II. Analysis - India – vulnerability and need for action

India – vulnerability and need for action

Child Sexual Abuse is a globally occurring phenomenon, for which various organizations and nations are taking concrete steps to curb, along with other critical issues of child protection. India however is in a special situation in this regard, owing to the following factors:

1. Nineteen percent of the world's children live in India. India has the largest number of sexually abused children in the world.

2. Sex being a taboo in the Indian culture, discrimination and sexual victimization of women and the social tolerance to the same, has aggravated the problem to a great extent.

3. Due to political instability there is an influx of considerable percentage of refugee children in India.

4. Poverty and migration from rural parts owing to growing employment opportunities in urban areas has created a fertile ground for exploitation of children.

5. There are an increasing number of street children who are in the most vulnerable position for sexual violence.

6. The laws of the nation are inadequate to penalize sexual crimes against children, leading to flourishing of organized sex trade including child sex tourism, child pornography, etc.

7. India is a signatory to the UNCRC (United Nations Child Rights Convention) which makes imperative for the Government to ensure fulfillment of basic rights of children and take effective measures for enforcement of child protection.