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Amendment in law for male child sex abuse victims soon, says women and child development ministry
The ministry says for its flagship Beti Bachao Beti Padhao scheme, the government will now use the annual Sex Ratio at Birth data for a quick estimation of the status of the girl child in various districts.
The women and child development ministry is working on bringing an amendment in the law to provide for male child sex abuse victim, an official said on Friday.
“Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act has always strived to develop gender-neutral laws. But yes, we are working on bringing amendment for the male child victims of sexual abuse and it will be soon introduced in the act,” women and child development secretary Rakesh Srivastava said.
The step comes after woman and child development minister Maneka Gandhi recently supported a petition on Change.org by film-maker-activist Insia Dariwala, who said, “male child sexual abuse is an ignored reality in India”.
Change.org stated that Maneka Gandhi, to whom the petition was addressed, had replied to the plea through “Decision Maker” response.
“There shall be no tolerance of any form of sexual violence against children and all criminals will be dealt with severe action. My Ministry has always taken proactive steps to address different issues concerning child safety. Another much-neglected sphere of child sexual abuse is male survivors,” she said in a letter to Change.org.
“Child sexual abuse is gender neutral. Boys who are sexually abused as children spend a lifetime of silence because of the stigma and shame attached to male survivors speaking out. It is a serious problem and needs to be addressed,” she added.
Srivastava also said for its flagship Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP) scheme, the government will now use the annual Sex Ratio at Birth data for a quick estimation of the status of the girl child in various districts.
The ministry uses the Child Sex Ratio currently.
“The next Child Sex Ratio is scheduled for 2021 and considering the recent fall of girl child ratio since 1961, we do not have the luxury to wait so long. So we have shifted to Sex Ratio at Birth which is calculated annually and can be a fair indicator of the reality,” Srivastava said.
“We need to take some drastic steps to control it. If we can improve the Sex Ratio at Birth then it will automatically reflect in Child Sex Ratio during the 2021 Census,” he added.
The ministry refuted a recent report by Niti Aayog which said there has been a substantial drop of 10 points or more for Sex Ratio at Birth in 17 out of 21 states from 2012-14 (base year) to 2013-15 (reference year).
