Submitted by crinadmin on
Research and consultations suggest that child sexual abuse is becoming more common in South Asia. Evidence also shows that men and women, and sometimes children themselves, exploit children sexually in different ways, for many different reasons and in various contexts. It is also seen that sexually abused girls and boys experience intense guilt and shame, carrying such feelings into their adult lives. The only way child sexual abuse can be combated and prevented is by a committed involvement of key actors such as the state, civil society, NGOs and the international community. Moreover, there is also a need to strengthen their accountability on the issue. To support the work against child sexual abuse there is also a need to draw legal frameworks and policies. In South Asia, some governments have drawn up National Plans of Actions (NPAs) against sexual exploitation, abuse and trafficking, which are yet to be implemented; other governments in South Asia simply deny the existence of child sexual abuse in their society. NPAs are yet to be backed with appropriate budget allocation on work against child sexual abuse. However in the region today, there are a number of development agencies who are increasingly adopting a rights-based approach to ending child sexual abuse. This response tackles the root cause of child sexual abuse such as the non-participation of children, patriarchal structures, tolerance of violence in society and gender inequality. However these NGOs are faced with various constraints such as lack of funds, recognition and taboo. There is also a paucity of community-based psychosocial support structures. On a brighter note, many children groups have strengthened peer support which has led to child protection committees in several communities and schools in South Asia. Unfortunately these development agencies and individual activists working against child sexual abuse have seldom got any opportunities to learn from each other’s experiences. The “Regional Meeting of Development Agencies Working against Child Sexual Abuse” organised by Save the Children Norway Nepal and Save the Children Sweden, Regional Programme for South & Central Asia, aims to fill this gap, while providing a platform to meet and share working strategies, methods, tools, good practices and challenges. This meeting provided direction to a good practice document on work against child sexual abuse in the region.