Press Release: Data on Sexual abuse of Boys must compliment supportive and sensitive mechanisms that help boys report the abuse
Posted on July 29, 2019
For the favour of Press Release
From The Concerned for Working Children
Date: 29.07.2019
Data on Sexual abuse of Boys must compliment supportive and sensitive mechanisms that help boys report the abuse
We at CWC, welcome the Government Of India’s direction to the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) to collect gender-disaggregated data on sexual assaults against children. This is an urgent and long-delayed need, in order to ensure that efficient preventive and rehabilitative measures are put in place. However, CWC joins several other activists and organisations to highlight the concern that sending out a direction to the NCRB is not enough. A parallel process has to be initiated to ensure that all children, especially boys and transgender children, have access to an enabling and sensitive environment that supports them to open up about sexual abuse.
In fact in as early as 2007, a study conducted by the Ministry of Women and Child Welfare, supported by United Nations Children’s Fund, Save the Children and Prayas, found that out of the 53.22% children who faced one or more forms of sexual abuse, 52.94% were boys as against 47 % c who were girls. This is a staggering statistic. More than a decade ago, it has challenged the practice of not taking into account male rape and sexual abuse, child or otherwise, as a crime. Similar studies conducted over the years have corroborated the argument that sexual abuse of boys is as rampant, if not more, than that of girls. This disturbing argument was further confirmed in 2018, in the light of the serial sexual abuse cases of young boys in the Udupi district of Karnataka that came to the notice of authorities in December 2018.
However what is most concerning is that according to the police while 21 cases have been filed, the actual number is much more! The justification by the police is that they are proceeding only with those adolescents who they feel will be able to handle the rigors of investigations. This is also an admission by the police of the stark reality of our Juvenile Justice System which does not seem to have the capacity to engage with younger children with sensitivity.
The reality is that to this day, the abuse of boys remains under wraps. In fact, Insia Dariwala’s petition on Change.org of 2018 has 1,23,740 signatories urging the Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD) to conduct an in-depth study of male child sexual abuse. In her petition, Dariwal wrote that it is quite unfortunate that while on one hand a girl’s sexual abuse is scorned and looked at as a serious crime while most men are pressurised by society to pass off their sexual abuse as a rite of passage. Sexual exploitation by older boys is often misinterpreted as sexual exploration and hence younger boys feel obligated to hide it. In fact, many people refuse to believe that boys can get raped. Men are ridiculed and their sexual orientation is questioned and the pressure to live up to the façade of society’s macho image, weighs in so heavy that ultimately the only way out, is to live a life within’.
Society’s blind eye to the sexual victimisation of boys and men is reflected in the law itself. To this day, even in a state like Karnataka where elaborate Child Protection Policies and Guidelines exist, their application, in reality, is abysmal.
The poor prosecution rate under The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act – which often is held as the States response to child sexual abuse – and denial of justice in numerous cases has come under severe condemnation. So far POCSO has not been viewed as gender-neutral legislation. In fact, in some of its provisions, it is gender debilitating when it comes to boys. The rampant use of POCSO provisions to arrest and harass young boys under 18 years in consensual relationships has also created fear, that this could be misconstrued to view them as offenders rather than victims in genuine cases of abuse.
The POCSO (Amendment) Bill, which was recently passed in the Rajya Sabha, on the 24th of this month, makes the punishment for committing sexual crimes against children more stringent, with the death penalty being part of the fray. However, across the board, human rights activists and lawmakers alike have pointed out that the death penalty, often contributes to lesser reporting because the abuser is often known to the family and there is a fear of retaliation. Thus, due to this fear of retaliation and re-victimization via society and the criminal justice system, reporting is a difficult decision to be made by the survivors and their caregivers. This, amongst other concerns with utilising the death penalty as a form of punishment, was highlighted in the letter to the Rajya Sabha sent by the Pro-Child Coalition ( a 188 organisation strong coalition) of which CWC is a member.
Abuse of any kind is an expression of power imbalance and sexual abuse is among its most aggressive expression. It should not have been a surprise to know that young boys are abused in fairly large numbers. Despite the available statistics in public domain boys have long remained invisible in the gamut of sexual victimisation. They, like a large majority of children, lack the opportunities, scope and platforms for self-assertion and so children especially the younger children have become extremely vulnerable. Psychiatrists are also very concerned that sexual abuse in boys could lead to the perpetuation of the crime, that of creating a new perpetrator.
While the structures of law have to change to become sensitive and supportive to boys who are sexually victimized, society has to also change its indifferent perception around sexual abuse of boys and transgendered children. Thus concerted efforts have to be made to talk to mothers, fathers and caregivers in the communities and to share their outrage, urging them to talk to their sons and young boys with candor about abuse. Even more critical is to talk to young boys in every space possible and to create for them an environment where they can talk about themselves and their experiences. This would be crucial to help them see that abuse and bravado are not a part of being ‘men’. It would also enable them to look out for and protect each other just the way many girls have begun to do.
In the case of the 2018 Udupi cases of sexual abuse of boys, children and their families who have stepped out to file complaints are being assisted by our organisation to access psychological counseling. This too required persuasion as the parents preferred to close the chapter shut rather than face the issue and trauma that the children are undergoing and address it. We are also holding discussions with all children and communities we work with to channel the message that boys can be abused too.
These efforts have to be systematised within the community, bureaucratic and socio-legal system across the country. Only when children and their immediate eco-systems are enabled and supported to respond against sexual violations in a sensitive and empathetic manner, and those guilty of committing the crime are punished, will a strong message be sent out that the time for the deafening silence against abuse of boys and girls is over.
For more details, please contact:
Kavita Ratna, Director – Advocacy
Phone: +91 – 9448990480
Email: kavitaratna@gmail.com
