CHENNAI: After the brutal attack on girls as young as 10 and 11 in Pollachi, activists point out that it is high time society recognises that there is no age for child abuse. Accepting that when every child, however small, is vulnerable to sexual abuse, it would be inevitable to up the vigilance against child abuse.
“The main reason why children are increasingly becoming targets is because the perpetrators know that even the family does not recognise that their little child could be sexually abused. Sometimes the child doesn’t even know that she is being abused.”, says Sherin Bosko, Medical Sociologist at the Nakshatra Rape Crisis Centre. Activists also point out that there must be groups at the community level to a keep check on such incidents. These groups should be given awareness about child sexual education.
“Apart from just schools and educational institutions, every social organisation must have awareness about child abuse.”, says S Durga Devi, counsellor and former District Coordinator of Childline.
The most complex issue is the identification of pedophiles. “There are hardly any clear identification traits for pedophiles. They can be anyone around us, some of them are even lovable. This is what makes it so difficult,” she says.