Nobody Ever Listened to Me - Chapter 4 - Abuse and Corruption

CHAPTER 4 - ABUSE, EXPLOITATION AND CORRUPTION

UN Convention on the Rights of the Child:
Article 34: “State Parties undertake to protect the child from all forms of sexual exploitation and sexual abuse.”
Article 35: “State Parties shall take all appropriate national, bilateral and multilateral measures to prevent the abduction of, sale of or traffic in children for any purpose or in any form.”
Article 36: “State Parties shall protect the child against all other forms of exploitation prejudicial to any aspects of the child’s welfare.”

Many children who finish up living a large part of their childhood on the street suffer abuse,
both as a push factor causing the child to run from home in the first place, or during the weeks and years they spend on the street. This abuse can take a number of forms - the most common form expressed by the children will be that of physical abuse - beatings at home, corporal punishment at school, bullying by peers. A substantial number of children report being the victims of sexual abuse, usually from people known to them rather than from strangers. Even more children will have suffered from emotional abuse and neglect, but this is difficult to substantiate as few children report this and statistics are rarely available.

The public, through the media, have become more aware in the last decade of the scale of sexual and physical abuse of children in general - the World Health Organisation was quoted in the United Nations General Secretary’s Report on Children and Violence (2006) as claiming that 150 million girls and 73 million boys under the age of 18 had experienced forced sexual intercourse or sexual violence involving physical contact during the year 2002. Even in high/middle income countries, this same report stated that 7% of girls and 3% of boys had been victims of sexual abuse during their childhood. The UN report identifies street children as one of the groups of children that are particularly vulnerable to physical and sexual abuse.

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On a freezing winter’s night in a famous tourist town in England, Charlene, aged thirteen, is spending the night under a railway arch with a group of homeless adults. Charlene’s father started to sexually abuse Charlene when she was nine and, by the time she was eleven, repeatedly raped her. Her father drank too much and bullied her mother who was depressed and spent a lot of time in bed. When Charlene was twelve, she could no longer cope with what her father was doing to her and ran away, preferring to be on the streets than in a home where she lived in dread of a father who would not report her missing because of what he had been doing and a mother who won’t protect her because she fears her husband. Charlene’s family now is a group of homeless adults, some of whom remind her that the streets are dangerous for a young girl. At the mention of social services, Charlene threatens to run from her street family; from her perspective, social services failed to protect her when she was living at home and being abused. While Charlene, now thirteen, describes how some of her street family look out for her, protect her and share what little they have with her, others encourage her to take heroin and one homeless adult has become her boyfriend.
Charlene, England - Railway Children
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The Indian government published a 200+ page report entitled ‘A study on Child Abuse - India 2007’ researched by Save the Child , UNICEF and a Delhi based NGO, Prayas, which documented the results of 12,447 interviews with children, of whom 18.6% were street children (55% boys, 45% girls). A further 8% of children interviewed were children in institutions - government remand homes, children’s homes and privately run shelter homes. Another 20% were classified as working children, many of whose work would be street based. This report seems to be the most comprehensive one undertaken on the issue of child abuse by any national government and use is made in this chapter of its findings on street children as an indicator of the likely scale of abuse suffered by street children worldwide.

The World Health Organisation defines physical abuse as “an incident resulting in actual or potential physical harm from an interaction or lack of interaction, which is reasonably within the control of a parent or person in a position of responsibility, power or trust.” In the Indian study, the forms of physical abuse are described as “kicking, slapping, corporal punishment, beating by the family, peers, police, employer or care-giver.” In many cultures, children are seen as the ‘possessions’ of their parents who have total power over them, and in such cultures there seems to have been little resistance by children as the violence has become normalised in their experience. The most common reaction when children can take no more has been to run away. Domestic violence, corporal punishment in schools, bullying by peers is thus one of the major ‘push factors’ resulting in street children with little family contact. In the Indian study over three quarters (77%) of all children interviewed reported having received physical abuse at some stage in their lives and for many it was ongoing. In 15% of cases the abuse had led to injury.

The experience of violence to children on the street was described in more detail in Chapter 3. Suffice to say that 69% of Indian street children interviewed reported being on the receiving end of violence on the street, with children aged 5-12 reporting most. This figure rose to over 90% in certain parts of India, Delhi itself being the worst followed by the populous and poor states of Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.

Street children report sexual abuse as a common feature in their lives. Young street boys and girls often experience sexual advances from older street children and it becomes a normal activity among gangs of children left without adult supervision or care. It becomes one of the few ways in which the children experience affection and the resultant trauma can be reduced as the child may not see the experience as abuse. The children in such situations may have little choice, however, and for some girls seeking a ‘protector’ from the male street gang may be the only way she can survive.

