Protection of Children from Sexual Abuse

Abstract

There is a an unending silence around this subject and a very large percentage of people feel that this is a largely western problem and that child sexual abuse does not happen in India. Indian society has tried very hard to sweep the issue of child sexual abuse under the carpet. It starts with the family hushing up instances of sexual abuse of children within the family, resulting in underreporting of the issue. In a democracy, unless the society recognizes the issue no law can be formulated to regulate it. In many places, adults were outspoken about sexual violence, but rarely did adults speak of children's risk of sexual abuse within the home and family context. The shame, secrecy and denial associated with familial sexual violence against children foster a pervasive culture of silence, where children cannot speak about sexual violence at home, and where adults fail to accept the trauma the victim goes through. After the rampantly increasing in child sexual abuse cases, there was intense clamouring for an Act to effectively deal with the protection of children from abuse. Therefore the Protection of Children from Sexual Abuse Act, 2012 was drafted. The objective of the Act is to save the children from being sexually abused and punish and create fear at the hearts of the offenders. This paper seeks to address some preliminary areas of concern with the substantive and procedural aspects of the law dealing with the issue of child sexual abuse and the overarching scheme of child protection in India. Keywords- Abuse, Child Sexual abuse, Law and effectiveness, Paedophile.