Children as Victim of Sexual or Physical Abuse

Submitted to Professor Dr. Md. Golam Azam Course Supervisor Course 203- Victim Counseling and Social Re-integration Victimology ad Restorative Justice (VRJ) Institute of Social Welfare and Research University of Dhaka.

Submitted by Lubna Yeasmin Roll-7 Victimology ad Restorative Justice (VRJ) Institute of Social Welfare and Research University of Dhaka. Email: lubyeasmin@yahoo.com

February 2014

Assignment on course 203.

Introduction
Child sexual exploitation or child molestation is a form of child abuse in which an adult or older adolescent uses a child for sexual stimulation. Forms of child sexual abuse include asking or pressuring a child to engage in sexual activities (regardless of the outcome), indecent exposure (of the genitals, female nipples, etc.) to a child with intent to gratify their own sexual desire or to intimidate or groom the child, physical sexual contact with a child, or using a child to produce child pornography. Child sexual abuse can occur in a variety of settings, including home, school, madrasha or workplace (in places where child labor is common). Child marriage is one of the main forms of child sexual abuse; UNICEF has stated that child marriage "represents perhaps the most prevalent form of sexual abuse and exploitation of girls". The effects of child sexual abuse can include depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, complex post-traumatic stress disorder, propensity to further victimization in adulthood, and physical injury to the child, among other problems. Sexual abuse by a family member is a form of incest, and can result in more serious and long-term psychological trauma, especially in the case of parental incest. Child prostitution is widespread and a serious problem. The majority of Bangladeshi prostituted children are based in brothels, with a smaller number of children exploited in hotel rooms, parks, railway and bus stations and rented flats. The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) estimated in 2004 that there were 10,000 underage girls used in commercial sexual exploitation in the country, but other estimates placed the figure as high as 29,000. Many girls involved in child labour, such as working in factories and as domestic workers are raped or sexually exploited; these girls are highly stigmatized and many of them flee to escape such abuse, but often they find that survival sex is the only option open to themonce involved with prostitution they become even more marginalized. More than 20,000 children are born and live in the 18 registered red-light areas of Bangladesh. Boys tend to become pimps once they grow up and girls continue in their mothers profession. Most of these girls enter the profession before the age of 12. Disabled children who live in institutions and children displaced as a result of natural disasters such as floods are highly susceptible to commercial sexual exploitation.

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Girls are often sold by their families to brothels for a period of two to three years of bonded sex work. Visits to the brothels of Faridpur and Tangail in 2010 revealed that most sex workers there take or are made to take the steroid drug dexamethason to gain weight and to look better. The authorities generally ignore the minimum age of 18, often circumvented by false statements of age, for legal female prostitution; the government rarely prosecutes procurers of minors. Situation Analysis The study examines the extent and type of sexual harassing behavior of adolescent girls experienced on their way to school and in rural setting. Sexual harassment is one of the most prevalent forms of violence against women worldwide which particularly affects Young children and interferes with the rights of individuals to enjoy a humane workplace or educational institute. Sexual harassment is a gender-specific problem and victim are mostly adolescent girls and young women and perpetrators are mostly adolescent boy and adult men.

Type of sexual harassment and violence against Adolescent girls suffer from is in the below Categories in Bangladesh country perspective: 1. Child Trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation 2. Domestic violence 3. Sexual violence 4. Rape 5. Sexual assault 6. Child sex and incest 7. Intimate unwanted sexual contact/ touching 8. Sexual harassment 9. Revealing ones genitals to another without consent. 10. Public masturbation and voyeurism 11. Child sexual abuse (CSA). 12. Physical gratification or the financial profit of the person committing the act. 13. Indecent exposure of the genitals to a child 14. Displaying pornography to a child 15. Actual Sexual contract with a child 16. Physical contact with the childs genitals
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17. Viewing of the childs genitalia without physical contact. 18. Using a child to produce child pornography.

