Tel cops to launch year-long drive against child sexual abuse

To raise awareness about the sexual abuse of children, the Telangana Police will launch a year-long campaign against the menace, beginning November 3.
The campaign will run across the state in convergence with Education, Women and Child Welfare, Juvenile Welfare, Disable Welfare, Health, Panchayat Raj, Municipal Administration, Culture and Information and Public Relations departments, Telangana DGP Anurag Sharma told reporters here today.
The campaign's aim is to eliminate child sexual abuse and ensure safe childhood for all children and to make child sexual abuse unacceptable in the state, Sharma said.
"We believe that individual investment combined with team effort can change culture and bring about lasting pro-active prevention of child sexual abuse and victimisation," the Telangana police chief said.

Sharma noted that just like rape, cases of sexual assault against children often go unreported due to the "social stigma" associated with it and hence reporting (of such incidents) is important and to encourage it the police is taking up this campaign.
IGP (Training and Legal) Charu Sinha said the campaign aims to raise awareness among children, parents, teachers and all those who are in contact with children about the scale of the problem and to provide them with the knowledge they need to prevent sexual abuse and also to report it.

"Convergence Model" for a social cause is the first-of-its-kind in the country, the official said.

CID IGP Soumya Mishra said a study by the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development shows that 53 per cent of the 12 lakh children across 13 states interviewed reported having faced some form of sexual abuse. "57 per cent of the victims were boys and 50 per cent of the abusers were known to child or in a position of trust and responsibility," the officer said.
Earlier, addressing a workshop on 'Prevention and Detection of Cyber Crime Against Children', the DGP stressed the immediate need for the law enforcing agencies to update their knowledge and keep pace with rapid changes in technology to tackle emerging cyber crime especially against the gullible children who are easily vulnerable to any type of crime.

"The proximity and access to the internet and smart phones is making children more vulnerable to the crime. The crime against a child is not only just a physical violation, but also violation of the child's right and it also impacts the psyche and health of the child," the top cop said.
The DGP also unveiled a logo 'Jago, Badlo, Bolo' and theme song 'Safe Childhood-My Right' apart from the webpage of the campaign.