SERVICE THEME : BEHAVIOURAL CHANGE for child's development

Location : Urban residence, Gandhinagar

Consumer : Parents


Who we are?

Listen beyond silence is a social initiative to make parents aware and sensitive towards the changes in the stages of their child development. We at Listen beyond silence creates moment of realisation and love for parents and kids bridging the communication gap and creating environment for nurturing family well being. Format of the service includes curated activities aim at empowering parents with tools for understanding the socio-emotional development of their child.


Why listening is important ?

According to WHO studies, between 14% and 56% of the sexual abuse of girls, and up to 25% of the sexual abuse of boys, was perpetrated by relatives or step parents. In many places, adults were outspoken about the risk of sexual violence their children faced at school or at play in the community, but rarely did adults speak of children's risk of sexual abuse within the home and family context. The shame, secrecy and denial associated with familial sexual violence against children foster a pervasive culture of silence, where children cannot speak about sexual violence in the home, and where adults do not know what to do or say if they suspect someone they know is sexually abusing a child. Such trends are disturbing and require immediate intervention at family, community and state levels.

Mental and emotional disorders in kids victimised by abuse :

  • anxiety (e.g., panic disorder, OCD and PTSD)

  • Depression,

  • Anger,

  • Cognitive distortions,

  • Post traumatic stress,

  • Dissociation,

  • Identity disturbance,

  • Affect dis-regulation,

  • Interpersonal problems,

  • Substance abuse,

  • Self-mutilation,

  • Bulimia,

  • Unsafe or dysfunctional sexual behaviour,

  • Somatisation,

  • Aggression,

  • Suicidality, and

  • Personality disorders



What are Existing Gaps and problem ?

  • A strong knit patriarchal family that is meant to look after its children well has seldom had the realisation that children are individuals with their own rights.

  • subject of child sexual abuse is still a taboo in India

  • Parents do not speak to children about sexuality as well as physical and emotional changes that take place during their growing years. As a result of this, all forms of sexual abuse that a child faces do not get reported to anyone.

  • silence encourages the abuser so that he is emboldened to continue the abuse and to press his advantage to subject the child to more severe forms of sexual abuse.

  • Very often children do not even realise that they are being abused

  • Some deep seated fear has always moved Indian families to keep their girls and their 'virginity' safe and many kinds of social and cultural practices have been built around ensuring this. This shows that there is knowledge of the fact that a girl child is unsafe though nobody talks about it. However this fear is only around girls and the safety net is generally not extended to boys.

  • not enough schemes or sufficient budgetary allocations to deal with a problem so intricately knit in our society

  • child abuse being an issue shrouded in secrecy and there is a conspiracy of silence around the entire subject

  • certain kinds of traditional practices that are accepted across the country, knowingly or unknowingly amount to child abuse

  • It is extremely difficult to get responses from children on such a sensitive subject because of their inability to fully understand the different dimensions of child abuse and to talk about their experiences.

  • The main factors that contribute to the magnitude of the problem of child abuse are poverty, illiteracy, caste system and landlessness, lack of economic opportunities, rural-urban migration, population growth, political instability and weak implementation of legal provisions.

  • The underlying belief is that physical punishment encourages discipline in children and is for their betterment in the long-run.

  • No provision of police training to deal sensitive cases of children

  • No counselling available for children to recover the post crime trauma.

  • It encompasses the biological age of the child and silent on the mental age considerations so many victims of cerebral palsy are not taken care of.

  • Police is highly mistrusted which makes such legislation ineffective ,police harassment continues diluting effective functioning of special efforts by govt

  • act focuses more towards punishment and lies absent at reformation efforts toward convicts

  • lack of medical professionals in remote areas

  • many loopholes in the act like issue of consenting activities ,unwillingness of victim to provide testimony etc

  • fashion of police intermediation in order to avoid FIRs leads to non-reporting of cases