Lamat Ayub
New Delhi 

Children have never been safe, inside or outside their homes. One of the early lessons in life is how to keep the candy-offering uncles at bay. The enemy no longer lurks outside the homes — he is right here, within the four walls of his house.

So how to deal with this enemy? This enemy within?

When they talk about their trauma, no one believes them. Not even their mothers. They live under threat from the enemy with a feeling of shame and guilt

They live under threat from the enemy with a feeling of shame and guilt. When they talk about their trauma, no one believes them. Not even their mothers. Their trauma does not end even when their stories are out in public. The police-judiciary proceedings turn out to be even more brutalised.

Experts say that laws concerning children should be constantly reviewed to make them sensitive about their rights, but we are way off the mark. As Dr Achal Bhagat of Sarthak, an ngo that works on the mental health needs of the community, says, “Mental health interventions need to be seen as a right of the person, not as an additional icing on the cake service. The common refrain is: if people do not have access to basic rights such as shelter how can they think of mental health efforts in the developing world?”

Pinki Virani in her book Bitter Chocolate: Child Sexual Abuse in India brings out the mental trauma of abused children through some real-life stories, including hers: schoolchildren being abused in a reputed boarding school by their ‘respected’ principal and parents not taking up the issue; the local social activist blaming a little girl, a rape victim, for inviting the male gaze; the upper-middle class mother refusing to believe that her son was abusing her daughter.

Priyanka Chirimar, a Delhi-based lawyer, who handles cases of child abuse, offers some suggestions; how to reduce the intense mental suffering of child victims? “The presence of a lady special prosecutor should be made mandatory in cases of rape, incest and sexual abuse. Judges should be empowered to restrict the entry of relations and others to reduce the victim’s trauma in reliving the experience of rape or sexual abuse in full public view.”

Chirimar suggests an informal courtroom atmosphere to make victims of child rape or sexual abuse feel at ease. She recommends the use of modern technology such as one-way mirrors and closed circuit televisions to protect the victim from the mocking, often intimidating, gaze of the accused.

As social support systems for victims are either non-existent or grossly deficient, experts at the two-day convention on Mental Health and Human Rights in Chandigarh recently, recommended that there should be increased networking between various professional agencies — law enforcement, health, legal aid and the voluntary sector.

Shweta, a counsellor with Sarthak, says, “Every police station or cell dealing with crimes against children should have an in-house psycho-social unit, consisting of a trained counsellor and a psychiatric social worker. This would bring about a definitive change in the quality of psycho-social support available to the victims.”

Reactions to trauma may appear in children immediately after the incident or days or weeks later. Loss of trust in adults and fear of the event occurring again are more common responses in children exposed to traumatic events. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, in children aged 5 and below, typical reactions can include a fear of being separated from the parent, crying, whimpering, screaming, immobility or aimless motion, trembling, frightened facial expressions and excessive clinging. Children aged between 6 and 11 may show extreme withdrawal, disruptive behaviour, or inability to pay attention. Regressive behaviours, nightmares, sleep problems, irrational fears, refusal to attend school, fighting are also common. Adolescents aged between 12 and 17 may exhibit responses similar to those of adults, including flashbacks, nightmares, emotional numbing, problems with peers, and anti-social behaviour. Sometimes even suicidal tendencies.

Early intervention to help these children is critical. Help should ideally begin at the scene of the traumatic event — even while our insensitive cops, civil society, family and the ‘system’ is busy traumatising our children through this inhuman process of insensitive justice.