India is not the safest place in the world for children, it seems. According to a year-long study of 17,000 children conducted by a non-governmental agency called Prayas, almost half of those surveyed reported being abused or traumatized daily.
The findings are a damning indictment in a country where rampant poverty forces children to scavenge for food across train and bus stations, leaving them vulnerable and helpless at the hands of authority figures. Take the case of 11-year-old Shanoat who said that almost every day he and his brother, Sarfarad, are regularly beaten up by police while they work as cleaners at the train station:
The cops don’t care who you are. If they don’t like something they’ll hit you. In the last year, I’ve been hit by the police maybe a thousand times.
In New Delhi alone, 71% of the children surveyed said that they had been beaten up by policemen and other authority figures. Even more alarmingly, the study finds that at least one among four Indian children who had agreed to participate in the survey admitted to having been sexually abused at some time or the other. Shanoat admits that such instances of almost daily torture leave most of them completely traumatized and resentful of society. Most of the kids have no parents or families and are left to fend for themselves.
What is the government doing in the meanwhile? Apparently, the Indian parliament is set to meet later this year to decide whether to pass a new child protection law that would force teachers, parents, the police and others to report cases of child abuse to relevant authorities. Better now than never.
Via: CBC
