TEHRAN, March 3 -Adults who survived child abuse attempt to prevent further abuse and support victims by policy campaigns and therapy.
TEHRAN,Young Journalists Club (YJC) -Adults who survived child abuse attempt to prevent further abuse and support victims by policy campaigns and therapy.
Shaista Shamin remembers the day she slapped the man who touched her inappropriately.
The 17-year-old lives in the Tiljala slum of Kolkata and had previously survived sexual assaults. But on this occasion, she stood up against her attacker.
"When I was very young, I couldn't understand what was happening so I couldn't say anything," she told Al Jazeera.
"But, the harassment began to increase as I was growing up. I don't understand why men do this."
In an attempt to overcome abuse, Shamin has now joined a drama group led by Pranaadhika Sinha Devburman, an activist working with child sexual assault survivors.
Devburman's drama therapy classes create awareness among teenage girls and boys of the slum.
"We are trying to get the children acquainted with acting out the problem. They can act, they can laugh about it, but ultimately this is the way to tell them that this kind of behaviour if it happens to you in real life is wrong," Devburman, a survivor herself, told Al Jazeera.
"Throughout my childhood, I kept looking for a safe space. But it isn't easy to talk about abuse in India."
She was four years old when an older male relative sexually abused her.
"He molested me. I blanked out because I was so shocked. I could not believe that somebody who loved me so much had broken my trust. And I never spoke about it for the same reason … my family wouldn't have believed me."
The abuse continued until she was 19 years old, she says, adding that thousands of children across the country continue to suffer today.
In 2016, at least 36,022 cases were reported under India's 2012 Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act law, according to India's National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).
Suicide and self-harm
Psychiatrist Rita Mukherji works with survivors in Kolkata.
Attacks have not necessarily increased, she said, but more people are coming forward to report.
However, she told Al Jazeera: "I still think it is the tip of the iceberg. I would say 90 percent of the cases, or more, are still not being reported."
Vinay Singh, a child rights activist, helps to run a support group in which writing is promoted as a way of therapy.
One child's diary entry shown to Al Jazeera read: "I feel scared even when my own father touches me. When my father wakes me up in the morning, I am fearful … and wonder … why is he touching me? I cannot sleep any more and I feel upset with myself and ask myself why I am feeling uncomfortable with my father."
A brother and cousin had been sexually assaulting the child - who has attempted suicide - from the age of three to 13.
Al Jazeera showed a copy of the diary entry to Mukherji, the psychiatrist.
"Most people actually have maladaptive coping skills if they have been sexually abused," Mukherji said.
"Some feel very guilty. In order to punish themselves, they commit self-harm, because of this guilt. Self-harm gives them a sense of relief, they feel better. They feel that the pain is helping them."
Source:Aljazeera
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