Campaign against child sexual abuse

Over 30 organisations will launch a joint campaign against child sexual abuse on Sunday, focusing on fixing of responsibility and ensuring prompt holistic action in such cases.
The 'No Kidding, Act Now' campaign will begin on World Day for Prevention of Child Abuse on November 19 and culminate on World Human Rights Day on December 10.
There is a need to shift the narrative from breaking silence over child sexual abuse towards fixing responsibility and ensuring prompt holistic action in such cases, said Enakshi Ganguli Thukral of HAQ-Centre for Child Rights.
"The campaign is a 21-day collective initiative by over 30 organisations to ensure proper response from all the stakeholders including the family, society and the official machinery, the police," she said.

At a press meet, representatives of other organisations working in the field of child protection spoke about shortcomings and apathy of the existing mechanism to deal with the "grave crisis that affects millions of children".
"Child sexual abuse is not a straightforward crime. It is very complex cutting across gender and age of the victims," said Ashok Kumar from AV Baliga Memorial Trust.

The speakers cited National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data to emphasise the severity of the issue where complexities such as scant conviction rate, rehabilitation matters, and dominance of domestic nature of abuse cases.
"As per an estimate, nearly 30 crore children face sexual abuse in the country. Also, more than 70 per cent of these cases are domestic in nature where the accused are either family members, relatives or known persons," according to the organisations.

According to the NCRB report, 14,913 cases were registered in 2015 under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.