Friday | 17 January 2025 | Reg No- 06
বাংলা
   
Friday | 17 January 2025 | Epaper

Save the children from sexual abuse

Published : Saturday, 25 January, 2020 at 12:00 AM  Count : 500
Md Zillur Rahaman
Child abuse in Bangladesh is a silent crime. Children's sexual abuse is increasing day by day and it permeates all the level of the Bangladeshi society. Child sexual abuse can occur inside the family, by a guardian, step-parent, siblings or other relative or outside the home, for example, by a friend, neighbour, child care person, instructor, or stranger and the workplace. Disable children is more vulnerable to abuse. When sexual abuse has happened, a child can create a variety of upsetting emotions, thoughts and behaviours. No child is mentally readied to adapt to rehashed sexual stimulation.

Child abuse or maltreatment constitutes all forms of physical and emotional ill-treatment, sexual abuse, neglect or negligent treatment or commercial or other exploitation, resulting in actual or potential harm to the child's health, survival, development or dignity in the context of a relationship of responsibility, trust or power.

Basically children's sexual harassment or abuse is generally familiar with us as child molestation. It is a very common affair in our exploited society. A very few of these occurrences come to light by chance. It is such a form of abuse in our society which an adult or older adolescent uses a child for sexual stimulation. This abuse can be happened in the forms of engaging in sexual activities with a child, indecent exposure, child grooming, child sexual exploitation or using a child to produce child pornography.

Such harassment or abuse can be occurred in a variety of places like home, school, in the public transport, public functions, work stations or elsewhere. Some evil men are always vigilance for the chance that how to harass the children. Sometimes, they seem to be very civil but their activity has to prove themselves the worst scoundrels.

There are several reasons of child abuse. Poverty is one of the principle reasons. From the parts of Bangladesh, we don't have enough facility from our government. Hence, major number of parts include in living up to expectations, so they are abused in their work place. An alternate thing is that in a few cases children are utilized as a whole within that time they are sexually abused. They are sold out by agent.

Sex separation is one of alternate reasons. We have made partition male from female child, then some individuals do wrong carry on with them. Our social order does not demonstrate a positive carry on for female child. They are truly disregard in our social order. The greater part of the individuals in Bangladesh are not cognizant about family arranging.

Thus, they process a huge number of children and they cannot take care of them fittingly.
Hence, their child may be abused. Something else is that most individuals are not conscious about children. They don't give a fitting rule to grow up children. In this reason, children have no idea what would it be advisable for them to do? They are not mindful about inner and outside dangers of child.

Child marriage is one of the main forms of childhood sexual abuse. UNICEF, global leading child welfare organisation, has stated that child marriage "represents perhaps the most prevalent form of sexual abuse and exploitation of girls". The effects of childhood sexual abuse can include depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, complex post-traumatic stress disorder, propensity to further victimization in adulthood, and physical injury to the child, among other problems. Sexual abuse by a family member is a form of incest and can result in more serious and long-term psychological trauma, especially in the case of parental incest.

The global study says that prevalence of child sexual abuse has been estimated at 19.7 per cent for females and 7.9 per cent for males. Most sexual abuse offenders are acquainted with their victims; approximately 30 per cent are relatives of the child, most often brothers, fathers, uncles, or cousins; around 60 per cent are other acquaintances, such as "friends" of the family, babysitters, or neighbours.

Bangladesh Shishu Adhikar Forum (BSAF), a child right organisation, found in a study that at least 1,383 children became victims of sexual violence in 2019, showing an alarming 70 per cent rise in such incidents compared to 2018. In total 4,381 children were victims of various types of violence and torture. Of them, some 2,088 children were victims of unnatural death and 1,383 were victims of sexual violence.

The report also noted that on an average some 84 children became victims of sexual violence in every month of 2019. The number of total rape and murder incidents was 85 and 201 respectively in 2012 while 150 and 180 in 2013, 199 and 366 in 2014, 521 and 292 in 2015, 446 and 265 in 2016 and 593 and 399 in 2017. Besides, some 448 children were killed in 2019, while the number was 418 in 2018.

Children sexual abuse is outlawed nearly everywhere in the world, generally with severe criminal penalties, including in some jurisdictions, life imprisonment or capital punishment. An adult's sexual intercourse with someone below the legal age of consent is defined as statutory rape, based on the principle that a child is not capable of consent and that any apparent consent by a child is not considered to be legal consent.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is an international treaty that legally obliges states to protect children's rights. Articles 34 and 35 of the CRC require states to protect children from all forms of sexual exploitation and sexual abuse. This includes outlawing the coercion of a child to perform sexual activity, the prostitution of children, and the exploitation of children in creating pornography. States are also required to prevent the abduction, sale, or trafficking of children. As of November 2008, 193 countries are bound by the CRC, including every member of the United Nations except the United States and South Sudan.

The Council of Europe has adopted the Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse in order to prohibit child sexual abuse that occurs within home or family. In the European Union, child sexual abuse is subject to a directive. This directive deals with several forms of sexual abuse of children, especially commercial sexual exploitation of children.

Despite the fact that there is an absence of complete and correct facts on the real frequency confirmation to infer that this is a far reaching issue. The rate of commercial sexual exploitation of children in Bangladesh is joined with the issues of child work and trafficking in the nation, furthermore propagated by elements, for example, destitution, urbanization, social standards and patriarchy.

Bangladesh government has an obligation to guarantee that they don't allow, or permit child labour or exploitation to exist inside their state. Moreover, they have an obligation to guarantee that state organisations, corporate figures and additionally their suppliers and exchanging accomplices worldwide, are completely agreeable with the Convention on the Rights of the Child and other global understandings securing the privileges of the child.

Bangladesh government should apply the laws and regulations against child abuse, trafficking and exploitation to raise conscious and awareness to the mass people. Children should provide with basic knowledge about this crimes and for this they need to get primary education in school. UNICEF are providing different campaign to send the message about this crimes. But these initiatives should be combined with the efforts of Bangladesh government. Different NGO's in Bangladesh are already working on it but it is not working well on Bangladesh. Most importantly, parents need to play the vital role. Children need to get the primary idea and consciousness about these abusive behaviours and avoid this kind of scenarios.

The government has enacted several laws and rules to protect children, but that is not sufficient to tackle the children sexual abuse. However, speedy tribunal has been formed but these have not been properly implemented, that is why incidents of sexual violence against children are on the rise in an alarming rate.

Social awareness, proper implementation of law and guardians vigilance steps can save the children from sexual abuse in the society.

The writer is banker and freelance contributor.






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