For many children the sexual abuse is more violent involving rape, perpetrated by older street youths, young criminal adults, the police or members of the public, often when inebriated, who see the street children as a sub-human species. The Indian study classified their interview results in two ways on this subject. ‘Severe’ abuse included rape, sodomy, physical fondling, forced nudity and being photographed in a sexual act for pornographic purposes. ‘Other’ forms of sexual abuse were forced kissing, sexual verbal advances or teasing, sexual exhibitionism and exposing a child to pornography. Over 21% of the children in the Indian study had experienced ‘severe’ sexual abuse - 40% of these before the age of 12, and a further 25% at the ages of 13 and 14. The study does not break down the percentage of street children within these figures but states that the children reporting the highest amounts of severe sexual abuse were street children, working children (especially girl domestic servants) and children in institutions.

A further risk to street children and children in slum areas spending time on the street rather than school is that of being trafficked. Parents of girls in particular are offered supposed opportunities to earn good money or are even given down payments, for the child to find herself either in unpaid domestic service or the sex trade. All too often the traffickers have bribed their way to ensure their protection and it is often hard to distinguish between children being trafficked and families travelling with children. A couple of Indian NGOs have expressed the same worrying statement that it is difficult to find girls above the age of ten living on the street or railway station environs although plenty under that age can be seen. The implications they draw are ominous. Children rescued from trafficking face a further challenge when being taken home. Their families or communities often reject such children as being stigmatised with the shame of having been sexually used and therefore unmarriageable.

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Abuse is a serious issue for many street and high risk children – whether it is physical, mental or sexual. At the age of eight, Madeline, became a domestic servant. She tells her story below.

“My Mum met a family in Lima. They wanted me to work for them. They promised to send me to school… I didn’t want to go, but Mum said I would have a better life. The first few months everything was fine. But then the man changed. He used to look at me strangely, making gestures I didn’t like. I was afraid… I told the man’s wife but she said I was a liar… I felt bad and guilty…”

It wasn’t long before the abuse began. Fortunately Madeline’s school teachers noticed something was wrong. Madeline wasn’t paying attention in class and seemed depressed. Eventually Madeline opened up to a teacher who helped her escape and report the abuse.

Madeline is now 16 years old and living safely in a home supported by a British NGO. At the home, Madeline and 15 other abused girls receive care, education and psychological support. They can stay in safety for as long as they need. Madeline’s house parents are doing everything possible to find her family. In the meantime, Madeline is carrying on with her life and has new hope for the future:

“I have found people who love me very much and are helping me to overcome my pain. One day I would like to be a teacher to help other children.”

There are over 1,200 registered cases of sexual abuse in Peru each year. Many hundreds more go unreported.
Madeline, Lima - Toybox
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“I was born on Christmas Eve. When I was five, my mother gave me to a lady because she didn’t want me anymore. The lady made me beg on the streets for money. When I was nine, I was forced to have sex with many men. If I refused I would be burned with lighted cigarettes. I have many scars now because of this.

Then I was given away to another family, who would beat me all the time. The man in the family raped me and I got pregnant. When the baby was born, they took it off me and I ran away to live on the streets. Because of these experiences I grew up with a hatred in my heart against all men who tried to become ‘my friend’. I am ashamed to say that I became a lesbian, because women aren’t as bad as men and my girlfriend made me feel safe and secure. That was two years ago, before I met a group of Christians who told me about God and gave me somewhere to live. I knew I needed to change. I didn’t want to keep living like that. I was tired and - most of all – I was hurting God. I want to change and live for Jesus. Now I have a home and a future”.

Marleny enjoyed another three years in the home before she left and began living with an older lady and got a job selling food on a street corner. Sadly, she did not finish her studies and went back to her old ways for a while. When last heard of, she was doing much better but still very mixed up and seeking affirmation.
Marleny, Guatemala – Street Kids Direct
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According to press reports, 500 displaced Nepalese children were living at Indian children’s homes in conditions that only met the most basic needs. The Esther Benjamin Trust which works in Nepal researched why these children were there and concluded that many had been trafficked and ‘rescued’ into these so-called child-care centres. A visit made to a Delhi home uncovered six Nepali children and the NGO managed to trace their families in Nepal. News of the children’s whereabouts was greeted with both elation and suspicion. The uncle of one of the boys told of rumours that the children had been kidnapped and burnt alive. Three boys were collected from one home, but difficulties arose where the other boys were rumoured to be. The home was protected with patrol guards and high walls and barbed wire. Entry was denied to the boys’ parents until a local Indian NGO interceded for them. After battling with seemingly insurmountable obstacles related to apparent inconsistencies in the identity paperwork, the case went to Court and with the help of Childline India and invoking the provisions of the Indian Juvenile Justice Act, five of the children were released back to their families. The sixth, said to have run away, was listed as still ‘missing’.
Esther Benjamin Trust, Nepal
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The girl had been raped several times on the station and had been through a programme of counselling with professionals from the project. However, she found it difficult to get into or keep a normal relationship. She met a guy who promised to marry her, but when it came to it, he ended up abusing her. After 14 hours of torture she was rescued. Her lips had had cigarettes put out on them, similarly her arms and legs. He’d used a hammer on her back and legs and broke a bottle and scarred her face and other parts of her body. She was raped again and again during this torture. The project team got him arrested but when it came to court the girl couldn’t face the ordeal. The man was released on bail of 200 rupees (£3) and walked away scot-free. She had a baby as a result of that abuse and is now bringing him up as a single mum. She’s had work training but has, understandably, huge problems. However, she adores her little son and is doing great as a mum with much support.
Girl, Darjeeling - Edith Wilkins Street Children Foundation
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Many street children are corrupted by their experiences on the street. Because there are so few legitimate ways of surviving without education or adult skills, street children are quickly forced to employ means of existence that are rejected or condemned by society. Desperation and hunger may force children to beg and steal. They become enticed into gangs carrying out illegal activities, and their moral senses become dulled through the sheer necessities of their daily life. Once they have been introduced to intoxicants, either alcohol or inhalants or both, their corruption is intensified and the structure of their lives unravels.

