The Silent Victims of ‘Sexploitation’
The brutal gang rape of an 11-year-old girl in Chennai recently by 17 men in her community, has once again shone the global spotlight on sexual violence in India.
Within the gated community in Chennai, where the girl lived with her parents, the men gave her soft drinks laced with drugs, reported The New York Times. Her assailants were not intruders, but familiar faces who operated the elevator or brought water coolers to apartments.
The conversation surrounding sexual violence against women and girls in India is a difficult one, but the issue becomes far more insidious when it involves victims with intellectual or developmental disabilities.
Based on reports by the Human Rights Watch, those with physical disabilities may find it more difficult to escape from violent situations due to limited mobility. Those with hearing disabilities may not be able to shout for help or easily communicate abuse. And those with intellectual disabilities, may not know that non-consensual sexual acts are a crime and should be reported because of the lack of accessible information.
In 2013, Kanchana, a 19-year-old woman with an intellectual disability from a village in West Bengal, was raped on multiple occasions by a man within her community, reported the Human Rights Watch. The heinous crime was left unreported until she was found to be five months pregnant. Even after the crime was discovered, it was a challenge for her to explain what had happened.
The problem is a common one. Shedding light on their ordeal is particularly difficult for women with disabilities largely due to the challenges in reporting the crime, and the stigma associated with their sexuality and disability.
Deputy Director at the Centre for Child Rights and Development in Tamil Nadu, Ms L T Stegana Jency, reveals that a sense of shame is the main reason sexual crimes go unreported in India.
She explains: “Families fear their child being disliked and rejected by society, and in some cases, she may even be threatened and killed. There is also the anxiety that the girl may not be able to get married in future, and the rejection may lead to suicides in extreme cases.”
To mitigate the problem, Special Olympics Bharat recently conducted a Family Health Forum in Pondicherry to help parents understand the importance of sex education among children with intellectual disabilities.
Conducted by Ms Stegana, parents were given information at the forum about the types of abuse, the difference between ‘safe’ and ‘unsafe’ forms of touch, whom to communicate with, and how to do so in the case of abuse.
Ms Stegana says: “Parents often feel that information on sex may heighten their child’s interest in experimentation, but the opposite is true. When parents, schools, and society at large do not provide age-appropriate information on the subject, that is when children get curious and want to experiment.”
While steps have been taken towards raising awareness about the ‘sexploitation’ of women with intellectual disabilities in India, Special Olympics Asia Pacific believes that much more needs to be done across the region so that this problem no longer remains a hidden one, talked about only in hushed tones behind closed doors.
It is only when the issue is no longer perceived as a stigma that families and victims of sexual violence and exploitation will have a voice, and a fighting chance at getting justice.
“There is an urgent need to educate our children in order for them to protect themselves from teenage pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, and sexual exploitation,” says Ms Stegana. “It is important for us to talk about sex openly to create greater awareness. We must invest our time and resources to protect our children. Only then can we see a better India in future.”
To address the issue on a global scale, Special Olympics recently signed a historic partnership agreement with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to promote greater inclusion for young women with intellectual disabilities through sport.
The UN Organization focuses on the rights and reproductive health of women and girls, which in many areas of the world is neglected or abused.
“The UN Convention is important for the work of UNFPA, which also calls on countries to eliminate discrimination against persons with disabilities in areas of marriage, the family, parenthood, relationships,” explains Alanna Armitage, Regional Director of UNFPA for Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
“But we have a fair way to go in this region, in terms of our willingness to talk about these issues when it comes to people with disabilities. That is why the Special Olympics movement, and its work in having sport as a platform, gives us the chance to have that conversation.”
