With the spate of sexual assaults on children, at school and outside, there is growing focus on filing cases under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and on spreading awareness on the need for stringent measures to detect and deal with such cases. But experts are worried that the psychological trauma the victims and their families undergo is largely unaddressed.
For instance, Jasmine (name changed) says things have changed for her family forever. Seventeen months after her three-year-old daughter was allegedly sexually assaulted by her school watchman, the mother of two girls describes herself as paranoid.
“I constantly watch out for my children and give them instructions every day, ensuring that they don’t interact with strangers,” she says.
“There are still days when my daughter wakes up in the middle of the night and hugs me and says, “Mamma, uncle is bad”. We have done everything possible to make her forget about the incident. I have pulled both my daughters out of that school, but they still haven’t been able to forget the incident,” says Jasmine.
The trauma isn’t just for the mother and her younger daughter — who was the victim. The older daughter, now six and a half years old, often says she remembers the incident. In fact, she wants to grow up to become a police officer who puts the “bad uncles in jail”.
While the two children have gone to court to record their statements, the family tries to avoid the details of the case as it only causes more stress and anxiety. But in the midst of punishing the guilty, there seems to be little clarity or focus on how to deal with the psychological scars that such incidents leave behind.
Need for counselling
Experts say what is crucial is for the child and the entire family to go through counselling. But in most cases, it is not considered a priority.
K. John Vijay Sagar, additional professor, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, NIMHANS, says most of the victims of child sexual abuse (CSA) experience post-traumatic stress disorder, enduring the bad memory again and again. He says many of the children experience loss of sleep or appetite, develop sexualised or regressive behaviour, and also separation anxiety.
“As there is a lack of awareness on the psychological symptoms following a sexual assault, many of the victims and their families visit us for two or three months after the incident. But they need to follow up for at least six months or one year,” he says.
But the mother of a seven-year-old, who was raped allegedly by her relative, says addressing the psychological trauma is extremely difficult in an insensitive environment, exacerbated by how law enforcement authorities deal with the matter.
“... there are other challenges, from getting threats from the family of the accused to dealing with insensitivity of the stakeholders, including the police and the judiciary,” says the woman.
“Over the past few months, I have approached different courts seven times to get his bail rejected. I spend more time and energy running around to ensure that she gets justice. She sees me struggle and sometimes I feel she is pretending to be fine. She says she wants to forget about it and not talk about it,” she says.
‘No support system’
Swagata Raha, legal researcher with the Centre for Child and the Law at the National Law School of India University, says the trial process for CSA victims lacks a support system. “It is an alien world for parents and children and there is no victim protection system,” she says, adding that the child is often made to record statements in front of a number of authorities, such as the police, doctor, magistrate and the court.
She says victims of sexual offences with mental or physical disability are allowed to record their statement once, and that can be the basis for cross-examination later in the courts. In this way, they don’t need to give multiple statements. The law should be amended so that it can be applied to children too, says Ms. Raha.
According to the National Crime Records Bureau data for 2015, Bengaluru had the most number of POCSO cases in the country with 273 cases. But experts say few of these victims have sought professional help to deal with the psychological impact.
Anupama Hegde, chairperson of one of the Child Welfare Committees of Bengaluru Urban district, says although parents are advised to take their children for counselling, many stop their visits to psychiatrists or psychologists midway.
Even incidents of bullying or accidents leave severe scars on children and it is imperative for parents and schools to institutionalise psychological counselling, she says. But even the top schools in the city do not have counsellors. “Just going to one or two counselling sessions will not help. The treatment needs to be consistent so that children overcome their fear, depression and do not develop any inferiority complex or other serious issues,” says Ms. Hegde.
She adds that the stigma associated with sexual assault often compels many parents to brush the issue under the carpet. “Very often, the perpetrators are from within the family. So for every one case that is reported, there are many that are not,” she says.
Dakshayani Kanna, principal of Harvest International School, says, “We conduct extensive sessions on good touch and bad touch and also conduct individual counselling... But the challenge is to sensitise them carefully so that the training empowers them and does not further add to fear.”
