In most cases relating to child sexual abuse it has been found that the perpetrators of the crime were those who had acquaintance with the victims’ family, speakers at a workshop on Child Sexual Abuse – Prevention and Response said here on Sunday.
With no eye witness in child sexual abuse cases, the offence could be established mostly with medical intervention and it was here that the role of doctors becomes extremely important, the speakers said at the workshop for medical practitioners.
The workshop was organised by the Indian Medical Association, Tamil Nadu State Branch, Indian Academy of Paediatrics and Tamil Nadu Voluntary Health Association in partnership with UNICEF, Chennai.
R.V.S. Surendran, State president, IMA, Tamil Nadu State Branch, said many of the sexual abuse cases go unnoticed for various reasons. Every year 9,000 children disappear, he said quoting reports and added that many of them land in flesh trade.
In several child sexual abuse cases, it had been found that those committing the crime were either the victim’s neighbour or friend or those having acquaintance with the family, Dr.Surendran said.
The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 was gender neutral, he said. Mehbub Ali Khan, II Additional Sub Judge, Tiruchi, underscored the need for sensitising doctors serving at the grassroots level in primary health centres to the POCSO Act and the ways of dealing with children affected by sexual abuse.
Doctors would have to carefully preserve evidence in such cases as it would greatly help in getting conviction for the perpetrators of the crime, he said. S.Yoganandan, State president, Indian Academy of Paediatrics, Raj Saravanakumar, Joint Director, Department of Social Defence, Government of Tamil Nadu, M.Balasubramanian, immediate past president, Indian Medical Association, Tamil Nadu State Branch, and P.Rajan, executive director, Tamil Nadu Voluntary Health Association, spoke.
