case study on protection of child rights in india

• Research article
• Open access
• Published: 17 September 2013

A qualitative case study of child protection issues in the Indian construction industry: investigating the security, health, and interrelated rights of migrant families

• Theresa S Betancourt 1 , 2 ,
• Ashkon Shaahinfar 2 ,
• Sarah E Kellner 2 ,
• Nayana Dhavan 2 &
• Timothy P Williams 2 , 3  

BMC Public Health volume  13 , Article number:  858 ( 2013 ) Cite this article

17k Accesses

11 Citations

26 Altmetric

Metrics details

Many of India’s estimated 40 million migrant workers in the construction industry migrate with their children. Though India is undergoing rapid economic growth, numerous child protection issues remain. Migrant workers and their children face serious threats to their health, safety, and well-being. We examined risk and protective factors influencing the basic rights and protections of children and families living and working at a construction site outside Delhi.

Using case study methods and a rights-based model of child protection, the SAFE model, we triangulated data from in-depth interviews with stakeholders on and near the site (including employees, middlemen, and managers); 14 participants, interviews with child protection and corporate policy experts in greater Delhi (8 participants), and focus group discussions (FGD) with workers (4 FGDs, 25 members) and their children (2 FGDs, 9 members).

Analyses illuminated complex and interrelated stressors characterizing the health and well-being of migrant workers and their children in urban settings. These included limited access to healthcare, few educational opportunities, piecemeal wages, and unsafe or unsanitary living and working conditions. Analyses also identified both protective and potentially dangerous survival strategies, such as child labor, undertaken by migrant families in the face of these challenges.

Conclusions

By exploring the risks faced by migrant workers and their children in the urban construction industry in India, we illustrate the alarming implications for their health, safety, livelihoods, and development. Our findings, illuminated through the SAFE model, call attention to the need for enhanced systems of corporate and government accountability as well as the implementation of holistic child-focused and child-friendly policies and programs in order to ensure the rights and protection of this hyper-mobile, and often invisible, population.

Peer Review reports

In India, there are an estimated 40 million migrant laborers in the construction industry [ 1 ], who together make an immense contribution to the country’s rapidly developing economy [ 2 ]. Many of these laborers are parents who migrate with their young children to work and live in very challenging conditions [ 3 – 5 ]. Despite a broad epidemiological “migration and health” literature [ 6 ] and the documented impact of labor migration on child health [ 7 , 8 ], including explorations of child maltreatment in migrant families [ 9 – 12 ], little research has examined the health, safety, development, and well-being of migrant workers’ children. Using the methodology of a social science case study [ 13 ] conducted at a large construction site in the National Capital Region near Delhi, India, we examine dynamics influencing the security and well-being of migrant children and families who live near and work in infrastructure development projects.

Public health implications of migration for children and families

Migrants worldwide comprise a heterogeneous population that includes more than 214 million international and 740 million internal migrants [ 14 ]. The reasons for migration are diverse: for some, it is necessitated by civil conflict, natural disaster, development, or trafficking; while for others, it is out of desperation to escape profound poverty. The field of public health has traditionally focused on how mobile populations contribute to communicable disease epidemiology e.g. [ 15 ]. There is, however, a growing literature on migration and health, which addresses a variety of topics including: mental health [ 16 ], reproductive health [ 17 ], maternal and child health [ 18 , 19 ], tobacco and substance use [ 20 , 21 ], occupational health [ 22 ], and child abuse and neglect e.g. [ 9 ]. Studies have generally indicated that the drivers of migration, such as socioeconomic status [ 7 , 8 , 23 – 25 ], closely determine migrant health, rather than the process of migration itself. Increasingly, research has highlighted structural and institutional factors that affect migrant health, such as denial of medical care and its relationship to child survival [ 7 ].

Migration has implications for family well-being, including the safety, development, and education of children of migrant workers. Parental absence and struggle for survival have been tied to harmful socio-emotional impacts on children left behind [ 26 – 28 ]. With regards to the education of children of migrant families, researchers have found both positive impacts from remittances [ 29 , 30 ] and negative effects due to lack of parental support and supervision [ 26 , 31 ] as well as disincentivization by the prospect of migration [ 32 ]. Researchers seeking to understand the complex connections between family migration and child abuse have also highlighted poverty and socioeconomic stress [ 9 , 10 , 33 , 34 ], as well as social isolation and lack of social capital [ 11 , 12 , 33 – 35 ]. Frequent mobility has also been correlated with child maltreatment within families [ 36 , 37 ] as well as in neighborhoods and communities [ 38 – 40 ].

Labor migration and construction in India

The drivers and consequences of labor migration in India are as diverse as its regions and peoples [ 41 ]. While rural–urban and interstate migration make up relatively small portions of all migration in India (18% and 13% of 315 million migrants, respectively, per the 2001 census) [ 42 ], rapid development has increased these numbers. By recent trade union estimates, there are approximately 40 million interstate migrants in the construction industry alone [ 1 ]. This group of internal migrant workers, defined in the Interstate Migrant Workmen Act of India as “any person who is recruited by or through a contractor [including middlemen] in one State under an agreement or other arrangement for employment in an establishment in another State”, and their families, comprise the general focus of the present study [ 43 ].

Cyclical migration has long been an important livelihood strategy for the rural poor of India [ 44 , 45 ]. Seasonal climate fluctuations in regions such as the flood-prone Ganges basin and the rain-dependent semi-arid tropics make for agrarian lifestyles fraught with risk and food insecurity [ 4 , 46 , 47 ]. Landlessness and social-deprivation [ 3 , 48 , 49 ], indebtedness [ 4 , 50 ], and limited employment opportunities [ 44 , 49 , 50 ] all drive individuals and families to migrate.

