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

to a few areas of the vast country (Goa, Hyderabad and West Bengal, discussed below). State
and regional variations in social mores and resulting possible sexual abuse, the widely
varying forms of child labour, and the myriad complexities of caste, class and ethnicity have
not been charted in terms of abuse and exploitation. At the same time, it can be presumed that
a large amount of data have been collected informally and formally by NGOs, researchers,
government agencies and universities (often in local languages) from every corner of the
country. The accumulation and analysis of such data are far beyond the scope of this review,
but would be a beneficial activity.
For India, there are some constraints in the quality of data collection, there being a relative
scarcity (given the size the country) of professional research organizations outside a few
metropolitan areas. India is unique in South Asia for its focus on girls and women in research,
policy and programming, and data on boys are scarce. While comprehensive studies have
been made of child trafficking in India, they have focused almost exclusively on the sexual
exploitation of girls and women. 212 Similarly, studies of sexual abuse have primarily focused
on women, girls or adult survivors. While a few recent studies have attempted to redress that
gap, 213 these have had a local focus; an overview of sexual abuse and exploitation of boys in
India remains to be conducted.
While India has been going through notable social and economic transition, unlike some of its
neighbouring countries, for example Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, it has not endured wide scale
armed conflict or civil disruption. The economic and social transition has likely influenced,
for example, the number of boys who have migrated from rural to urban areas, and the
number of boys entering transvestite/transsexual communities in the advent of increased
social liberalisation. However, it is not clear whether this recent transition has significantly
affected the form and substance of boy abuse and exploitation as it has done for girls – for
example, the recent rapid growth of free-agent ‘flying’ prostitution, of girls as well as women,
solicited through mobile phones. It appears likely that the venues and forms of boy abuse and
exploitation have not significantly changed in the last decade, with the exception of numbers.
However, such speculation needs to be tested by fresh and comprehensive research.
5.1.3 Sexual abuse of boys
With the exception of data from micro-studies scattered throughout the country, there is no
verifiable quantitative evidence on the sexual abuse of boys in India and thus no picture of the
overall situation. 214 Reporting of sexual abuse is inadequate in all settings, and most
information is based on cases reported in newspapers or police files, which do not indicate the
broader situation in terms of geographic or social spread. Most of the data on sexual abuse are
not disaggregated by sex, or address only girls and women. Few of the studies on children
212 For example, National Human Rights Commission, UNIFEM and Institute of Social Sciences, 2004, ‘A
report on trafficking in women and children in India 2002-2003; Initiative for Social Change and Action, 2003,
‘Rescued trafficked children from commercial sexual exploitation: Case study of Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata in
India’.
213 For example, ECPAT International (Akula, S.L.), 2006, ‘Situational analysis report on the prostitution of
boys in India (Hyderabad); Lahiri, A. and Kar, S., 2006, ‘Dancing boys: Traditional prostitution of young males
in India: A study report on launda dancers; Groupe Developpement, 2006, ‘Survival strategies: A study of
children living on streets and railway platforms of West Bengal and Bangladesh’.
214 Save the Children Sweden Regional Office for South and Central Asia, 2007, ‘Mapping Save the Children’s
response to violence against children in South Asia’.
68