Munna-Bayya CSA

Munna is 7 years old and all his seven years are spent in the slums of Mumbai. Yes, life has been harsh & ruthless to him, but never ever had he felt it to be unsafe. With his entire family around, especially his 17 yr old Bayya, he never thought the world could be unsafe. Yes, it felt safe until that Friday. Until that "incident" happened. In the past, more than once, Bayya had asked Munna to do "things" which Munna never understood completely - but he completely trusted Bayya and just did. Yes, until the "incident" happened. Munna was shattered. He was horrified. Though he doesn't understand everything even today, Munna realized Bayya's intentions weren't right after the incident. He had started feeling dirty himself and shameful for all the things he had done for his Bayya. For a week, Munna couldn't sleep properly. At nights, he has been getting jitters and nightmares of demons stripping him and asking him to do things he had never imagined.

The incidents of "Munna"s are not very uncommon, as per the National Study of Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) 2007 which claims that more than 53% of children in India report facing some form of sexual abuse. Yes, I can hear you "I can't believe it. It is shocking". Yes, it IS.

Many felt the extensive coverage of Mumbai's Mira Road incest case is just typical of media - overrated & sensational. I beg to differ. If media gets a little bit more intelligent, it can create a much wider awareness of the bigger social issue - Child Sexual Abuse. Most people are not even aware of what it's, how intense the problem is and how can it be handled.

As a first step, openly talking about it and spreading the awareness is of paramount importance.

Hmm.. I can sense how majority of the Indians would easily ignore the issue citing (a) it's too bad to talk about anything with the word "sex" in family or in public (b) it's too sensitive a topic to handle for them / kid (c) "I'm insensitive because it hasn't affected me, nor am I expecting it to affect my family in future."

It's like how people opposed Sex education in school, citing it's inappropriate in a country with its rich tradition, culture and values - but you know what - we are the third most populous country, when it comes to AIDS

Let's wake up hypocrites! Yes, 53% is an alarming number for a country which boasts itself of having revered family values.

Most of the information that follow are courtesy Arpan, an NGO working out of Mumbai on CSA.

Why should we bother about CSA?

• CSA happens more often than we think - yes, 53% facing some form of abuse. Unfortunately, half of the offenders are trusted personalities of the child like family, friends, relatives & neighbours
  
• It affects the child at physical (illness), mental (trauma), emotional (shame, depression), social (withdrawl, overtly sexualized behaviour) - at no fault of their own
  
• Most importantly, victims often become future offenders - Study says 50% - if not checked properly, it could grow like a virus!

Check out the arpan website on how to help the child be aware of and prevent the issue. It's not just to help kids, but also for the adults to become aware.

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@Regular

Currently engaged on the novel "The Namesake" - The story of a Bengal family in the USA.

The Movie "Watchmen" - Quite liked the special effects, story line (except the climax) and the music - Just that the movie could have been easily split into 2 or 3 parts. The other movie "Broken English" was a ok-ish - Expecting "Enlighten" to screen much better movies in future.