The impact of migration on families and communities varies. While longitudinal field studies in India indicate improved wages and income among migrants over time [ 2 , 48 , 51 ], the most economically and socially-deprived have remained in debt [ 50 , 52 ]. Deshingkar and colleagues summarized their observations in Madhya Pradesh: “…for the poorest groups of migrants, especially unskilled and uneducated Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) who still migrate through agents, or who cannot enter remunerative … work because of discrimination, working conditions and earnings are far from ideal and positive changes in living standards are less certain and slower” [ 2 ]. Though some studies suggest migrants are more able to resist exploitation [ 2 , 51 ], recent reports document illegally low wages and strenuous work hours [ 4 , 53 , 54 ].

An emerging body of literature documents numerous threats to the health and well-being of migrant children in India, including poor living conditions [ 3 – 5 , 54 ], frequent injuries of workers [ 1 , 4 ], poor access to drinking water [ 4 , 5 , 53 ], and sexual violence towards women and children [ 53 , 55 ]. Furthermore, urban migrant laborers have great difficulty accessing government programs otherwise accessible in rural settings, including those for health care and insurance [ 4 , 54 , 55 ], childcare [ 4 , 54 , 56 ], education [ 53 , 56 ], and food rations [ 5 , 53 , 54 ]. However, the interrelated and interdependent relationship of these threats to child health and well-being is often overlooked.

Conceptual framework

A rights-based, holistic model of child security, the SAFE model, provided the conceptual basis for the present study. Situating child protection within the nested social ecologies of families, communities, and the larger political, cultural and historical context, the SAFE model examines interrelatedness among four core domains of children’s basic needs and rights: S afety/freedom from harm; A ccess to basic physiological needs and healthcare; F amily and connection to others; E ducation and economic security [ 57 ]. Of central importance to SAFE is the idea that insecurity in any of these fundamental domains threatens security in the others. The SAFE model posits that in the face of child security threats, children and families demonstrate considerable agency, adopting survival strategies to meet their basic security needs. These survival strategies may take risky forms (with cascading negative effects on other dimensions of child security and well-being) or adaptive forms [ 57 ]. For instance, to overcome family economic insecurity, some families may give their child over to bonded child labor while others may organize workers’ collectives to secure a loan to start a small business. The purpose of the SAFE model is to identify and build on adaptive strategies while also highlighting risky strategies in order to enact preventive interventions, provide alternatives, or end third party manipulation [ 58 ].

Fundamental concepts of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) [ 59 ], such as the evolving capacities of the child and the interdependence and interrelatedness of child rights and basic security needs, are implicit to the SAFE model. The SAFE domains also map onto rights delineated in the CRC, such as the rights to life, survival, and development (e.g., Art. 6); education (Art. 28); health (Art. 24); family connections (e.g. Arts. 9, 20); and protection from violence (Art. 19) as well as various other special protection articles (e.g. Arts. 32–40) [ 59 ].

Case study design and research questions

We applied a case study methodology [ 13 ] to identify factors affecting children’s security and well-being at a construction site in the National Capital Region of India using the SAFE model as a theoretical framework for our data collection. A case study approach has particular utility in addressing the “how” and “why” of contemporary phenomena within their real life contexts [ 13 ]. Furthermore, this approach allowed for an in depth examination of issues related to child protection on a single site and the resulting elucidation of complex phenomena. As with prior applications of the SAFE model e.g. [ 58 ], we specifically sought to illuminate child protection threats facing children in families migrating for work in India’s construction industry with particular attention to the SAFE domains and their interrelatedness. We also sought to identify adaptive and dangerous survival strategies used by migrant families. The study was guided by four research questions: (1) What conditions lead children and families to the site?; (2) What are the security threats facing children at the site as described by children, adults, local community representatives, and child protection stakeholders in the National Capital Region?; (3) How do children and families of the site cope with or respond to security threats and situations of adversity?; (4a) In what ways, if any, do public and private sectors of civil society work to support the security and well-being of migrant children and families on the site?; and (4b) More generally, how do local stakeholders think public and private sectors can promote the security and well-being of migrant children and families, if at all?

Our study methods placed particular emphasis on triangulation of information pertaining to the study site, and included key informant interviews, focus groups discussions, ethnographic observations, and a thorough exploration of relevant peer-reviewed and grey literatures. The research was facilitated by Mobile Crèches, a non-governmental organization (NGO) in Delhi that works with the developer at the construction site to provide an early childhood development-oriented crèche and daycare center to care for migrant children during the work day. Indian law requires the establishment of a crèche at sites with more than 50 women [ 60 ], but the law is rarely implemented [ 61 ] (Table  1 ).

Study sample and recruitment

The research team worked closely with Mobile Crèches to select and recruit study participants. Purposive sampling was used to select participants from the construction company leadership, government, civil society, as well as migrant workers and children living and working at the site. We conducted six focus groups, including: two with female workers (N = 15, median age 26), one with male workers (N = 5, median age 35), one with adult “Malda workers” (described below; N = 5, median age 25), one with young boys (N = 4, median age 11), and one with young girls (N = 5, median age 7). A small group of children and adolescents, who were on the site without their parents, were deemed by the research team in discussion with the host NGO too vulnerable for involvement and were excluded from the study. Each focus group consisted of four to ten people and lasted from one to two hours. We also conducted seven in-depth interviews with providers who work with the children at and near the site (e.g. school teachers and child care providers; see Table  2 ). Six developer and contractor representatives at various levels of leadership and employment as well as a local business owner were also interviewed. In order to locate this case study within a larger political context, we also spoke with eight key informants from the government and international and local NGOs.

