SEXUAL ABUSE AND EXPLOITATION OF BOYS IN SOUTH ASIA A ...

accountable for their actions, blamed and considered perpetrators than are girls, even if they
are victims of a crime. 29
Across South Asia, more residential and outreach caregiving services are available to girls
than to boys. In shelters and juvenile detention homes, boys may present more discipline
challenges, but caregivers are rarely trained in dealing with children from a gender
perspective. Consequently, caregivers often treat boys with less compassion and greater
severity than girls and are more likely to physically punish boys. 30
1.4 Sites of Sexual Abuse in South Asia
1.4.1 The home and family
Little information is available about the magnitude of sexual abuse of children within the
confines of the home in South Asia, for the great majority of such cases go unreported. 31
Abuse within the home is usually an abuse of trust and dependence as well as of the body, as
it is often perpetrated by those responsible for the child’s protection: fathers, older siblings,
aunts and uncles. Children are frequently reluctant to tell others about it because they fear
stigma or blame, think no one will believe them or have no one they feel they can speak with
safely. They may fear that disclosure of the abuse will harm the family’s honour, that a family
member will end up in prison, that they will be cast out of the house or, for girls, that they
will lose marriage opportunities. Abusers may threaten the child, so the child stays quiet for
fear of retaliation.
If a child does report such abuse to a family member such as the mother, this information may
go no further, for she may fear that disclosure will harm the family’s honour or result in social
ostracism. In many cultures of South Asia, the child’s security and rights at times may be
secondary to family honour, for public disgrace can have immense negative impacts on all
family members. 32
Existing research indicates that boys are less likely than girls to be abused in the home,
primarily because of their relative social freedom. 33 The exception is Sri Lanka, where boys
appear more at risk of sexual abuse in the home than girls, according to the National Child
Protection Authority. 34
29 UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre, 2009 ‘South Asia in Action: Preventing and responding to child
trafficking: Analyses of anti-trafficking initiatives in the region’.
30 Save the Children Sweden-South and Central Asia Region, 2007, ‘Mapping Save the Children’s response to
violence against children in South Asia’.
31 Save the Children, 2004, ‘Child sexual abuse in South Asia: A discussion paper (Regional review submitted to
the UN Study on Violence against Children).
32 United Nations General Assembly (Pinheiro, P.S.), 2006, ‘Report of the independent expert for the United
Nations study on violence against children’.
33 For example, see Child Workers in Nepal and UNICEF, 2005, ‘Violence against children in Nepal: Child
sexual abuse in Nepal: Children’s perspectives’; and Sahil, 1998, ‘Child sexual abuse and exploitation in
Pakistan’.
34 National Child Protection Authority, 2003, ‘Many children still abused and neglected in Sri Lanka’.
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