Introduction

One in every 3 females and one in every 4 males around the world are sexually abused as children. India has the world’s largest number of sexually abused children, with a child below 16 years raped every 155th minute, a child below 10 every 13th hour and one in every 10 children sexually abused at any point of time. But the subject of child sexual abuse being a taboo in Indian society, there is a conspiracy of silence around the subject and a misconception that it does not exist in India. In India, as in many other countries, there has been no understanding of the extent, magnitude and trends of the problem.

India is home to almost 19 percent of the world's children. More than one third of the country's population, around 440 million, is below 18 years. India's children are India's future and the strength of the nation lies in a healthy, protected, educated and well-developed child population that will grow up to be productive citizens of the country. Child protection is recently being taken up by the Indian Government as a priority. Lot is waiting to be done.