A study conducted in Shelter home of BNWLA

Sumi is 16 years old girl a victim of Sexual and physical abuse. Her mother name is Momtaz Begum and her step father name is Anil Lashkar. Sumi was brought up in her Grand Parents place at Faridpur from her childhood. When she was born Momotaz kept her alone in her parents house and she left for aboard for few years. Momotaz is an occupationally prostitute. After coming back from abroad now she has settled in Mirpur Kazipara. Presently, Sumis mother Momtaz used to live in Kazipara at Mirpur and runs a hidden prostitution in that residential area. A friend of Momtaz named Barsha and her family used to run the same business in Gulshan. She used to exploit her daughter in the same business who studied in class VII in a school nearby her house. Barshas Son Rana was also involved in this business. Sumi said all these and explained how she was forced to get into prostitution although she did not want to. Sumi informed me that Barsha and her family with the help of her mother Momtaz made her life miserable. In Sep 2012 she had come to the BNWLA and at present she is taking training on electric work and hope to get a job in the near future. Though Momotaz worked as a prostitute but at present she is married and a mother of another son. Momotazs husband also helps her to run that dirty business. But as Sumi mentioned that previously he did not like this. Sumi used to call him baba. He used to love her as his own daughter. But Momtaz from the beginning wanted to make Sumi a prostitute. Sumi was young and beautiful and to her mom she was a good source of income. The cruel part of this story was that Momtaz forced her present husband to have sex with her daughter. She did this to demoralize both her husband, who did not like this profession and Sumi as well, thinking that this would ease the way to bring Sumi in prostitution. Sumi was shocked and embarrassed doing all these and many times she runaway from her house and reached her grandparents place in Faridpur where she was brought up from her childhood. She explained all these to her aunt and uncle (khala khalu) and requested them to save her from this danger. In Faridpur Sumi was forced to give a false statement in front of the Chairman in a village court (shalish) and others that her khala and khalu forced her to tell lie
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against her mother. Her mother threatened Sumi that if she does not tell this lie to the shalish she will kill her Nana and Nani. Sumi was very afraid to see her violent attitude and thought that she might kill her Nana and Nani who brought her up with so many agonies. It was a trauma to her that what she was doing to her aunt and uncle. She said while I was telling all these I was crying in such a way it could proved that I was telling out of fear but no one there realized that. Her aunt and uncle were crying like a mad because of her false accusation in front of the village people but she could not help but to save her grandparents. From December 2013 to January 2014 there was lot of phone calls came to the center for Sumi. They (different male voices) used to call and say that the person calling was Sumis father and he wanted his daughter back to him. Also they misbehaved with the BNWLA staff for keeping her in the shelter. The person mentioned that they have invested a lot of money to bring her up and they cannot keep the daughter just like that in the name of keeping her in Shelter. They threatened in many ways. But BNWLA has strong administration to support all their staffs to deal all kind of odd situations effectively. Presently Sumi is continuing the training and hopefully will be self sufficient to do a job and earn by her own and will be free from a life what she did not want to pursue.