In parts of Latin America, young children in the favelas are attracted to the gangs, as they are one of the few parts of society that offer such children ‘respect’ and status, and then become victims in the warfare between police and criminal gangs even though they may only be existing on the periphery. The longer a child stays on the street, the more will the corruption of that child be embedded and the harder it will be for the child to be rehabilitated in a structured and positive way.

The abuse of children continues unfortunately in the very institutions that are meant to be protecting such children. Street children or children at risk of taking to the street are often found ‘in need of care and protection’ and taken into a children’s residential home of some sort ‘in their best interests’. In India, children picked up by the police and produced before city or state Child Welfare Committees are usually placed in what is called an ‘Observation Home’ where a mixture of children accused of petty crimes and innocent homeless children are put together.

In Russia, children of alcoholics, drug addicts and parents in prison are classified as ‘social orphans’ their parents being deprived of their parental rights, and the children placed in one of the state orphanages. In many of these conditions are so poor that the children run to the streets as a preferable option. A study at the railway stations of Moscow found that nearly 50% of runaways interviewed had run from state orphanages. In the UK in the last couple of decades there have been a number of scandals alleging child abuse in children’s homes and many of the 100,000 annual reported runaways are children absconding from such institutions. It is only in the last few years that steps have been taken in many countries to institute child protection safeguards, vetting the staff employed in activities involving children and requiring strict child safeguarding practices.

The consequences of ignoring the abuse of so many children is that society and the children become hardened to such abuse and see it as a norm for their own behaviours. Young street children, abused by older children, become abusers in turn when they are in positions of power in the hierarchy unless they have been sensitised to the needs of others by someone who shows care for them. Many adults accused of criminal violence or sexual acts against children claim to have been abused as children themselves. A research study on ‘detached’ children in the UK identifies that most of the hundred children researched in depth had parents who themselves had led abused lives.

It is shocking that we accept or ignore so much abuse of children around the world, but it is remarkable that despite such experiences, so many children have a resilience that enables them to survive. In some cases it is because of the sheer commonality of the experience - so many children in the community experience the abuse that they accept it as normal and do not see it as abuse at all. This can be the case in countries where school corporal punishment is still the norm and where children might only react when a beating is particularly excessive. Street children living within a gang of other street children quickly find sexual interplay between the children to be the norm and appear to be unfazed by the experience.

I once was introduced to a group of girls aged between four and thirteen who had been sleeping without adult supervision on Howrah station in Kolkata - one was a twelve year old who had drifted into prostitution after older girls had advised her to seek payment for the times she was being raped. I remember her asking the woman director of the project that had rescued the girls “Auntie, how many times have you been raped?” as if it was a normal opening gambit of conversation. She had really no idea that her experience was exceptional and it took the organisation a long time to persuade the girl that anything other than a sexual relationship could show any affection.
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Thirty young girls were found living on the railway platform of Howrah, Calcutta, in 1998. The youngest was four, the oldest thirteen. All had been raped or sexually abused, several were HIV+. One of the girls aged twelve was already a prostitute – when she told the older girls she’d been raped, they suggested she insisted on payment. One of the younger girls, ‘Babli’, a seven year old, survived by carrying water for eight hours every day of the year for the local slum community – the nearest source of clean water was a kilometre away. For this she received the princely sum of a rupee a day (just over a penny) and had to survive on that. A local school loaned their classroom to a Calcutta NGO, SEED, who hired two social workers to act as ‘aunties’ to the girls. Every evening at six the girls would be met with a wash, clean clothes, a hot meal. Afterwards they received health advice, basic lessons in reading and writing, and entertainment – they loved dancing. They were able to sleep unmolested, some for the first time in their lives, but at 8 o’clock they went back to the street as the school needed its classroom back. Subsequently SEED acquired proper accommodation and its UK partner, Railway Children, received an e-mail from Babli a couple of years ago ‘thanking them for giving her childhood back.’
Babli, Calcutta - Railway Children
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Most street children are remarkably resilient. They bury their traumas in cheekiness, aggression, fighting and teasing their peers, or, especially in the case of girls, become passive and stoical, withdrawn. To restore such children’s self-worth and rehabilitate them so they can take their place in society, hold down a job, and raise a family successfully, requires the dedication of professional counsellors and carers. But society must face this or in every decade the number of damaged children will increase as the failures of one generation are replicated in the next.