Protection of children from violence, abuse and exploitation

Issues

© UNICEF/HQ00-0637/Roger LeMoyne

INDIA: Holding a woman's hand, a girl, Pinky, stands in an 'anganwadi' (courtyard garden), a local early childhood development centre, in a village in the Udaipur region of north-western Rajasthan.

Despite significant social gains in recent years, many of South Asia’s children are vulnerable to abuse, exploitation, violence and discrimination. Millions of children are out of school and have no option but to work unprotected by the law; others are subjected to physical and sexual abuse in homes, schools, institutions, on the streets, in the workplace and in prisons. Too often they are abused by trusted adults in places they should feel safe. Violations of the child’s right to protection take place in every South Asian country and are massive, under-recognized and underreported.

Addressing the need to protect children is complicated by the gender inequality that pervades South Asia; social mores and customs including early marriage, corporal punishment and child labour; poverty; and continuing long-term conflicts in Afghanistan and Sri Lanka.

Existing data hint at the magnitude of the problem.

• An estimated 43 million South Asian children aged 5 to 14 are working instead of going to school. Boys are commonly exploited in hazardous labour while girls are more often used for domestic labour, commercial sexual exploitation and carpet weaving.
• Trafficking of women, girls and boys for sexual exploitation and other labour, and even for organ trading, is a great problem. Most South Asian countries serve as sources, transit points or destinations. The invisible and clandestine nature of trafficking and the lack of hard data make it difficult to know the number of child victims but it is believed to reach well into the hundreds of thousands.
• Large numbers of South Asian children have been recruited by armed forces and armed groups as combatants, porters, cooks or messengers. Some are abducted or forcibly recruited, while others join for reasons including poverty, societal pressure or revenge.
• Children who come in conflict with the law are not given proper care and are often detained or imprisoned with adults, rendering them highly vulnerable to violence and sexual abuse.
• Increasing numbers of children are growing up without one or both of their parents due to the impacts of poverty, disability, HIV/AIDS, armed conflicts and natural disasters.
• 63 per cent of South Asia’s children are unregistered at birth.

Discussing these problems openly is difficult because doing so collides with long-held beliefs, customs and practices. Violence against children within the family has yet to be acknowledged as a legitimate problem, and discussing sexual abuse is taboo. Governments are reluctant to deal with matters that ‘belong’ to the private domain of family, religion and culture. Ensuring children’s participation in bringing change without undermining the stature and value of family poses serious challenges.

Although many key international instruments have been ratified, such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) this commitment is not necessarily reflected in governments’ policy frameworks and legislation. Laws are often poorly framed, implemented and enforced, especially regarding juvenile justice. Slow processes for reviewing and revising existing laws are also stumbling blocks.

Projects targeting education, health and nutrition services with specific focus on the poor and marginalized, especially girls, are vital, but the outcomes will be limited if the power dynamics within homes, families, institutions, workplaces and communities are not recognized and addressed.