Shock of violence against children

More male children (56 per cent) than girls (46 per cent) have suffered sexual, physical and emotional violence, but less than three per cent of them got help, a national survey has revealed.

The Violence Against Children Report launched last Thursday showed that 52 per cent of boys and 39 per cent of girls have been physically abused by choking, slapping, threatened with a knife, suffocation, drowning and kicking or burning.

Children suffered these assaults mostly between age 6 and 11, then between 12 and 17.

However, one in six girls (16 per cent) than boys (six per cent) experienced sexual violence, such as coerced or forced sex and unwanted sexual touching.

Children experienced this form of violence at the age between 16 and 17, and mostly in the homes of the villain, by the road as well as at school.

SEXUALLY VIOLATED

The report noted that children are more likely to be sexually violated in the afternoon, perhaps perpetrators taking advantage of the absence of any other adults at work. The report also highlighted that the home is the most unsafe place for children.

Speaking at the launch of the report, Social Protection Cabinet Secretary Simon Chelugui said: “The violence children experience in homes was found to be high — they are exposed to physical violence, emotional violence, and violent discipline by their parents, caregivers or other adult relatives.”

Parents (33 per cent) and adults who include teachers (19 per cent) were the ones that meted the most physical and emotional abuse to children, uttering words like “you are not wanted here” to them. In some cases of emotional abuse, children are refrained from seeing another member of the family, for instance, a parent keeping a child from the other.

CS Chelugui noted that there is a decline in prevalence of childhood violence, but expressed concern that sexual violence experienced by girls aged 13 to 17 years has increased from 2010 to 2019.

MENTAL HEALTH PROBLEMS

The CS added that children who encounter physical, sexual and emotional violence suffer from mental health problems. The survey showed that children who had experienced any form of violence experienced mental distress than those who had not (about 12 percent). A majority contemplated suicide.

“Emotional violence, while its effects are not as visible as other forms of violence, was found to be particularly damaging to mental health of children and youth,” said the CS. The concerns come after the national mental health taskforce report showed that children experience somatic mental illness.

Lukoye Atwoli, a professor in psychiatry, explained that this is where children experience mental anguish and since they have not matured mentally to process what they are experiencing, their bodies take a beating. “It is common to find children with paralysis, seizures… even blindness that cannot be attributed to any physical trauma,” he said. Apart from the mental health, the other long-term effect of abuse is lost childhood: nearly one in 10 children (8.4 per cent) got pregnant as a result of the abuse.