Forced labour, sexual abuse, dysfunctional families – life is getting increasingly riddled with problems for the average Indian child.
“Generally, children don’t have an awareness of what their rights are. And nobody, child, parent or institution is bothered,” rues Albert Manoharan, co-ordinator, Childline, Tiruchi chapter. “We always tend to see the child as a beneficiary of our actions rather than as an individual who is entitled to certain rights and liberties.”
In the field for over 16 years, Mr. Manoharan is one of 15 staff in Childline, that started its operations in the city in August 2001, under the auspices of Sisters of Cross Society for Education Development (SOC SEAD).
The 17-year-old Childline India Foundation (CIF) runs the Childline service with support from the Ministry of Women and Child Development under the central government’s Integrated Child Protection Scheme.
In Tamil Nadu, Tiruchi’s Childline’s call centre (with the nationwide toll-free number 1098) works for 27 districts, excluding Chennai, receiving at least a thousand calls per day. “We have 18 classifications for these calls, ranging from simple queries to requests for direct intervention,” says Mr. Manoharan.
Cases dealt with by Childline are related to child marriage, trafficking, runaway kids, sexual abuse and substance abuse, to name just a few.
While Mr. Manoharan says that child-related problems cut across social and economic class, he does specify parental discord as a major causative factor in Tiruchi. “Kids in the city are suffering due to dysfunction in the family – either the parents are separated and don’t want to take care of them, or the children have run away due to the tension at home,” he says. Growing up with an older family member as a guardian only makes them more vulnerable to abuse and behaviour problems.
Combating CSA Of the many challenges to a child’s innocence and well-being is the growing incidence of child sexual abuse (CSA). “People are very defensive and bubble up when we bring up the issue, especially in the villages,” says Dr. J. Godwin Prem Singh, Nodal Director, Childline.
He cites the 2011 instance of an eight-year-old girl who was raped by a politician’s son in Lalgudi as the first time a CSA offence was punished legally (with a 5-year jail term in 2013).
For close to a year now, Project Komal, an initiative of Young Indians Trichy has been supporting Childline in its work against CSA. A poster campaign on 150 buses in the city last month has been partially successful.
“We have received information about six CSA incidents in schools after this drive, but nobody is willing to complain formally,” says Dr. Singh. “Most of the affected students are reticent because the abuser is usually a known person. So automatically, the abuser will convince the child to remain silent by either threatening him or her or showering him or her with expensive gifts.”
He adds that a greater mental conflict arises when a young victim receives physical pleasure out of CSA and is undecided about stopping the crime.
“We cannot eradicate CSA completely, but we can eradicate the circumstances that allow it to flourish,” says Mr. Ketan J. Vora, director, Project Komal. Awareness about the issue is also being raised through the screening of the award-winning animation film Komal in schools.
The film by Climb Media explains ‘bad touch’ and ‘good touch’ in a simple style, while highlighting the rules of personal safety for children.
But the awareness campaign may require further refinement for rural audiences, admits Dr. Singh. “We are first planning to reach out to Lalgudi district, by the first week of October,” he says. “But we may not be screening Komal, because it seems to offend many people in the rural areas.”
Instead, Childline is mulling the use of its network of 348 Child Rights Clubs in schools for the task.
A Child Rights Club has two faculty members and six students, and is primarily meant to engage children in social work activities and raising rights awareness. It could also be an ideal platform to talk about CSA and its prevention, feels Dr. Singh.
“The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (POSCO) has given the full force to Childline to take up the issue in the rural areas even though they may not want to accept it,” he says.
In ‘love’ with marriage
Part of the reason for this ambivalence is the high rate of child marriage, which seems in many ways simply sexual abuse in the name of matrimony.
“Child marriages are still a problem in Tiruchi district, especially in the villages,” says Childline co-ordinator Mr. S. Thiyagarajan.
“Recently a schoolgirl from Thuraiyur visited us with a wedding invitation, to prove that she was being forcibly married off to a 39-year-old divorced man in Salem, by her mother. We were able to stop it legally, but there are many marriages that go ahead despite our efforts.”
Parents are wilfully demeaning their children’s dignity by claiming that the marriages are the result of consensual ‘love affairs’, he adds, citing another case where a 12-year-old was reported by her parents to be ‘in love’ with a 32-year-old farmer in a neighbouring village.
“How can parents say this just for the sake of finalising a marriage?” he wonders.
“We should implement a uniform policy that works towards reducing child sexual abuse, especially in places where adults interact with children,” suggests Mr. Manoharan.
“It will make it easier to legally deal with CSA if we have a uniform policy in place. We’d like to start it off in Tiruchi as a pioneering effort.”
