Sexual abuse against children on the rise

Visakhapatnam: Child abuse across the state is reported in alarming numbers especially from districts as well as tribal rural areas.

The trauma a child goes through at such a tender age often results in the child dropping out of schools, withdrawing from the society while in many cases victims are even scared to report the incident.

In one such similar incident, a minor school girl never spoke about the sexual abuse she was forced to by a known person but her family only learned about her pregnancy from a doctor when she was having stomach pain.

The victim’s mother took her to KGH for abortion where the Doctors referred her to the One Stop Centre for counselling and filing a case against the accused, New Indian Express reports.

Likewise, there are numerous other similar incidents wherein the parents never reveal the ugly truth silencing their kids forever.

According to the One Stop Centre statistics, most of the abused girls are in the 14-15 age group and the culprits are family members, neighbours or unknown persons who resort to the crime while their victims travel from school to home.

“In many cases, psychologically depressed children do not want to go to school. Besides, parents are not aware of compensation, filing cases and shelter homes. They stop their children from going to school. But, after counselling, we ask parents to join their children in government hostels and file a case against the accused for compensation,” said Padmavathi, administrator of the One Stop Centre.