Data collection

Primary data were collected in the months of January and July 2010, with additional “member checks” (described below) in January-February 2011. All interviews and focus groups were conducted in Hindi or English by local research assistants trained in research ethics and qualitative interviewing techniques. Working in pairs, one research assistant conducted the interview while the other took detailed field notes. All focus groups were held in the local language (Hindi), and key informant interviews were held in English or Hindi. Focus groups and interview guides were open-ended in nature (e.g., “What problems, if any, do children and families face in this site?”), and interviewers probed to gain further insight into emerging issues. Depending on respondent preference, interviews were recorded digitally or via detailed note-writing. All interview and focus group data were transcribed, de-identified, and stored electronically with access limited to authorized research staff, ensuring participant confidentiality. Local research assistants worked in small teams to make accurate Hindi to English translations. Ethical approval was obtained from both the Human Subjects Committee of the Harvard School of Public Health and a local Community Advisory Board in Delhi. Verbal informed consent and independent child assent was obtained from all participants. Parental consent for their children’s participation was obtained at least one day prior to the child focus groups. Participants were given opportunities to ask the local research team any questions before, during, and after the focus group discussions.

Data analysis

Our method of qualitative data analysis included open coding, category construction, and axial coding to examine relationships between categories consistent with a grounded theory-based analysis [ 62 ] and Thematic Content Analysis (TCA) [ 63 ]. This approach entailed a 4-stage procedure: 1) We first conducted an open-coding process of all data using both SAFE model informed categories as well as findings arising organically from the data. 2) Categories and themes that were most saturated in the data informed the development of a coding scheme, e.g., “poverty”, “access to medical care” “hunger”. 3) To examine reliability, two team members trained in the coding scheme independently coded 10% of transcripts. The code book was refined and reliability testing was repeated until all coding was at 80% reliability. 4) Using the code book, the qualitative dataset was coded in Nvivo 8 [ 64 ], a qualitative data analysis program.

After multiple readings of the data, emergent themes were identified and specific codes representing core themes or phenomena were developed. The codebook underwent several iterations with input from multiple coders, allowing its structure to be refined and adapted over time [ 65 ]. This approach was further supplemented by axial coding [ 62 ] to examine the interrelatedness between key concepts and identify cross-cutting themes. In January-February 2011, members of the research team returned to Delhi to re-contact several study participants and to undertake follow-up interviews and focus group discussions through a validation exercise known as “member checks” [ 66 ] (N = 38 participants).

Factors driving family migration to construction site

The laborers, many from the rural areas of distant states such as Bihar and West Bengal (see Table  3 ), likened their experience as a migrant worker to “going abroad” or living in pardes (foreign land). “ If a person has … everything, then why would they come here in this jungle to live ”, explained one female laborer (age 45). “ [Only] [t]he ones who have some problem or are suffering would come here ”. Most laborers and families came to the construction site through jamadars or thekedars from their village, middlemen hired by contractors to sort out logistics related to recruitment, transport, and, in some cases, on-site accommodation. Others arrived through previously migrated family members or through direct company recruitment. A number of respondents had recently migrated for the first or second time: “ It’s been five days since I arrived here. I have just come from home. Earlier when I was here, I stayed for nine months ”. (female laborer, age 21). Many had spent years in pardes , moving from work site to work site, often in association with the same company. As one male worker described, “ We came here and have stayed here since 1995. And we used to go to our native place and come back. I go once or twice in a year to my village. Again, I come to join the same construction firm ” (age 55). Citing the costs and risks associated with travel, many migrants would visit the village infrequently. One group of male laborers referred to as “Malda workers” work on short-term, 50-day contracts, which permit them to pay off small debts, work in their agricultural “off season”, and return home (typically Malda and Cooch Behar districts of West Bengal) to their families and land regularly. No indication of forced labor, coercion, or human trafficking emerged from our observations or discussions with children and adults.

Frequently cited drivers for migration included the opportunity to “earn and eat”, family indebtedness, limited land ownership, and poor fertility of land in villages. Laborers shared stories of migration to meet basic needs for their families: “ Earlier I was a tailor master in Malda. I owned a shop … but I left the work as my youngest daughter was sick. I have spent so much money on her treatment … I was running out of money ” (male supervising laborer). One mother explained, “ We have three children two boys and one girl. We have a house that is made up of mud that is falling down. With the thought to re-build our house and to educate my children we have come here ” (age 25). Another described how her family was compelled to migrate, “ I do not have fields, and there are no rains. In the village, we were dying from hunger and thirst, so we have left children there and have come only with one son to work here on this site ”. (age 30). Still, others cited their intent to help secure a better life for their children. A female migrant (age 22) explained, “ We are poor. We are taking care of, raising our children … to make them move forward, we are earning money. If we educate our children, we will make them into something ”. All of the women in our focus groups were parents; two-thirds of these mothers had children living with them and their husbands on the site, nearly half of whom also had children living with grandparents in the village.

Safety and freedom from harm at the construction site

Displayed prominently at the entrance of the construction site was a sign that read, “ Parents must warn children that this is an unsafe area ”. Large machinery, moving vehicles, and precariously-situated construction materials were ever-present on the site. Children, in particular, expressed worry about their parents’ safety. They recalled incidents that had occurred at other sites where children or workers had been severely hurt or killed, resulting in a preoccupation with the safety of their parents: “ When people work in this site … [they] climb from a rope … then they fall, then people die” , said a girl, age 8. In fact, between July 2010 and January 2011, two workers had died in falls on the worksite.

