Recent survey across Asia has revealed that majority of the people are hiding behind a ‘wall of silence’ and are shirking from telling the truth about child abuse for the fear of bringing ‘dishonor’ to the family.
The findings are based on interviews of 500 respondents from India, Bangladesh and Pakistan. More than 300 respondents rated sexual abuse of a child as having the most negative effect on family ‘honor’ or ‘izzat’, followed by physical abuse then emotional abuse.
Instead of talking about the problems with the authorities, they would prefer dealing it with the child itself.
All these dogmas must be condemned as unacceptable and people must be urged to tackle the problem openly rather than avoiding them in the name of ‘family honor’. After all, by keeping mute, the victimized family would protect the wrong people in the community. And instead of finding a solution, the problem would be further aggravated.
