Checking Child Abuse
Joint Efforts Necessary

By Dr Niranjan Prasad Upadhyay

CHILD abuse is a term that generally refers to mistreatment of a child by a parent or an adult. However there is no standard definition of child abuse. A narrow definition is limited to life-threatening physical violence, including severe beatings, burns and strangulation. A broader definition includes any treatment other than the most favourable care, and includes neglect, sexual or emotional abuse and exploitation. No one knows how many instances of child abuse occur every year because many cases are never reported. Many social scientists once believed that people with severe emotional problem only would abuse children. However, studies indicate that most individuals who abuse children do not suffer from traditional psychiatric illness. Another common view is that abused children grow up to be abusive adults, a development referred to as the cycle of abuse. But research has shown that abused children do not necessarily become abusers as adults.

Generally, abuse represents in diversified forms that is physical, sexual, neglect, emotional and parental. Inappropriate punishment, verbal abuse, and making scapegoat are also forms of emotional or psychological child abuse. Some authorities consider parental actions abusive if they have negative future consequences, e.g., exposure of a child to violence or harmful substances, extending in some views to the passive inhalation of cigarette smoke.

Nepalese psychiatrists, Mahendra K. Nepal and Praksh M. Shrestha have conducted a study on child abuse. They have collected the data from various campuses in Kathmandu. Their research findings led to various conclusions related to child abuse. In Nepal, child victims of sexual abuses are both male and female. Child sexual abuse is prevalent among all the ethnic groups. Most child sexual abuses occur between the age of 11 and 15 years. The perpetrators are especially family members, relatives, neighbours and teachers. Though clinical experience indicates that physical and sexual abuse is common in Nepal, people do not take sexual abuse as a topic for discussion in public. It is suggested to victims, or they are even threatened, to keep their mouths shut.

Child sexual abuse is a serious problem. It is prevalent all over the world and reports of incidents of violence against children are frequently published in the print media. Sexual abuse of children is commonly associated with severe emotional problems. Today, many experts believe child abuse is widespread because society regards physical punishment by parents as a reasonable way of changing children’s behaviour. Thus, adults who hurt children sometimes only intend to correct them and do not realise how easily children can be harmed. Another cause of child abuse is stress. Parents, who are unemployed, very isolated or under great stress for certain reasons are more likely to abuse their children than parents who do not have such problems. Researchers have shown that children who are difficult to care for, such as premature infants and handicapped children, create more stress for parents.

Child Network News, Kathmandu has highlighted that violence against the girl includes physical, psychological and sexual abuse, commercial sexual exploitation in pornography and prostitution. Child sexual abuse is any use of children for the sexual gratification of adults. Various researchers have shown that between 36 per cent to 65 per cent of sexual assault victims are aged 15 or less. It may occur in any part of society but is discovered more commonly in poor families. The commercial exploitation of children occurs in different forms. Many factors forces the children into exploitative and abusive situation. Well-documented cases show that families are often deceived by the promise of job opportunities for the children. Sometimes, girls are sent away from home to work and become subject to physical and sexual abuse. Street children may be at particular risk with no means of economic, or social support; they may be forced to rely on prostitution for survival. Recently, medical expert, Dr. Harihar Wasti has stated that in case sexual abuse, medical workers should keep a detailed records pertaining to a full paediatric history with particular emphasis on genitourinary or bowel symptoms and details of previous abuse or sexual offences within the family or household.

In 1998, RAHI an Indian NGO carried out research among English speaking middle and upper class women living in metropolitan cities of India. The findings highlight that 76 per cent of the women are sexually abused in their childhood. The study is based on screening of 1000 college women, housewives and employed women out of which 600 responded. It is found that 71 per cent of the abusers are family members or the relatives or some known acquaintances. The study also determines that majority of the victims have faced multiple abusers.

Childhood influences and experiences shape human life. The love, care, protection and support received in childhood, play a vital role in the growth and personality. However, some unfortunate children have to go through certain misery that would seriously hamper their development. The tender soul gets deeply wounded due to such miseries resulting in serious damage of the personality. In fact, disclosing abuse can have serious negative consequences including the breakup of the family –and, there is significant pressure to recant. The reaction of the person to whom the disclosure is made has consistently been shown to have an impact on the psychological sequellae of childhood sexual abuse.

