A Study to Assess the Knowledge Regarding Legal Aspects of Child Abuse among Care Takers of Children With A View to Develop an Information Pamphlet on Child Abuse in A Selected Hospital, Bangalore

Abstract

Child abuse or child maltreatment is any kind of physical, sexual or psychological maltreatment or neglect of a child or children, especially by a parent or other caregiver. The prevalence of child abuse globally is estimated up to 1 billion children aged between 2-17 years have experienced physical, sexual or emotional violence or neglect as per the statistics of 2020 by WHO. It is the responsibility of the caretakers to protect their child and be aware of all the legal aid which is available for children afflicted with child abuse. So the study was conducted with the objectives as follows: • To assess the knowledge of caretakers regarding legal aspects on child abuse. • To determine the association between knowledge regarding legal aspects of child abuse and selected demographic variables. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among the caregivers of children below 15 years of age visiting paediatric OPD of SJMCH, Bangalore. A structured questionnaire was used to assess the knowledge regarding legal aspects of child abuse. The data was analysed by using descriptive and inferential statistics. In our study, only 4.2% of parents had good knowledge about the topic whereas 50.9% had moderate knowledge. Therefore, the researcher felt a strong need to educate and spread awareness to the parents regarding the topic of child abuse.