Access to basic physiological needs: housing, food insecurity and accessing medical care

Living conditions & basic amenities.

Workers and their families lived in cramped, temporary structures, termed jhuggis, made of either corrugated tin or brick and mortar. During the course of our fieldwork, entire portions of the housing area were destroyed and moved due to expanding construction on the site. Many families spent their day off rebuilding or tending to their shelters, a time-consuming and labor-intensive task. While the site manager cited the danger electricity would pose in the tin jhuggis , the lack of electricity for fans or other cooling systems proved especially burdensome and potentially dangerous given high humidity and temperatures exceeding 100°F in the summer months: “ Poor people come from far off and feel so hot here. We stay inside and are drenched in sweat, but still they do not provide us with any electricity… ” (female worker, age 35). To cope with the extreme heat, particularly when the crèche was closed, children would spend time in half-built, multi-story towers where, as one boy (age 12) put it, “ winds … [give] people a calm and cool situation” . Unsupervised, they were placed at risk of falling from the towers or being injured.

The quality and availability of basic amenities, including housing, access to drinking water, affordable food, and proper sanitation were also of primary concern to participants. Many children expressed nostalgia for their village life, citing the heat, cramped jhuggis , and lack of open space. One girl (age 7) insisted, “ Everyone, boys and girls, says it is better back home ”. Although workers were generally satisfied with the availability of clean water, some reported conflicts over communal pipelines. Food was also readily available near the site; however, given their lack of access to ration cards and the high price of food around Delhi, some migrants struggled to afford food and needed to purchase it from the grocery shop owner, or lala, on credit. Sanitation at the site was observed to be poor, with latrines that were often full and seldom cleaned. The lack of separate facilities for men and women was distressing for female workers. Despite these various concerns, the multiple layers of accountability and relative powerlessness of workers meant change was unlikely; as one man (age 55) lamented, “ We cannot do anything. If we will ask, we will be kicked out of this place ”.

Health & healthcare

Many migrate to a worksite in hopes of improving family well-being; yet the health challenges they encounter in pursuing this survival strategy may put children and families at further peril. Respondents familiar with the site described health issues ranging from water-borne and other infectious diseases to heat-exhaustion, dehydration and other work-related problems. Unresolved malnutrition and anemia were both common among children [ 67 ]. While the crèche offered some medical support for children and their families, there were divergent opinions about whether the company or contractors provided care for workers’ children. One male worker (age 35) asserted that there was “ [n]othing for the children ” and that “ the facilities are only for the workers ”. Conversely, a supervisor for a sub-contractor claimed that their facilities were available to both workers and their families. Options for workers themselves were also limited as employers only took responsibility for provision of, transportation to, and payment for care related to work place injury or illness. Basic first aid was provided on the construction site and in the crèche, and an ambulance was reportedly available around the clock. However, in case of off-duty health problems among workers or of more serious injuries or illnesses among children, workers and families had to seek off-site care and pay out of pocket. Informed choice of providers was uncommon, and many participants reported going to informal practitioners of herbal and other alternative medicine as well as unlicensed providers without any medical background in the nearby market. One female worker (age 25) lamented, “ Here there are doctors, some are good and some are bad … there is no fixed doctor, so what do we do? [When we’re] in trouble, we have to go back to our village ”. Primary care services, such as adult health screening, mental health services, and chronic disease management, did not appear readily available.

The costs of paying for healthcare, medications, and other associated expenses (e.g. transportation) were a resounding concern among workers. As one woman (age 35) explained, “ If [the doctor] gives us two injections, it costs us Rs.200 [$4.45 USD]. We are already in so much debt, and if we are not well, how would we go to work? ” Missed work meant lost wages for ill workers, posing additional risk to their families. To save time, many visited private hospitals rather than seek the largely free services at a government hospital, which was reportedly farther away. By law, the contractors are responsible for covering costs of work-related injuries; however, as a manager with the development company admitted, “…not everyone gets to take advantage of the contractor all risk policy because migrants are … a floating population and are not necessarily recognized by the contractor ”. Similarly, due to barriers to registering as local labor welfare board beneficiaries or obtaining documentation of Below Poverty Line (BPL) status, very few workers had access to locally-implemented health insurance schemes intended to provide financial assistance for hospitalizations and chronic care. Thus, in the face of high healthcare costs, workers often turned to their jamadars or thekadars for loans and accompaniment to medical care, adding potentially substantial debt which could force them to extend their work or contract periods.

Family and connection to others: limited monitoring and constant pressure

Construction work meant that many parents were spending long hours without direct capacity to monitor their young children at the site, which became additionally challenging without the presence of extended family. The existence of a functioning crèche at the site greatly mitigated some of the risks due to parental inability to monitor their children. According to both male and female laborers, sexual violence was of diminishing concern. This may be linked to a trend towards leaving school age girls with extended family in the village. One crèche staff member reflected on this survival strategy: “ I saw that earlier young girls [migrated] with their parents, but many crimes occurred like assault … When they went back to their village, they talked about these problems, and awareness increased. Now they leave their young girls at their home” . Issues of family conflict arose infrequently in focus groups and interviews. However, the use of alcohol, and cramped living spaces, were both mentioned as linked to domestic and intimate partner violence. A local teacher, who noted that children were at times reluctant to go home due to violence, reflected on these factors: “ Society demands certain things from kids, and parents have zero economic power. Sometimes they beat kids and women when children ask for their needs to be met”. Child labor was also a seldom-raised topic, but in addition to the adolescent Malda workers and a few teenage children working on the site with their parents, a number of children worked at the worksite canteen, businesses in the nearby market, and in rag-picking in exchange for food and shelter. These children were some of the most vulnerable in this site. We were unable to interview these children and adolescents without being observed by their supervisors and were unable to obtain parental consent given limited information about their family members.

