KARACHI:
I was scrolling through social media, and I happened to read another truly disturbing headline of a nine-month-old infant allegedly being sexually abused! It forced me to ask: where did we go wrong as a society? Where does the problem lie?
We frequently consider education as the solution to social injustice and problems, yet it is reduced to textbooks, exams, degrees and employment. Why can we not provide sex-ed, which is about personal boundaries rather than about encouraging obscenity as it is widely misinterpreted? Teaching a child about inappropriate touches should be made compulsory. They must know that their body belongs to them, that they must say no, that such incidents must be reported to parents or teachers immediately. Avoiding such topics or conversations does not ensure the end of the child’s curiosity. Rather, it pushes them into an endless cycle of their own thoughts with no reliable language for and knowledge about the subject-matter. Children may turn to unreliable sources, peers, internet or go through experiences they never wanted to sign up for.
However, education is not the only solution, for it cannot avert every case of abuse. Multiple factors, including individual behaviours, power vulnerability, supervision, institutional safeguards, social conditions and effectiveness of law implementation impact the prevalence of abuse in a society. Teacher training, effective and functional child protection laws, awareness about abuse and its immediate reporting mechanism — these steps should be implemented in letter and spirit across the country. Parents and religious and community leaders must be given timely awareness sessions, and they together have to speak out without any shame or hesitation.
Pehlaj Kumar
Karoondi
