Punish the abuser, not the child

BANGALORE: The insensitivity and chaotic intervention during the course of investigations of sexual abused children by various people like police, doctors, NGOs and lawyers cause much more trauma to a child than the sexual abuse itself. All these issues related to secondary victimization was discussed during the panel discussion on the sexually or suspected child abuse at the MS Ramaiah Hospital after the inauguration of the Collaborative Child Response unit here on Saturday.Dr Chandrika Rao, pediatrician at MS Ramaiah Hospital focused on the alternate methods which can be adopted by the stakeholders while interviewing the sexually abused child.  She also maintained that the child should be asked open ended questions rather than close ended.Dr Jagadish, medico legal consultant, Vydehi Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre said, “Every hospital should maintain correct documentation on the child abuse cases.” He also maintained that consent is must for any sexual examination. The panelists highlighted that there is a need of child sensitive legal systems which punish the abusers and not the children.“Though we have legislature, we do not have counsellors and the police officers are trained to be counsellors,” said former DGP  ST Ramesh while laying emphasis on the need to amend the laws which specifies categories.