Education and economic security: looking to the future

Children at the site faced numerous barriers to education and learning due to issues of distance, expense, lack of documentation, and frequent movement. A few older boys and one girl were able to attend a nearby private school due to reduced-payment options that were offered for children of migrant workers. However, the nearest government school was far away and across a busy highway. While a few children did attend, responses suggested it was too dangerous to access for many children at this site, thus impeding their right to universal primary education [ 68 ]. Speaking to the de facto discrimination faced by migrant children without residency documentation, the manager of a development company explained, “Although the schools don’t have official rules against [migrant] children, they are not willing to admit children who do not have some degree of permanency”. Even when a child was able to enroll in school, a wide range of obstacles hindered learning, including: the lack of electricity and thus lighting in the jhuggis, a generally poor study environment at home, inability to afford or access tutors, as well as domestic responsibilities that led to school absenteeism. As a local teacher at a private school observed, “ Our kids who are migrants, they really struggle. They have a really difficult time because they compare themselves to [non-migrant] kids ”. These prevailing concerns around education were tied to most parents’ decision to leave their school-aged children (particularly girls) with extended family in the village, allowing uninterrupted schooling. As one man (age 35) asserted, “ We cannot keep our children here; otherwise their education will spoil ”. Not surprisingly, most school-age children on the site were not in school. Apparently having no other safe place to go, many spent their days in the crèche.

Work & wages

Financial concerns were at the forefront of discussion for adult migrant workers. Despite the site manager’s assurance that workers “ do not express concern over wages ”, construction workers told a story of working extended hours for low, piecemeal wages and having only every other Sunday off. Malda workers instead received payment in advance of their 50-day contract period and had no days off. Many workers claimed that payments for piecemeal work and other wages could be delayed, even for months, although not universally reported. However, workers did commonly describe an improvement in wages and financial circumstances relative to opportunities in the village. Nonetheless, many workers, particularly unskilled laborers, were still struggling to provide for their families, much less to save earnings. As one mother (age 35) explained, “ We have to take care of the whole family; we came here to save money. If he would increase the rate, we would save a little. The amount we earn goes to eating ”. In response to these difficulties, delayed payments, and other unexpected costs, respondents reported borrowing money from family, friends, coworkers, or their jamadars or thekadars . Parents also worked overtime to provide for and meet the basic needs of their families. In contrast to other sites, where participants described that women are generally subject to reprimands and deductions in wages for breastfeeding, this site was notably sensitive to the needs of breastfeeding mothers, and women did not report difficulty feeding their infants. Yet, given that the law allows only two nursing breaks per day The Maternity Benefits Act, [ 69 ], section 11, crèche employees needed to provide supplemental formula feeding. Meanwhile, a number of children in the crèche were being monitored for mild and moderate malnutrition and were provided with nutritional supplements.

Protective processes

A sense of community solidarity, social support, and the presence of the crèche were all important sources of risk mitigation and protection at the site. Despite difficulties with wages, living conditions, health care, and access to other services, conflicts among workers did not appear to be common or significant. A crèche employee observed that workers “… become friends and … live like brothers and sisters ”. With many workers living together in “lanes” based on their language and region of origin, communal living also appeared to transcend some of the tension that could otherwise arise from differences in origin, caste, and religion. As one female worker (age 33) explained, “ We are all laborers and live together with each other happily. Every one helps each other ”. Although relationships among migrants were often brief, workers were able to rely upon their community support by turning to one another in times of need. A few respondents suggested their personal sense of faith by invoking God’s role in protecting their children or allowing their family’s success, representing an emergent and preliminary theme.

The crèche also served a protective role that had broader implications for families. One of its primary functions was to provide a safe and caring environment for children during the day, allowing both mothers and fathers to work. As one mother (age 22) noted, “ [Without] such a service or facility, where would we have left our children? Children would come after us to the site … How would we earn our livelihood then? ” The crèche provided basic health care services and regular doctor visits (including growth-monitoring, immunizations, and de-worming), meals to children during the day, and informational sessions for parents on issues like school enrollment. Although not designed to replace school, it also provided younger children an opportunity to develop cognitive, motor, and language skills as well as classroom discipline important for school readiness. The crèche also served to free older siblings from the task of childrearing. The crèche was a safe, child-friendly haven in an otherwise harsh physical environment, in utter contrast to most construction sites, where, as one key informant described, “ the young child is invariably either left alone, unattended, or in the care of siblings … [and] the implications for a child’s development can easily be gauged” . The NGO also worked to mainstream older children into local schools and to encourage provision of basic amenities at this site.

Invisible children, invisible families: the key informant perspective

Our key informants from government agencies and non-governmental organizations reflected upon a scenario in which vulnerable and hyper-mobile migrant families are surrounded by the complex layers of accountability of a rapidly expanding Indian economy. Grappling with the confluence of challenges facing migrant workers and their children, our respondents emphasized the obligations of local and national governments as well as corporations towards the fulfillment of the rights of this marginalized and often “invisible” population.

As described in the Indian labor migration literature, our key informants discussed the overlapping factors that both drive already vulnerable families towards migrant labor and make them more vulnerable in the process. One labor expert highlighted the role of discrimination and lack of economic opportunity: “ I would describe this as compounding vulnerabilities … Indeed, the caste system is there; there are other minority groups that are discriminated against too. For example, some Muslim communities – many of them are what we call “backwards” [per the “Other Backward Classes” classification]. There are absolutely no opportunities for these people; they have no hope for the future and are therefore quite vulnerable”. Another respondent from a child protection NGO saw migration as leveling the playing field of vulnerability across castes: “ Once they come here, the vulnerabilities are quite the same for them as migrants … Except that of economic status – may be able to afford services … Looking at similar economic standard with people migrating, the vulnerabilities are very similar ”.

