Hopefully, this will send out a strong message to everyone that child abuse can attract stringent punishment,” says a police officer. We feel that society should also play a role in preventing child sexual abuse by alerting the police if they find something amiss,” the police officer explains. “It is very unfortunate that child sexual abuse prevention programmes widely focus on developing and disseminating interventions that target parents, especially mothers. It is high time that community-based stakeholders and local residents are targeted in creating awareness of the issue of child sexual abuse,” she says. But beyond that, it is time to re-emphasise the role of the state and society in protecting its children, to keep them in a safe embrace, but certainly to pick them up if they fall off the grid.

Source: The Hindu December 27, 2020 06:22 UTC