attention creates insecurities in the mind of the kids as to how they are not even good enough for the humans who made them.It can also happen when the parents put on them very high expectations and reject their point of view.

Sexual abuse is the most common one.It can be in different ways which includes pressuring the child to engage in sexual activities,sexual contact with the child,incident exposures to female genitals etc.It is not just in the case of girls but boys are also molested physically.Studies have shown those sexual abuse victims are usually between 6 to 9 year of age.This causes the children to become timid and underconfident and can affect a child in ways unimaginable.It creates a wound which the child takes with him/her throughout life as this kind of trauma is hard to get over.

The stigma around child abuse needs to be abolished and awareness of the community plays an important role to prevent this from ruining lives.

Priyal Verma

| Posted on April 21, 2019

Child Abuse

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Priyal Verma

| Updated on July 23, 2021

Child abuse