Bhopal: Expressing concern over rising incidents of crime against children, Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi said that sexual abuse of children has become a moral epidemic and needs to be tackled on a priority basis.
Calling his Bharat Yatra, a ‘Mahayuddha’ against child abuse Satyarthi, addressing a function here at People’s University on Wednesday, said that through his march he was knocking the doors of the society to make them aware about the child abuse. My yatra is not a campaign but a medium to make people aware and make them raise voices against the issue of child sexual abuse and trafficking, he added.
Child rights crusader was in the city as a part of his ‘Bharat Yatra’ tour to spread awareness among various sections of the society to fight against the sexual abuse and exploitation of children. The Bharat Yatra started is a 35 day journey, which started from Kanyakumari on September 11 and will culminate at Delhi on October 16th.
Speaking at the function, Satyarthi highlighted the fact that in India 53 per cent children are victim of sexual abuse. And in most of the cases, they are being sexually abused by their family member, relatives or near and dear ones. The fact that the children are not aware about it makes it even more dangerous, he said adding that the matter is never reported to the police, unless it is gruesome.
Satyarthi also blamed the parents and called it a pathetic situation when sometimes they hide behind the veils of ‘Maan-Maryada’, ‘Ijaat’ in the society and refrain from reporting the matter to the police. He added that the situation is so worse that the judiciary will take ten years to dispose off the cases registered till now.
Sexual abuse of a child is an ordinary crime but it is a mental illness, said Satyarthi. Stating that the society need to change its mentality towards the rape survivor, he said that people let go the perpetrators, while the victims are shamed. The culprit should be punished and the victims should get the justice as well as the respect and compassion, he added. Speaking about the duality, the Nobel laureate said on one hand we praise Goddess Durga on Navaratri, Goddess Lakshmi on Diwali and Goddess Saraswati and on the other hand we call rape victims as ‘Papini’, ‘Apavitra’, and a stigma to the society.