I was taken aback when my seven year old niece asked me a question the other day. “Why do people laugh when we speak about our genitals? Are they not parts of our body? Why do we have to whisper when we speak about them?”
Surprised and apprehensive, I asked her, “why do you ask this question, did someone laugh at you”?
She then recounted an incident from school, when her friend Sasha (name changed) narrated the essay “Myself” which included speaking about body parts. She said, “All the children and the teacher too laughed, when she described these parts” “I don’t like describing my body parts. I feel weird”, she continued.
I told her that they are all essential parts of the body and she need not be shy about them. Not fully convinced, she went out to play.
But her question stayed with me. Why are we so hesitant and superficial when it comes to speaking of our body parts, especially genitals? Why is it a taboo to speak of such things? Why do people create such mind barriers?
During the recent held World Mental Health Week in Nagpur, Mysore-based Dr T Sathyanarayan Rao, recently appointed secretary of the Human Sexuality section of the World Psychiatry Association, said that it is these very taboos and ignorant beliefs that promote social problems and sexual crimes. He believes that proper sex education would go a long way in reducing these incidents.
He was of the opinion that just like any information empowers a person to make the right decisions, sex education will help remove the stigmatic approach of society towards these sensitive topics, and will impart the wisdom to differentiate right from wrong, to the young.
He stressed, “How can you protect your child against something he does not know much about?”
“There are several guidelines about how and when what information parents can provide to their children from the Indian perspective as well. If provided to children in a proper way, this would only make them more respectful of the other gender and help them take the right decisions for themselves,” said Dr Rao.
Experts opine that, even if the child is well informed at home, society’s gender stereotyping creates misconceptions that later lead to crimes, such as child abuse, a crime that is currently on the rise in India. Research also suggests that an abused child is more likely to become a child abuser himself.
To understand the issue further, News Karnataka approached the Child line India – 1098 a phone-based help line for children in trouble in the city under the Integrated Child Protection Scheme.
The Child line coordinator, Sampath confirmed that the maximum numbes of cases registered in the city of Mangalore fall in the child abuse category. He said, “There are around 300 calls that the child line receives from around the district on a monthly basis, of which, around 50 calls are converted into cases, most of which fall in the category of child sexual abuse.
Elaborating, he said, “Ignorance among children makes the situation worse as they are unable to understand when such acts become abusive and criminal. Also, there many instances when cases of child sexual abuse go unreported due to the fear of social stigma and lack of faith in government institutions”, he added.
According to the statistics maintained by the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) of Dakshina Kannada (DK) district as of July 2014, the committee has handled 1,138 cases of which 1,121 have been settled. More than 50 cases of sexual abuse under the Protection of Children under Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act have been handled by CWC, which involved rehabilitation, counseling, protection and care. All this in a span of three and half years.
Experts opine however, that while mechanisms such as Child line and the Child Welfare committee are working towards awareness and prevention, the stigmatic approach of society towards the human body and basic human processes is inhibiting their progress towards prevention of crime.
In a country, where 7,200 children including infants are raped every year and one in three rape victims is a child, as per the statistics put out by UNICEF, a question arises as to whether these organizations are ineffective, or whether the country’s efforts are focused more on rehabilitation rather than where they should be, prevention.