Hypermobility poses particular challenges to migrant children’s education. As local NGO stakeholder explained: “ We have very bright children who study in the village but who have migrated or have shifted schools four or five times a year, and they are in an inappropriate class because they have missed so much. And there is no scope for them to ever get on with the education and ever do anything but manual work in the future ”. Furthermore, though Indian policy prohibits requiring children to present birth or transfer certificates in order to access a new school Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, [ 68 ], lack of awareness and compliance poses an illegal barrier to migrant children’s right to education. A child protection expert explained: “ A school teacher unaware that this is a law, would continue to insist on these certificates. So that would be the work of a civil society in informing the school teacher that you can now not stop a child on any excuse”. Amidst so many obstacles, according to our respondents, migrant families further face corporations and governments unwilling to take accountability for fulfilling their rights. One construction site general manager discussed the lack of incentive in this area: “There is competition between different contractors for jobs; the bidder with the lowest price generally wins the contract. As companies reduce their budgetary requirements to stay competitive, one of the first things to go is often the amenities provided for children and workers ”. One key informant explained that destination states often see migrants as a drain on local resources and thus hesitate to take responsibility for them. As a development expert elucidated, “ It’s possible that within the next two or three years, the government may think seriously about working on some strategies to reach them. But as of now they are invisible. They are neither in the rural planning, neither in the urban planning—nobody talks about them. They are in a limbo” . Such planning is further complicated by the difficulty of precisely capturing complex and varied migration patterns in the census.

In order to improve accountability and uphold existing policy, local experts offered various suggestions, including: maximizing interstate coordination; developing memoranda of understanding among development stakeholders with a monitoring agency; granting corporate and government contracts to builders only upon provision of required services (e.g. crèche); and empowering and educating workers and children to advocate for their rights. As one key informant advised, “ If migration must happen … then we must take steps to make it safer. There should be outreach to communities of origin [and] dialog and information-sharing with subcontractors, with children and families, about their legal right for safety and fair treatment ”. Another respondent argued against use of the term “corporate social responsibility”, remarking, “ If they would just follow the law, that would be fine ”.

Migrant work is a survival strategy that poses many threats to healthy childrearing. Utilizing the SAFE model as a lens towards child protection, this study yielded in-depth insight into the complex dynamics affecting the security and well-being of migrant children and families at a construction site near Delhi. Families encountered ongoing economic insecurity and a host of other risks for child protection, including: children living and playing in unsafe areas and potentially facing violence at home ( S afety); limited access to appropriate medical care as well as risks of malnutrition ( A ccess to basic physiological needs); reduced parental monitoring, family separation, and trade-offs between time with children and the need to work ( F amily connection); and limited school access for school-age children as well as a tenuous economic state ( E ducation/Economic Security). These basic security domains were also interrelated and interdependent. In general, as explained by Orellana and colleagues, migrating “families who are pressed for household survival do not have the luxury to foreground children’s ‘developmental needs’” [ 28 ], p. 587. For instance, the family’s decision to migrate to secure their economic situation often had consequences for their children’s access to school, which increased an intergenerational cycle of “distress migration”. Similarly, a mother’s need to work and the limited options for exclusive breastfeeding likely heightened children’s risk of diarrheal illness and respiratory infections [ 70 – 72 ] as well as risk of malnutrition [ 73 ]. Furthermore, vulnerable families migrating to “earn and eat” and meet their basic needs, encountered an unforgiving urban landscape that posed new and unique risks to children’s security and affronts to their basic rights. As Rogaly and Rafique have described in the context of seasonal migration in West Bengal, many of the families in our study had no hope to save or pay off debt and were simply in “a struggle to stand still” [ 52 ].

This case study has exemplified a clear need to work expediently towards the realization of the rights of this hyper-mobile, invisible population. To this end, it is necessary to both fill gaps in Indian legislation and to improve the implementation and enforcement of existing laws. A recent report by the National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganized Sector, noted that the vulnerability of migrant workers and their children stems largely from “the lack of or ineffective implementation of … [as well as] … lack of awareness among the workers regarding existence of the laws” meant to ensure their entitlements and protect their well-being [ 56 ], p. 165. Mechanisms for ensuring accountability and implementation are not apparent in the law governing corporate responsibility in India, especially in the unorganized sector.

One crucial gap in government planning and implementation relates to migrant rights to identity and documentation. For migrant workers in the unorganized sector, these rights have particular salience to the ability to access legal entitlements. In Indian policy, this is delineated as contractors’ responsibility to issue passbooks to migrant workers in the Inter-state Migrant Workmen Act [IMWA, 43, article 12] as well as the directive of state labor welfare boards to maintain registrations and provide identity cards for workers (who have worked 90 days) in the Building and Other Construction Workers Act [BOCWA, 60, articles 12–13]. Despite these laws and efforts like India’s Unique Identification Card pilot project, obtaining such documentation is often a challenge due to migrants’ transitory status and short-term residency. This lack of documentation impedes access to various basic services at migrants’ destination, including food rations and children’s education. While India’s Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act [ 68 ] dictates that children should at no time be turned away for lack of documents, study findings suggest the clause lags in implementation. Disruptions to children's educational experience may have implications for their lives and future livelihoods.