A case of sexual harassment and physically abused and attempt to murder Sahjeda Khatun a 15 years old girl and a victim of sexual harassment and physically abused by her Teacher in Madrasha Adarsha Daki , Habubalar ghat Gangachara, Rangpur. Her father name in Nurul and mother name is Rabeya. Sahjedas father also married for twice, but both the family live together. She has one more sister and 2 brothers. Shaheda studied till class 3 in a Madrasha, village: Habubalar Ghat, Gangachara, Rangpur. When she was studying in a Madrasa in class three in the year 2009 her teacher Mr. Fajul Haque wrote a love letter to Shajeda . Shajeda was only eleven and half years old at that time. She was in an uncomfortable situation to get that letter and she stopped going to Madrasha. She was not able to disclose the situation to her family. However, her parents put a lot of pressure on her to go to Madrasha because she had her final exam ahead. Then again she started going to the Madrasha. One day while she was in the Madrasha she was late in the class after the break. Her teacher Faijul Haque was in the class. Somehow he managed to keep her in the class after the class hours. At the end of the class he locked her in the class and harassed her in many ways. She
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was very upset with that situation and the next day while she was in the class she was asked by the close friend (those who are student of other class) about the yesterdays situation. They assured that they will not discuss it with others. After that she described whole incident to them. The students talked about this with their parents and the parents were very worried about the situation in the Madrasa. They went to the Madrasa and made a complaint to the committee against that teacher. After hearing the complaint the committee did nothing on this issue. The guardian of the students of Madrasha informed the fact in one of the TV channels. After that, one night she was at home with her younger brother. The Teacher came to her home and tried to murder her with sharp knife. When the teacher was trying to stab her on her shoulder she immediately kept her face other side and the knife was cut her check. And she tried to resist herself from this danger and hold the knife in one hand and tried her level best to survive from this life-threatening situation. Somehow she managed to save herself after long struggle and was able to run away from the house to one of her neighbors house and after reaching there she fainted. The next day Shaheda and her mother went to the police station to file a case against the teacher, Fazlul Haque. After that Shaheda was admitted in the Hospital. Shahedas father Mr. Nurul was caught by the offender and somehow they managed to keep him with them. Fazlul Haque, the offender then filed a case against Shahedas father Nurul that he had beaten Shaheda brutally and now she admitted in the Hospital. Under interrogation by the Lawyer Advocate Shamima, Shahedas father Nurul said I have beaten my daughter. After that Shaheda was more embarrassed and in a humiliating situation in front of the villagers. They colored Shaheda as a heinous girl who is involved in bad work etc. From there Shaheda came to the shelter of Bangladesh Womens Lawyers Association. Since then she is staying in this shelter. Shaheda had a case in Rangpur but till now the case is unfinished because of her father. Her father is a very old person and he is the only witness of this case. So whenever he faced the interrogation he was unable to provide proper answer. The case is still pending.

After the incident Shahedas family was banished from the village. The villagers destroyed their house. Since then no one from Shahedas family was living at Habubalar Ghat, Gangachara. So when I asked about the teacher Fazlul she could not answer.

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Conclusion Children often present for treatment in one of several circumstances, including criminal investigations, custody battles, problematic behaviors, and referrals from child welfare agencies. The three major modalities of therapy with children and teenagers are family therapy, group therapy and individual therapy. Which course is to be used depends on a variety of factors that must be assessed on a case by case basis. For instance, treatment of young children generally requires strong parental involvement, and can benefit from family therapy. Adolescents tend to be more independent and can benefit from individual or group therapy. The modality also shifts during the course of treatment, for example group therapy is rarely used in the initial stages, as the subject matter is very personal and/or embarrassing. Major factors that affect both the pathology and response to treatment include the type and severity of the sexual act, its frequency, the age at which it occurred, and the childs family of origin. Roland C. Summit, a medical doctor suggested that children who are victims of sexual abuse depict a range of symptoms that include secrecy, helplessness, entrapment, accommodation, delayed and conflicted disclosure and recantation. Sexual harassment, abuse and other violence towards adolescent girls require to be discussed actively to achieve MDGs, particularly gender equity and womens empowerment, but there is no easy way of rounding up this issue. In Addition to political and legislative frameworks within which women can legitimately negotiate their positions and rights at the personal and societal levels, a behavior change might be the lasting solution to this problem. Multiple strategies may be needed to change behavior. Women and human rights organization can initiate a massive sustained campaign to sensitize society against gender based sexual violence and injustice to girls and women.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostitution_in_Bangladesh#Child_prostitution http://acr.hrschool.org/mainfile.php/0103/20/ https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/factsheets/whatiscan.cfm Baseline study Children in Bangladesh News Media (2010)

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A.Nurul ICDDR,B (2009). A Sexually Harassing Behaviour Against Adolescent Girls in Rural Bangladesh. SAGA Publication Journal of International Violence Z. Fengmin, B. Stan (2010) Help seeking behavior among abused women in rural Bangladesh, John Hopkins Blooming School of Public Health.

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