CHILD ABUSE AND NEGLECT IN INDIA

1) INTRODUCTION OF THE STUDY :-

In India, the number of children needing care and protection is huge and
increasing. Uncontrolled families, extreme poverty, illiteracy result in provision of
very little care to the child during the early formative years. Even services that are
freely available are poorly utilized. The urban unprivileged, migrating population and
rural communities are particularly affected. In large cities, there are serious problems
of street children (abandoned and often homeless) and child labourers, employed in
menial work. Children in difficult circumstances such as children affected by
disasters, those in conflict zones, refugees, HIV AIDS need appropriate care and
rehabilitation.
For example, in India, there are 44 Crore children; about 40% of them i.e. 17.6
Crore are vulnerable or experiencing difficult circumstances. 2.7 Crore babies are
born each year and majority of these births are among the underprivileged section of
the population, mostly unplanned and where the parents cannot provide proper care to
their children. The situation of new born babies is worse and mortality rates continue
to remain very high. Maternal under nutrition, unsafe deliveries, low birth weight
babies and poor newborn care, lack of adequate immunizations, poor nutrition,
neglect of early development and education are major issues that need to be
appropriately addressed. Child rearing practices reflect social norms and very often
adverse traditions are passed from one generation to the next, especially in illiterate
and poorly informed communities, and are extremely resistant to alter. As per recent
survey of Government of India the prevalence of all forms of child abuse are
extremely high (physical abuse (66%), sexual abuse (50%) and emotional abuse
(50%)). In these contexts, India must also seek its own insights and way forward plans
to protect their children.
2) SIGNIFICANCE OF CHILD PROTECTION SYSTEMS:-
The child protection systems were created with intention of breaking down
cycle of inter – generational poverty and exploitation. Some on them are stated
below:-
 Child protection for urban poor: - In India, rapid urbanization is a challenging
problem. The present urban population of India. The present urban population of India
is close to 2.85 crore. Preventive social services are abysmal, with high prevalence of
abuse and neglect. It is estimated that every year about 20 lakh children are born
amongst urban poor, all needing care and protection. In urban metropolitan cities,
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street children are migrants from underserved states and have no formal education or
job skills. They are subject to all forms of abuse, including substance abuse and
exploited as child labourers. NGO’s and various other organisation came together to
solve these issues. The NGO’s with the help of government support, provided
education and health services to the urban poor. ‘Every Child in School’ campaign
was run to promote their overall development.
 Protection of child in underserved rural village: - NGO’s developed various
models for protection of children in the underserved villages in various states of the
country. Under this model children were provided, in schools, regular mid-day meals,
safe drinking water, toilets, well equipped infrastructure, counselling services and
many more. As a result of all these development models, in a period of 2 years, the
country enhanced enrolment, no dropouts and improved performances of school going
students.

The most important lesson is that public awareness about child abuse & neglect has to
be raised & society attitudes have to change. Children should have knowledge regarding
life skills, child rights and participation. Moreover, Governments should encourage public
discussions on child maltreatment. The media has an important role to play in this regard.
Legislation alone will not bring sufficient impact unless awareness and public attitudes
are changed. Nevertheless, adequate Legislative framework and their consistent
implementation & enforcement are very important. Beyond rationalization of existing
laws, the main challenge in India remains their enforcement and the fact that there is a
certain degree of impunity for those violating the law. For instance, if one compares the
prevalence of child marriage in India (43% of women aged 20–24 were married before
they were 18) and the numbers of people prosecuted for violating the anti-child marriage
law (a few hundred per year, at best), it is evident that the law is not enforced.

3) POLICIES IMPLEMENTED BY THE GOVERNMENT:-

The ultimate responsibility to protect its nation’s children lies with the government.
By ratification of international instruments such as UNCRC and UN General Comments
the governments should commit appropriate legislative, administrative, social and
educational measures to prevent and protect children from maltreatment. In 1992, India
accepted the obligations of the UN Convention on the Rights of Child (CRC). In the last
two decades, the government has taken several steps towards publically advance

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children’s rights. These include the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act 2000,
Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2006, the formation of the National Commission for
the Protection of Child Rights 2005, Right to Information 2005, the Child Labour
(Prohibition and Regulation) Act 1986, Right to Education 2009 and Prevention of
Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO Act) 2012 to protect, promote and defend child
rights in the country. However, still there is a wide gap between policy and
implementation, and lakhs of children fall through the gaps.

4) SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS OF RESEARCH :-

The study of child abuse and neglect is global in nature and scope of the present
research is very vast. However due to paucity of time and limitation on the availability of
data at the hand, the Researcher intends to study only the issue in Indian context from the
socio-legal perspective in detail.

5) REVIEW OF LITERATURE :-

Weiner, Child Abuse: A Survey, examined the status of children in India and noted
that the children constituted 1/3 of the national population and more than 40% of them
suffered from inadequate food security, ill health, malnutrition and allied problems. The
scholar has also reported that India had the world’s largest number of sexually abused
children and concluded that the issue of child rights in India was still caught between
legal and policy commitments.

Mahalwar and Ansari, Report of Consultation on Child Abuse, examined the rights of
the child and judicial activism in India and noted that the constitution of India laid down
certain principles of governance recognizing the child rights. The scholar suggested that
commitment of government, judiciary and society was necessary to safeguard the interest
of children who are the important assets of the nation.

Rai , Physical manifestations of child abuse to the head, examined the nature, scope
and utility of human rights from the perspective of UN initiatives and noted that India
was signatory to the UN resolution pertaining to child rights protection. The scholar
observed that India formulated certain child welfare policies and implemented
programmes which benefitted the children. The scholar also suggested that the
government and non – government organisations should work together in order to bring
constitutional and legal provisions into reality.

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6) AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF RESEARCH :-

The present research is carried out with a view:-

 To define the scope and of child abuse and neglect in India.

 To understand the main causes/ reasons of child abuse and neglect in India.

 To analyse effects of child abuse and neglect in society.

 To study what are the steps and measures taken by the concerned authorities
for the victims who are physically, sexually and psychologically maltreated.

 To educate people on what is child abuse and how it can be stopped.

 To study what are the laws and legal procedures related to child abuse and
neglect.

7) RESEARCH QUESTION :-

Whether India has succeeded in eliminating child abuse and neglect in the
country in spite of having so many child protection systems, constitutional
provisions and having signed United Nations (UN’s) various initiatives?

8) HYPOTHESIS :-

India has failed to tackle the socio – legal challenges of child abuse and
neglect in spite of having so many child protection systems, constitutional
provisions and having signed United Nations (UN’s) various initiatives.

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YASH SANTOSH AGARWAL

II B.A.L.L.B. DIVISION – B
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RESEARCH DESIGN

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