While responsibility for providing services and protections is delineated in law and policy, lack of enforcement leaves many corporations shirking responsibility for providing for their workers and their families. For example, the BOCWA describes responsibilities for construction project employers (e.g. government-owned entities, private developers and sub-contractors), to provide drinking water, latrines and urinals, accommodations, first aid, canteens, and other services to mothers and their families. With accountability diffused so broadly across different stakeholders at the study construction site, viewpoints expressed across various layers of management were at best disconnected from and at worst disingenuously ignorant of the daily realities of migrant workers and their families. However, while there is also the requirement for provision of childcare for children under six at sites with more than 50 women, this task is not explicitly assigned to the employer nor is it enforced. In the site where the present case study was situated, the crèche played a fundamental role in nurturing child development and monitoring child safety and nutrition. Sector-wide provision of such services, implemented by corporate actors in partnership with local governments, would fill a critical void in the rights of migrant children, with long-term benefits to their health and capability [ 74 – 78 ].

Clearly, the government plays a crucial role in delineating the obligations of corporations, ensuring these obligations are met, and shaping policy that affects migrant families. Using the IMWA and BOCWA as well as myriad other broader labor policies as guidelines, each state’s labor welfare board has flexibility to implement their own rules and local schemes. For instance, the local labor welfare board near our case study site recently announced, though has yet to implement, a school transportation scheme for children of construction workers. Similarly, large sums of funds collected from corporations according to the Building and Other Construction Workers’ Welfare Cess Act [ 79 ] have yet to be used for worker welfare schemes.

Moreover, the Government of India has developed cross-sectoral efforts and government-civil society partnerships to protect children from maltreatment and exploitation, such as the newly implemented Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS). With explicit mention of children of migrant families, this policy aims to “create a protective environment by improving regulatory frameworks, strengthening structures and professional capacities at national, state, and district levels so as to cover all child protection issues and provide child friendly services at all levels” [ 80 ]. The ICPS includes provisions to counter some of the barriers to protecting marginalized or vulnerable children and should include those living and even working on construction sites. In the years ahead, implementation of the ICPS in India has the potential to reduce risks to child health and development by addressing vulnerabilities across the SAFE domains examined here.

Limitations

This study intended to capture an in-depth understanding of the complex dynamics facing migrant families in one construction site in India. While the analysis was successful in this regard, several limitations should be acknowledged. First, the use of a case study methodology limits our ability to generalize to other construction sites locally or nationally in India. While the external validity of the study is limited in this manner, the internal validity of our qualitative approach was bolstered by the inclusion of a range of stakeholders as well as the triangulation of key informant interviews, focus groups, observations, and document review. Along this same theme, our study focused on the status of children and families living and working on the construction site with minimal probing regarding the children left at home in the village. These children may face yet uncovered and significant health and protection risks; more research focused on these populations is required. Second, the existence of a crèche at the site studied allowed us to gain access to the site and our participants, but may also have successfully mitigated the intensity of some of the child protection threats that might be present in sites without a crèche. We would hypothesize that a site managed by a developer receptive to providing a crèche, such as the one used in this study, might generally be more child-, family-, and worker-friendly than those sites that do not have a crèche. However, despite an estimated 40 million migrant laborers in India’s construction industry alone, the law requiring crèches at construction sites is rarely implemented, and most sites would likely paint a much worse picture. Finally, though various techniques in data collection and analysis were utilized to minimize biased responses (such as monitoring dominant respondents, assuring confidentiality, triangulating with on-site observations, and conducting member checks), the sensitive nature of focus group discussions and the relative powerlessness of migrant workers may have limited the sensitivity for uncovering the full depth of adversity faced by families on the site. Nonetheless, our discussions with workers and their children yielded a substantial variety of child protection issues and related coping mechanisms, which did not vary significantly by respondent.

As the Indian economy continues to expand and urbanize, labor migration will undoubtedly continue as a mode of subsistence or survival among rural families. Through analyses using the SAFE model of children's security, this study provides a lens for viewing the constraints faced by migrant children and families who undertake a broader array of survival strategies to cope with their circumstances. It demonstrates the feasibility and utility of taking this holistic and human rights-based approach to child protection analyses. In light of the complex conditions facing this hyper-mobile population, findings suggest policymakers, corporations, and civil society must work to develop initiatives to implement and enforce the rights of migrant workers and their children to identity, family, health, safety, development, education and economic security. The Government of India is certainly legally bound by the Convention on the Rights of the Child to protect these rights for all children, without discrimination based on gender, caste, or other status [ 59 ]. Corporations must similarly be compelled to ensure the well-being of India’s future human capital by promoting child-friendly development.

Sarde SR: Migration in India: Trade Union Perspective in the Context of Neo-Liberal Globalization. 2008, New Delhi: International Metalworker's Federation - South Asian Regional Office

Google Scholar  

Deshingkar P, Sharma P, Kumar S, Akter S, Farrington J: Circular migration in Madhya Pradesh: changing patterns and social protection needs. Eur J Dev Res. 2008, 20 (4): 612-628. 10.1080/09578810802464920.

Article   Google Scholar  

De Haan A: Migration as family strategy: rural–urban labor migration in India during the twentieth century. Hist Fam. 1997, 2 (4): 481-505. 10.1016/S1081-602X(97)90026-9.

Article   CAS   PubMed   Google Scholar  

Mosse D, Gupta S, Mehta M, Shah V, Rees J: Brokered livelihoods: debt, labour migration and development in tribal Western India. J Dev Stud. 2002, 38 (5): 59-10.1080/00220380412331322511.

Surabhi KS, Kumar NA: Labour migration to Kerala: a study of tamil migrant labourers in Kochi. 2007, Kochi, Kerala: Centre for Socio-economic & Environmental Studies

Gushulak BD, MacPherson DW: The basic principles of migration health: population mobility and gaps in disease prevalence. Emerg Themes Epidemiol. 2006, 3: 3-10.1186/1742-7622-3-3.

