Sexual assault most ‘severe’ in Assam

GUWAHATI, Sept 2: Parents might be shocked to hear this. If a survey conducted by the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development is to be believed, then Assam tops the list of the highest number of sexual assaults described as ‘severe’ among the other states of India. The Ministry recently carried out a survey between the age of 5 and 18 in the states across the country. The survey showed that nearly 50 per cent of children of 13 states are sexually abused in school. And 53 per cent say they have suffered some form of sexual abuse at school or elsewhere.

Severe forms of sexual abuse include: assault, including rape and sodomy, touching or fondling a child, exhibitionism- forcing a child to exhibit his/her private body parts, photographing a child in nude. The other forms of sexual abuse include: Forcible kissing, Sexual advances towards a child during travel, Sexual advances towards a child during marriage situations, Exhibitionism- exhibiting before a child, exposing a child to pornographic materialsOf the total number of sexual assaults reported, half came from Delhi (14.77%), Andhra Pradesh (13.67%), Assam (11.78%), and Bihar (10.34%). Over 4 per cent of respondents said they had been photographed in the nude.

The State-wise analysis of severe forms of sexual abuse of children revealed that Assam reported the highest percentage of sexual abuse (57.27%) of those children who faced one or more forms of sexual abuse, followed by Delhi, which reported almost41%, Andhra Pradesh (33.87%) and Bihar (33.27%). The lowest percentage of sexual abuse was reported from Goa (2.38%) followed by Uttar Pradesh (5.98%) and Gujarat (7.34%). The reported incidence of sexual abuse from Goa does not seem to be in line with the larger perception. Assam reported the highest incidence of sexual abuse among both boys and girls. 62.55% boys and 51.19% girls from Assam reported facing one or more forms of sexual abuse, which was highest amongst all the 13 sample states.Though in Assam, there are no recent reports of any child abuse in schools, yet several school students said they were ‘literally forced to do sex’ with teachers in which they also gain ‘pleasure.’ “We have no problem as long as we are not physically abused,” one of the girl students of a English medium school of Guwahati said on the condition of anonymity.