American psychologist, Elizabeth B. Hurlock has remarked that when parents are unhappy in their parental roles or when a frictional relationship exists between them, some babies become the targets of anger and resentment. The babies are either neglected or abused. An occasional but very serious family-relationship hazard during early childhood is child abuse. This may take forms varying from mild abuse in the form of slaps to serious abuse as to lead to permanent disability or death of the child. Psychologically, if the care of young children is turned over to older siblings, especially when mothers work outside home, older brothers more often abuse their younger siblings than do older sisters. Child abuse is also not uncommon when the care of young children is turned over to pay caretakers, especially male caretakers. This is more likely to occur when the caretakers are high school students than adults.

The problem of sexual abuse has received much attention in newspapers and on television. Children are warned not to let people, even family members, touch them in ways that make them feel uncomfortable. Children also are instructed to tell truisted adult if they are sexually abused. Psychologically, media can play a positive role to educate the people about child abuse.

Finally, in controlling child abuse the joint efforts of different stakeholders like clinical psychologists, sociologists, psychiatrists, journalists, medical experts, legal experts and government and non-government organisations are needed. Also the researchers have stressed that basic health education should be included in the school curricula and awareness programmes be carried for parents to create awareness about the issue of child abuse.

Man And Environment

By Ram Charitra Sah

ENVIRONMENT is defined as the biotic and abiotic substances that surround us, which we can see, hear, touch, smell and taste. These components are the resources available to us as free gift of nature. Thus resources can be defined as any material which can be transformed in a way that it becomes more valuable and useful.

Nature has been so kind to humans. They have been dependent on nature for their subsistence. Everything that exists in nature has some utility for humans. Although natural elements like land, water, sunshine, air, flora and faunas, coal, and mineral oils existed even during the pre-historic time, they were not utilised probably due to lack of necessary technology and demand. All these resources are public properties because they do not belong to any single individual but to all the living creatures, including the mankind.

Wildlife resources, which are the sources of all human necessities, provide people with a wide variety of direct economic benefits. Most of the plants that supply 90 per cent of the world’s food today were domesticated from wild plants in the tropics. Other wild species not presently classified as wildlife resources may be needed by agricultural scientist to develop new crops that have higher yields and increased resistance to disease, pests, heat, and drought.

Pollination by insects, birds are essential for many food and non-food plant species. Predatory insects, parasites, and disease-causing bacteria and viruses are increasingly used for the biological control of various weeds and insect pests.

About 40 per cent of the prescription and non-prescription drug used throughout the world have active ingredients extracted from plants and animals. Annual sales of drugs based on naturally derived chemicals amount to at least $40 billion world-wide and $20 billion in United States. Aspirin, probably the world’s most widely used drugs, was developed from a chemical blueprint supplied by a compound extracted from the leaves of tropical willow trees. Quinine, used to treat malaria, is derived from the cinchona tress. Penicillin is produced by fungi, and certain species of bacteria produce other lifesaving antibiotics such as tetracycline and streptomycin. A key steroid ingredient in today’s widely used contraceptive pills is derived from a compound found in a wild Mexican yam. A chemical that causes leaves to change colour is being studied as possible cure for colon cancer. Chemicals extracted from sea-weeds that grow along the northern California coast have been 99 per cent effective in destroying the two types of herpes viruses that cause cold sores and sexually transmitted diseases in laboratory animals; they may soon be tested on humans.

Many animal species are used to test drugs and vaccines and to increase our understanding of human health and disease. For instance, the nine-banded armadillo is being used to study leprosy and prepare a vaccine for this disease. The Florida manatee, an endangered mammal, is being used to help understand haemophilia. Many new drugs will come from presently unclassified plant and animal species, most located in tropical forests and the ocean. For example, about 10 per cent of the world’s marine species contain anticancer chemicals.

Despite their present and future economic and health importance to humans, scientists know very little about most of the earth’s 1.7 million identified plant species and nothing about the millions of undiscovered ones. Less than one per cent of the earth’s identified plant species have been thoroughly studied to determine their possible usefulness. Loss of this biological and genetic diversity reduces our ability to respond to new problems and opportunities.

At present we have enough example of commonly managed resources through Local Governance Act and the best example is the Community Forestry programmes. Given all the above-mentioned floral and faunal resources that are very important from economic, scientific, and educational points views, there is an urgent need to maintain ecological balance so as to prevent the possible human catastrophe that might be caused by the currently degrading environment.