What Is Child Abuse?

A tree can give us fruit if we give our full care and attention. A garden being visited by every one can turn into a stranded place if care is not taken. Children are just like budding flowers, any negligence on our side can wrought their lives. They are the nation builders and investment of time, care, attention and love is a must. Children are considered to be symbol of God, so innocent, unaware of any sort of cleverness and they never lie. They are like mud; it is upon us in what form we carve them out.

But in spite of being aware about the above facts, it is ignominious on our parts to say that child abuse prevails in our society.

Child abuse is a social evil which affects our roots-“children”. Actually there is not one single action which we can say is child abuse. It includes torturing children, corporal punishment, forcing children to beg, child labor, biased demeanor towards girl child and everything that ceases the child’s mental development.

Let’s begin discussing each. First is the case when parents or relatives torture their children. Those are the parents who endeavor to be highly strict to their children and give severe punishments and beat them up even for small mistakes. Although parents can punish their children when they are wrong but there is a difference between punishment and torture and when parents cross that difference, it becomes child abuse.

The next form which we are going to discuss is most common in our society. Its corporal punishments in schools. Teachers have full right to punish their students when found guilty of something but there is limit to the extent of the punishment. It is neither legally nor ethically right to give sever punishments like thrashing them up and leave them bleeding. Those schools involved in such ignominious acts cannot provide a congenial scenario to our children.

Our next issue of concern is regarding the children who are being forced to beg. This problem is quiet intense especially in India. Where ever you go, bus stands, railway stations, crossings, holly places, public places like gardens and parks, every where you will find small children begging for alums. Many people have made their business to earn by forcing children to beg.

Now comes child labor. This issue had been and still is a major threat to nation. In most of the families, the servants working are children. Poor parents send their children to work in shops, home and even in factories to earn their living. It is a crime to employ a child of age less than 14 years but still children are working in cracker factories, repair workshops, general merchant stores to survive. The main reason for this problem is poverty. Still many people live below poverty line. Now one can imagine if a person is not able to make up for his living, how he can even think of educating his children. So instead of building their strong future, he puts them into the fire of child labor.

Now let’s talk about girl child discrimination. We admit that in earlier days, this problem was one of the major issues and it has reduced now but still not vanished. Still people want a boy and try to abort girl child. Still in umpteen families, girls are not given education. They are considered to be able for house hold work only. In spite of making child sex determination test illegal, still this thing prevails. Still female babies are aborted illegally.

Just by making rules and laws and squatting like couch potatoes is not the solution. People should be given moral education. The basic reason for child labor is poverty, so we should endeavor to increase the employment rate, so that the portion of people below poverty line decreases. When employing children below 14 years of age was made a crime, only one question was being asked by poor children-“now, how shall we make up for our living?”

Stringent actions should be taken on schools if some report of corporal punishment is lodged against teacher and school administration. These reports should not be taken lightly. Regarding problem of begging, we all should stop giving them alums. If we keep on giving them alums, it will encourage them. Government should open more orphanages for children like these, making their living by begging. Those who have made it their business should be tracked.

Regarding the case of girl child discrimination, moral education should be given to people who treat the other sex better. Stage shows should be organized regarding the importance of girls in the progress of a nation.

Still not everything has gone out of our hands; still we can make things go on our side. Wake up and realize how much pivotal children are to us.

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