SEXUAL ABUSE AND EXPLOITATION OF BOYS IN SOUTH ASIA A ...
SEXUAL ABUSE AND EXPLOITATION OF BOYS IN SOUTH ASIA A ... SEXUAL ABUSE AND EXPLOITATION OF BOYS IN SOUTH ASIA A ...
4.4.8.3 Psychosocial care Bangladesh is developing capacity in psychosocial care and support, although comprehensive training programmes for counsellors remain to be developed. With few exceptions, present courses do not provide adequate clinical training. Psychological care and support for those experiencing sexual abuse are provided largely by NGOs, but the number of sexual abuse victims and survivors with access to these services is small. Psychological as well as legal and social support is provided to males having sex with males, including boys, by the Bandhu Social Welfare Society. Bandhu provides counselling and peer support activities for men who engage in non-commercial sexual activities as well as those who conduct prostitution. The organization does not provide counselling to boys and refers boy victims of sexual abuse to professionals for counselling and therapeutic support. Peer support activities with boys and men address issues of sexual violence, early sexual abuse within the family, discrimination in the family and community, and social acceptance of males with alternative sexual identities, among others. At INCIDIN’s night shelters/drop-in centres (described previously), psychologists and paracounsellors provide psychological support to boys living on the street. Individual and group activities address the sexual abuse and exploitation that many children face on the street. In addition, outreach workers provide on-site support and counselling in areas where children living on the street congregate. While INCIDIN’s staff are well-trained, critical cases are referred to professional psychologists, psychiatrists and physicians. Breaking the Silence runs a counselling facility at the Radda mother and child health and family planning facility in Dhaka. Trained counsellors are available to support affected children and to educate clients, both mothers and children, who attend the centre. Naripokkho, a women’s activist organization, has a centre-based psychosocial team that provides support for victims of sexual abuse, primarily female. The team is comprised of trainee psychologists from the clinical psychology department of the University of Dhaka as well as para-counsellors. Dhaka Shishu (Children’s) Hospital has a team of para-counsellors and psychologists who work on child sexual abuse cases. Counselling and therapy are provided through its child development centre. Families usually do not bring children to the hospital for treatment of abuse; rather the abuse is identified by the team through the child’s psychological or physical symptoms, including depression, anxiety or sexualized behaviours. The team then addresses the issue in collaboration with the family, seeking to assist family members to heal the child and resolve the abuse issue within the family unit. 66
5.0 COUNTRY PROFILE: INDIA 5.1 Research Findings 5.1.1 Country background The immense diversity of India, the world’s most populous democracy, makes it difficult to generalize about factors that contribute to the sexual abuse and exploitation of children. Moreover, as some of the data from which this section has been prepared are several years old, the findings should be interpreted with caution given that the country is undergoing profound social and economic transition that likely has an impact on the phenomenon of sexual abuse and exploitation of boys. Furthermore, India’s many states encompass diverse natural environments, economic resources, ethnicities and customs, as well as varying levels of education, child labour, poverty and government efficiency and integrity. India in essence encompasses many ‘countries’, each with unique social and economic characteristics that affect the protection and vulnerability of its children. The differing degrees of child protection and vulnerability in various parts of India shape the forms of child sexual abuse and exploitation for the country as a whole. For example, varying levels of family poverty, among other factors, influence the migration of boys. The percentage of population living below the poverty line in 1999/2000 ranged from 27 per cent in West Bengal to 43 per cent in neighbouring Bihar, and from 4.5 per cent in Goa to 25 per cent in neighbouring Maharashtra. 209 These disparities have led many boys to migrate between states, so many Bihari boys are working and living on the streets in Kolkata, West Bengal, 210 and many Maharashtran boys migrate to Goa to work in construction. In the State of Goa and Kerala, a study found that many of these migrating boys end up being sexually exploited through prostitution by travelling sex offenders. 211 Overall, India shares with the rest of South Asia challenges that contribute to boys’ vulnerability to abuse and exploitation: rural to urban migration, lack of employment opportunities, extensive child labour and the prevalence of bonded labour in many parts of the country. While India has proportionately less foreign migration of parents for labour than other countries of South Asia, many families are affected by extensive migration of fathers and other male caregivers from the countryside to the cities in search of employment. 5.1.2 Knowledge base The knowledge base on the sexual abuse and exploitation of boys in India is not substantial. There have been several studies of street children, boy dance performers and boy prostitutes within the last few years, and though the data are reliable and remain current, they are limited 209 National Human Rights Commission, UNIFEM and Institute of Social Sciences, 2004, ‘A report on trafficking in women and children in India 2002-2003’. 210 Groupe Developpement, 2006, ‘Survival strategies: A study of children living on streets and railway platforms of West Bengal and Bangladesh’. 211 Equations and ECPAT International, 2003, ‘A situational analysis of child sex tourism in India (Kerala and Goa)’. 67
- Page 23 and 24: eaches puberty. Such boys may be at
- Page 25 and 26: knowledge of the intermediate situa
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- Page 29 and 30: have long experience working with a
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- Page 33 and 34: Afghanistan’s National Plan of Ac
- Page 35 and 36: strengthen family and community pro
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- Page 39 and 40: 3.0 COUNTRY PROFILE: AFGHANISTAN 3.
