India ranks 15th in policies, practices against child sexual violence: Report

Each year, as many as 400 million children around the world are exposed to child sexual exploitation and abuse

The United Kingdom, France and Sweden are the most prepared through their policies and practices to address child sexual violence, a new report shows.

In the Out of the Shadows Index, in which policy think tank Economist Impact ranks 60 countries in their preparedness to combat child sexual violence, India is in the 15th position, behind South Africa, Mexico and Albania. India was among the top five countries in terms of protective legislation. These 60 countries are home to approximately 85 per cent of the global population of children.

The report comes in light of the countrywide raids that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) carried out at 56 locations across 19 states and a Union Territory on Saturday to combat the online circulation of child sexual abuse material (CSAM).

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To prepare the report, Economist Impact looked at two governance dimensions — prevention and response. “The prevention dimension comprises protective legislation, policy and programmes, and national capacity and commitment pillars. The response dimension comprises support services and recovery, and justice process,” the report states.

Each year, the report reveals, as many as 400 million children around the world are exposed to child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA). The index data also shows that many governments are failing to create the policies needed to prevent and respond to CSEA and that less than half of the 60 countries have a strategy to end CSEA.

“Additionally, since 2019, there has been a 36 per cent decrease in the number of countries that have a national strategy or action plan that specifically addressed child sexual exploitation and/or abuse,” reads the index.

The report shows that globally, countries continue to lag behind when it comes to formulating legislation to combat online CSEA. While 67 per cent of the countries have legislation that prohibits showing or sending sexually explicit material to a child online, only 45 per cent have legislation targeted at online grooming. “The number is even lower when considering legislation that prohibits online grooming regardless of intent to meet the child: Just one-quarter of countries have laws against such crimes,” says the report.

The report also shows that income is not a key driver of a country’s ability to effectively prevent and respond to CSEA; middle-income countries have performed well across most categories. Three of the top ten countries, including South Africa, Indonesia and Turkey, are middle-income economies, and 55 per cent of the top 20 countries are non-high income.

As much as 98 per cent of the 60 countries have ratified the Convention on Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women, and 80 per cent have developed national gender strategies.

Another key finding is that while 93 per cent of countries criminalise penetration between adults and female minors, only 82 per cent prohibit similar acts between adults and male minors.