Better medical care required

TRAUMA RECOVERY

Despite best efforts, lapses remain in the administration of efficient care to child victims of sexual assault. Often, these problems emanate as the stakeholders such as parents, caregivers and medical specialists are unaware of the provisions of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act that need to be followed.

For instance, it is directed that these cases are needed to be handled with sensitivity and that the traumatised children should be provided with a separate and comfortable space for examination. But on the ground, in the absence of specified centres for these cases, a busy public hospital which teems with other emergencies becomes the first stop.

In such cases, the specialists (gynaecologist, forensic medicine specialist, paediatric surgeon, paediatrician, medico-social worker etc) might not be available when the child is brought to the hospital. In the absence of a specialised centre, the regular clinician is not fully equipped to handle all the formalities.

Collecting all the medical-related evidence and maintaining the same for legal purposes is also challenging.

Counselling

In several cases, it was also observed that parents or caregivers are often apprehensive of fighting a case as they are worried about the social stigma attached to it. The parents are generally in denial and refuse to acknowledge that such a thing could have happened to their child.

Parents are often deterred to report the issue due to fear of possible backlash from the rest of the family or due to fear that naming an influential perpetrator could put other members of the family at risk.

It thus becomes imperative to counsel parents as well. There should be a provision for adequate social support for parents so that they can be encouraged to report the accused and follow up with the judicial process to ensure that they continue to fight for justice.

There are many such steps that can be taken to improve the current state of affairs. The presence of designated centres with all the essential specialities under one roof with a specialised team that clearly knows the protocols to be followed can be of much help.

These centres need to dispense adequate rehabilitation for the affected child including physical and emotional recovery.

(The authors are with the Department of Paediatric Surgery, Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health, Bengaluru)*