All children deserve parents, but not all adults deserve children. The rising issue of child abuse has made this world an unsafe place for children, where they are abused by their parents in their own homes. People are often in denial of the brutalities that some parents can bring to a child, and so there is a lack of awareness and acknowledgement of this issue. Proper awareness, law enforcement, and psychological support can help reduce it.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), child abuse or child maltreatment is the abuse and neglect that happens to children under the age of 18. “It includes all types of physical and/or emotional ill-treatment, sexual abuse, neglect, negligence and commercial or other exploitation, which results in actual or potential harm to the child’s health, survival, development or dignity in the context of a relationship of responsibility, trust or power.”, they say.
“An alarming 9 out of 10 children aged 1-14 years face violent discipline each month by caregivers, affecting over 45 million children in Bangladesh”, informs UNICEF(2024) Children are abused by their biological parents, whose responsibility is to protect them. The National Library of Medicine reports that 69% of perpetrating parents are biological mothers, 23% biological fathers, and 8% step fathers among others.
Children who were victims of abuse face a lot of mental health problems in their lives, including problems in learning, peer rejection, internalising symptoms like depression and anxiety, externalising symptoms like aggression or defiant disorder, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) among many others. As adults, these people might continue to have these severe mental problems, along with issues like depression and substance abuse. Child abuse is also one of the leading causes of suicide.
Hence, severe action must be taken against child abuse. People must be made aware of these issues and about law and enforcement against child maltreatment. When someone witnesses child abuse, they must take it seriously and report it to the police or any other child abuse helplines. Proper law and enforcement must be done against child abuse and immediate action must be taken against reported child abuse cases. Together, a step should be taken against this life-threatening issue. Let us all make this world a safe haven for our children.