- Page 41 and 42: Afghanistan. Traditionally, boys ar
- Page 43 and 44: unravel from cases of children sent
- Page 45 and 46: well as the ‘violation of chastit
- Page 47 and 48: Social Affairs, Martyrs and Disable
- Page 49 and 50: orders. Data collection on the Paki
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- Page 55 and 56: concerning level of child sexual ab
- Page 57 and 58: As elsewhere in the world, certain
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- Page 61 and 62: control the areas where the boys wo
- Page 63 and 64: In general, the country’s legisla
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- Page 67 and 68: NPA was facilitated by an advisory
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- Page 71 and 72: children living on the street. In i
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- Page 79 and 80: times, these traditions have eroded
- Page 81 and 82: interviewed in the study stated tha
- Page 83 and 84: The Immoral Traffic Prevention Act
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- Page 87 and 88: esidences with persons not related
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- Page 113 and 114: etween males is socially tolerated.
- Page 115 and 116: men. Boys cannot get pregnant and a
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4.4.8.3 Psychosocial care<br />
Bangladesh is developing capacity in psychosocial care and support, although comprehensive<br />
training programmes for counsellors remain to be developed. With few exceptions, present<br />
courses do not provide adequate clinical training. Psychological care and support for those<br />
experiencing sexual abuse are provided largely by NGOs, but the number of sexual abuse<br />
victims and survivors with access to these services is small.<br />
Psychological as well as legal and social support is provided to males having sex with males,<br />
including boys, by the Bandhu Social Welfare Society. Bandhu provides counselling and peer<br />
support activities for men who engage in non-commercial sexual activities as well as those<br />
who conduct prostitution. The organization does not provide counselling to boys and refers<br />
boy victims of sexual abuse to professionals for counselling and therapeutic support. Peer<br />
support activities with boys and men address issues of sexual violence, early sexual abuse<br />
within the family, discrimination in the family and community, and social acceptance of<br />
males with alternative sexual identities, among others.<br />
At <strong>IN</strong>CID<strong>IN</strong>’s night shelters/drop-in centres (described previously), psychologists and paracounsellors<br />
provide psychological support to boys living on the street. Individual and group<br />
activities address the sexual abuse and exploitation that many children face on the street. In<br />
addition, outreach workers provide on-site support and counselling in areas where children<br />
living on the street congregate. While <strong>IN</strong>CID<strong>IN</strong>’s staff are well-trained, critical cases are<br />
referred to professional psychologists, psychiatrists and physicians.<br />
Breaking the Silence runs a counselling facility at the Radda mother and child health and<br />
family planning facility in Dhaka. Trained counsellors are available to support affected<br />
children and to educate clients, both mothers and children, who attend the centre.<br />
Naripokkho, a women’s activist organization, has a centre-based psychosocial team that<br />
provides support for victims of sexual abuse, primarily female. The team is comprised of<br />
trainee psychologists from the clinical psychology department of the University of Dhaka as<br />
well as para-counsellors.<br />
Dhaka Shishu (Children’s) Hospital has a team of para-counsellors and psychologists who<br />
work on child sexual abuse cases. Counselling and therapy are provided through its child<br />
development centre. Families usually do not bring children to the hospital for treatment of<br />
abuse; rather the abuse is identified by the team through the child’s psychological or physical<br />
symptoms, including depression, anxiety or sexualized behaviours. The team then addresses<br />
the issue in collaboration with the family, seeking to assist family members to heal the child<br />
and resolve the abuse issue within the family unit.<br />
66
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