It is not just the physical injuries that make lives of sexually abused children miserable. Coming out of the psychological trauma and becoming normal was equally painful.
At least that is what some police officers feel, having struggled to help a minor rape victim recover from the shock.
Learning about the sexual assault on the minor girl by her step-father, a woman police officer met the teenager at the State Home in the city where she was admitted after the instance came to light. The officer was startled to hear from the Home warden that the girl would barely sleep in the night. “The girl would just sit on the bed or the chair throughout night, shivering. The heinous assault by her stepfather haunted her ,” the officer narrated unwilling to be named. She was counselled by psychologists arranged by the Home but to no avail. Moved by the girl’s condition, the woman police officer taught her some physical and mental exercises. Within days, she recovered and her performance in studies eventually improved. “It was a big relief to see change in the girl but this instance indicated what psychological trauma they undergo,” the officer observed.
Contrary to the common notion that girls were victims of abuse, the police officials found that boys were also being sexually abused.
In a recent case reported in Old City of Hyderabad, a boy was sexually assaulted by his biological father! The boy told the police that “it had been going on for quite some time”. The investigators received a rude jolt when the father told them during interrogation that he didn’t feel it was a crime. “Because I was abused by my father when I was a child, I didn’t think it was wrong,” he was quoted as saying by the interrogators.
Another challenge faced by the police was the unwillingness of respective mothers of the two children to proceed with criminal action. In both the cases, fathers were the accused and breadwinners for the families. “Their arrest meant tough time for other family members. Ultimately, it boils down to financial matters,” police said.
