Child abuse: A curse on society
Saurabh Ram Bihari Lal Shrivastava, Prateek Saurabh Shrivastava, Jegadeesh Ramasamy
Abstract
Child abuse is a significant public health concern, affected by the child’s age and gender, circumstances, and the kind of relationship between the victim and enforcer. Most of the estimates just reflect a superficial picture as majority of these cases is not reported. A wide range of potential risk factors has been identified that eventually precipitates the practice of child abuse across different settings. Abuse of children not only results in physical trauma, impact on the psychological development, risk-taking behavior among the victims, but even augmentation of the monetary expenses and overwhelming of the health infrastructure. In conclusion, to counter the global menace of child abuse, the need of the hour is to develop a multi-pronged strategy, well-supported with community-based initiatives to ensure early detection of abuse victims.