Apr 3, 2006

A daemon to our kids

You : Madam, are you aware of Child Sexual Abuse and how this can affect your child?
Parent1 : It may not happen to my kid. He is brought up in such a good environment.
CSA happens only with kids from poor socio-economic background.
Parent2 : To my kid? He is a boy. CSA will not affect him in any way.
Parent3 : My kid is just 3 months old. Are you kidding?

These are the possible replies you might get when you talk about to CSA to common people. So many myths spread about CSA everywhere. Thanks to Dream a Dream, we had the privilege of attending one of the informative workshops on CSA yesterday.

The facilitator first introduced us to what falls under child sexual abuse and what are the common myths prevailing in the society. It can happen to any child, irrespective of gender, age or socio-economic background. There could be long term as well as short term effects on the children's well-being depending on the intensity to which they have been abused.

The effects can range from sudden withdrawal from outdoor activities to emotional disturbances to development of new phobias to depression. There are organizations to conduct counselling sessions to bring such children back to their normal lives. But as the old saying says "Prevention is always better than cure".

Awareness and proper education on such issues are the key measures in order to abolish child sexual abuse. The kids have to be educated and given age appropriate information. Bringing awareness among illiterate parents is another important step.

Parents, care takers and volunteers should keep a watch on the kids to recognize any sudden change in their behaviour. Most importantly, parents should believe what their kid says and not shun away the reality. A thorough investigation has to be done in case they suspect any symptoms.

Eliminating CSA and protecting our kids from this daemon is a huge project in itself but we have taken the first step.

Blog Archive

All contents copyrighted by Anuradha Sridharan, 2023. Don't copy without giving credits. Powered by Blogger.