Every child is entitled to full protection, especially from any form of sexual exploitation or abuse. Child workers in India are caught in the stranglehold of the forces of a patriarchal, casteist society. Neither government policy nor the law has been able to wrest the working children of India: the children of the harijans (out-caste), the tribal, the rural dispossessed and the girl child from the destructive grasp of these forces.

For millions of children around the world, childhood means long hours of hard, dangerous and degrading work. One million children, mostly girls, are physically, sexually and psychologically exploited in the global sex trade. Most hidden of all forms of child labor exploitation is domestic service, where girls work long hours in the homes of relatives or strangers. Many are abused and socially isolated. Violence scars the little minds and therefore the lives of millions of girls around.

Even worse off is the plight of the girl child in such circumstances. A girl child is traditionally viewed as being nothing more than a liability to her family. In many a cases, a girl being born is killed by her family, either being immersed into boiled milk, or being choked, or even stealthily kept in the garbage bins, in the depth of dark nights.

A poor family therefore considers educating a daughter as being nothing more than a luxury that they can ill-afford. Hence she is put to domestic work from the early age of six. She is devoid of the luxuries her brother enjoys .So she is exploited both by her family and her employer as well.

Sexual abuse is defined as any sexual activity that a child cannot comprehend or give consent to, or that violates the law. Perpetrators may be relatives or non-relatives and are most frequently male.

Recently all leading newspapers published the incident of the death of an eight year old girl Deepika. Deepika was sexually abused and burnt to death. This is just one of acts of attrocities against girl child which has reached the media, and thus the common man. In our society, the victims kith and kin try to suppress such news, for the fear of tarnishing their reputation? What about the scars on the innocent minds?

The majority of sexually abused children do not have diagnostic physical findings; therefore, the child's disclosure is the only piece of information in determining the likelihood of sexual abuse. In addition, the kid herself may not even know what happened to her, and hence many cases go unnoticed.

Our society is very reluctant to listen, to elicit, and to take-in the abuse, particularly sexual, of young children. The child gets the message of "I don't want to hear it" and, as children do, comply obediently. Early sexual abuse causes a dissonance which we, as a society, even as professionals, seem incapable of dealing with.

Our society has these pimps (sorry for the language), who identify families with unwanted girls. They gain the families confidence, and assure handsome salaries for the unwanted daughters. Ultimately the young girl lands up in a brothel where she is exposed to sex as a minor and is brought up to be a sex worker.

We even have a scheme to export the girls (but, these are unaccounted exports) in the garb of a domestic maid. At times there are objections from authorities for a lone girl traveling abroad. One of the persons takes her along as a spouse. She is then sexually abused, and probably forming revenue for the pimp in this case. The worst thing is that her family has actually sold her for some bills, to ensure a better future for the sons.

If this is the situation in a country which provides education and some level of social services, I don't need to wonder long what it is like for girls in countries which blatantly devalue girls and have no resources (or fail to allocate resources) for education or social supports. We did have a good move by the Governments in early eighties. If I am not mistaken, Shri Rajiv Gandhi, our ex-Prime Minister had introduced free education for the girls throughout the country. Unfortunately, this was implemented only in the states with Congress-Governments were in power. Karnataka did miss the band-wagon, but now seem to be keen on implementing the same.

Let us vow on this day, to raise our voice against this kind of abuse. The girls of today will be the flag-bearers of tomorrow. They will create and nurture our future generations and citizens (vote banks too, Mr. Politicians). A sound and stable mental health in women will go a long way in ensuring stable, secure and pleasant future.

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