[Answered] In light of rise in child sexual abuse, discuss the need and challenge of providing sexual education to children. Also, mention role of family, school and teachers in preventing child sexual abuse in the society.

Children are being subjected to neglect, abuse, violence and exploitation. A society cannot ignore child abuse as it is biggest crime and malaise in the society. Rather it must proactively work to prevent it. Thus it is important in changing times to provide children with sexual education so that they must be able to tackle any situation if may arise.

Rising child sexual abuse and need of Sex Education in India:

1. Nearly 50% of boys and girls, each, face sexual abuse in their young lives, in India, according to a survey by the Ministry of Women and Child Development. It is the responsibility of adults to empower these young people with the knowledge to protect themselves against such abuse.
2. It is important to sensitise child about women and others and to teach them what is right or wrong. It is important to teach children about their role and responsibility towards one another, their role towards their families, and towards society, as a whole.
3. A young boy or girl who is just entering teens, needs to learn all aspects about physiological and emotional changes that he or she will be going through while growing up. This information and awareness is absolutely essential for that young individual, in order to ensure that he or she can protect themselves from being sexually abused.
4. It is due to this lack of information and awareness that children go through traumatic experiences that range from sexual abuse to emotional and physical abuse, without knowing the implications of these or what recourse to take and this leads to the victim being emotionally and sometimes, physically, scarred for life.
5. Therefore, it’s the responsibility of society to ensure that every boy and girl is provided with the necessary information and is taught all the preventive and corrective measures to be taken in case of any eventuality.
6. There is a compelling need to increase the awareness of providing children with sexual education so they can be equipped with the right vocabulary to talk about sexual abuse.
7. Skills learnt through sexuality education will prepare children to recognise potentially inappropriate behaviour and disclose abuse promptly.
8. The justice process appears frightening to child survivors because no one has educated them about the practices of the court. Besides, unawareness of how and who to report the abuse goes against their interest. Sexual education will thus allow children to gain knowledge about the most effective ways to respond to sexual abuse.

Challenges to sex education in India:

1. A deep-rooted sense of morality binds the sentiment of a large population from seeing the benefits and necessities of launching such an education program throughout the country.
2. It is largely believed that talking about sexuality and its awareness may instead corrupt young adolescents.
3. It must be recognized there cannot be a one-size-fits-all approach. Given the sensitivity of the topic, each state or region would need to be handled specific to their value systems and cultures.
4. Socially acceptable norms in one region could be a taboo in another. So it is difficult to design a nationally acceptable curriculum on sex education.

Role of family, school and teachers in preventing child sexual abuse in the society:

1. Role of family: Parents should equip children with information and skills to build self-protective behaviour. They must be available when children need to talk.
   • Parents must keep visiting their child school to ensure accountability of teachers and staff.
   • They must teach their child about how to keep themselves safe and what is an abuse.
   • It is important that family must keep a vigil on their relatives and neighbourhood to prevent any kind of misbehave with the child.
   • It is important that parents must also keep a watch on child’s peer group and friend circle and must ask tough questions from school teachers and principal.
2. Role of Schools: Schools are at the frontline of child protection since they have the potential to both teach protective behaviours effectively and to a greater number of children than any other system, including parental instructions.
   • Schools must make interview process of teachers rigorous and must do proper background checks on them, as teacher can also abuse.
   • Abusers must be punished harshly.
   • Further schools must appoint a counsellor to counsel students about right and wrong and also to help child post-traumatically.
3. Role of teachers: Teachers have a special role in combating child sexual abuse, as they possess the knowledge, training and opportunity to observe and respond to children’s behaviour and physical conditions over a period of time.
   • Additionally, because of the close daily contact they are in a unique position to identify these children who need help and protection.
   • They must impart sex education to children based on their age and level of maturity.
   • Creating and strengthening a protective environment for children requires many levels of engagement, which in turn demand dialogue, partnerships, and coordination based on a shared analysis.

Child abuse is a stigma to whole society. It is our duty to protect children. The life of a child can be saved from abuse and can be changed with one’s positive intervention. We all must have to prepare ourselves for it and know more about their problems as well as what you can do to help.