You need to feel you are in a safe space when you are talking to this person. Goes without saying that you expect complete confidentiality; in return, you are completely honest. Talk, talk, talk, to the person. Make your sessions about self-observation; also because you should not expect to be given the solutions. Make your later sessions outcome-oriented, so that the person can help you understand what exactly is going on in your mind. In this manner, the person will help you frame your options clearly, give you the insights into your decision-making process, and then the decisions on how you need to reach—and get through—the Exit Cycle (see Notebook Three) will be even more self-empowering because it will be yours; and yours alone.

And you will be ready to move on to a fuller life.

Afterword

One man picks up a finger, a part of his body, a bottle and violates a child.

One man. One child.

Then more men. Many more children.

Thus, now, a situation which has turned so serious in the country that multi-disciplinary and multi-agency approaches need to be urgently undertaken to prevent Child Sexual Abuse in India as also protect the child.

If you agree that the laws need to be urgently put in place to protect the child, please write to the Union Law Minister at 401, C Wing, Shastri Bhawan, New Delhi 110001. Fax: 3384241.

If you agree that Child Protection Courts (CPCs) need to be set up, please write to the Union Law Minister at the address and fax number given above.

If you agree that Child Protection Units (CPUs) need to be an important part of policing, please write to the Union Home Minister at 104, North Block, New Delhi 110 001. Fax: 3014221.

If you think the two key political parties—the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party—need to be equally concerned about the issues around Child Sexual Abuse please write to them at Congress, 10 Janpath, New Delhi 110 001. Bharatiya Janata Party, 11 Ashoka Road, New Delhi 110 001.

Please send a copy of all your letters to the Prime Minister of India, 152, South Block, New Delhi 110 011. Fax: 3016857

And please play your role, the most important one, to protect the child. Remember it begins in, and around, a child’s house. Only parents can stop it. After them, the principals and teachers of the child.

There is no final way of arriving at a statistic which would indicate whether Child Sexual Abuse is increasing or not. What is clear, however, is that it is not a static crime. Therefore working with the percentages mentioned in this book—25 per cent of boys and 40 per cent of girls under sixteen years of age—and applying them to population projections provided by government, here are some figures. The central statistical office categorizes children from 15 to 19 in a separate sub-group. Therefore the calculations here are totaled for children up to 14 years of age. This perforce omits children who are 15 and 16 years of age. This also means that the figures you read below are actually an under-representation of the numbers of children who would have been sexually abused in India by the year 2002.