Article   PubMed   PubMed Central   Google Scholar  

Brockerhoff M: Child survival in big cities: the disadvantages of migrants. Soc Sci Med. 1995, 40 (10): 1371-1383. 10.1016/0277-9536(94)00268-X.

Stephenson R, Matthews Z, McDonald JW: The impact of rural–urban migration on under-two mortality in India. J Biosoc Sci. 2003, 35 (1): 15-31. 10.1017/S0021932003000154.

Article   PubMed   Google Scholar  

Sledjeski EM, Dierker LC, Bird HR, Canino G: Predicting child maltreatment among Puerto Rican children from migrant and non-migrant families. Child Abuse Negl. 2009, 33 (6): 382-392. 10.1016/j.chiabu.2008.11.004.

Park MS: The factors of child physical abuse in Korean immigrant families. Child Abuse Negl. 2001, 25 (7): 945-958. 10.1016/S0145-2134(01)00248-4.

Larson OW, Doris J, Alvarez WF: Migrants and maltreatment: comparative evidence from central register data. Child Abuse Negl. 1990, 14 (3): 375-385. 10.1016/0145-2134(90)90009-I.

Jirapramukpitak T, Abas M, Harpham T, Prince M: Rural–urban migration and experience of childhood abuse in the Young Thai population. J Fam Viol. 2011, 26: 607-615. 10.1007/s10896-011-9397-x.

Yin RK: Case Study Research: Design and Methods. 2003, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc., 3

UNDP: Human Development Report 2009: Overcoming barriers: Human mobility and development. 2009, New York, NY: United Nations Development Programme

Book   Google Scholar  

Singh YN, Malaviya AN: Long distance truck drivers in India: HIV infection and their possible role in disseminating HIV into rural areas. Int J STD AIDS. 1994, 5 (2): 137-138.

CAS   PubMed   Google Scholar  

Bhugra D: Migration and mental health. Acta Psychiatr Scand. 2004, 109 (4): 243-258. 10.1046/j.0001-690X.2003.00246.x.

Maternowska C, Estrada F, Campero L, Herrera C, Brindis CD, Vostrejs MM: Gender, culture and reproductive decision-making among recent Mexican migrants in California. Cult Health Sex. 2010, 12 (1): 29-43. 10.1080/13691050903108688.

Gagnon AJ, Zimbeck M, Zeitlin J, Alexander S, Blondel B, Buitendijk S, Desmeules M, Di Lallo D, Gagnon A, Gissler M, Glazier R, Heaman M, Korfker D, Macfarlane A, Ng E, Roth C, Small R, Stewart D, Stray-Pederson B, Urquia M, Vangen S: Migration to western industrialised countries and perinatal health: a systematic review. Soc Sci Med. 2009, 69 (6): 934-946. 10.1016/j.socscimed.2009.06.027.

Bender DE, Rivera T, Madonna D: Rural origin as a risk factor for maternal and child health in periurban Bolivia. Soc Sci Med. 1993, 37 (11): 1345-1349. 10.1016/0277-9536(93)90164-Y.

Acevedo-Garcia D, Pan J, Jun HJ, Osypuk TL, Emmons KM: The effect of immigrant generation on smoking. Soc Sci Med. 2005, 61 (6): 1223-1242. 10.1016/j.socscimed.2005.01.027.

Borges G, Medina-Mora ME, Breslau J, Aguilar-Gaxiola S: The effect of migration to the United States on substance use disorders among returned Mexican migrants and families of migrants. Am J Public Health. 2007, 97 (10): 1847-1851. 10.2105/AJPH.2006.097915.

Schenker MB: A global perspective of migration and occupational health. Am J Ind Med. 2010, 53 (4): 329-337. 10.1002/ajim.20834.

Teller CH: Access to medical care of migrants in a Honduran city. J Health Soc Behav. 1973, 14 (3): 214-226. 10.2307/2137113.

Azcorra H, Dickinson F, Rothenberg SJ: Family migration and physical growth in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico. Am J Hum Biol. 2009, 21 (3): 398-400. 10.1002/ajhb.20881.

Benyoussef A, Cutler JL, Levine A, Mansourian P, Phan-Tan T, Baylet R, Collomb H, Diop S, Lacombe B, Ravel J, Vaugelade J, Diebold G: Health effects of rural–urban migration in developing countries–Senegal. Soc Sci Med. 1974, 8 (5): 243-262. 10.1016/0037-7856(74)90093-6.

Pottinger AM: Children's Experience of loss by parental migration in Inner-City Jamaica. Am J Orthopsychiatry. 2010, 75 (4): 485-496.

Olwig KF: Narratives of the children left behind: Home and identity in globalised Caribbean families. J Ethn Migr Stud. 1999, 25 (2): 267-284. 10.1080/1369183X.1999.9976685.

Orellana MF, Thorne B, Lam WSE, Chee A: Transnational childhoods: the participation of children in processes of family migration. Soc Probl. 2000, 48 (4): 572-591.

Cox-Edwards A, Ureta M: International migration, remittances and schooling: evidence from El Salvador. J Dev Econ. 2003, 72 (2): 429-461. 10.1016/S0304-3878(03)00115-9.

Lopez-Cordova JE: Globalization, migration, and development: the role of mexican migrant remittances. Economia. 2005, 6 (1): 217-256.

Lee M: Migration and Children's welfare in China: the schooling and health of children left behind. J Dev Areas. 2011, 44 (2): 165-182. 10.1353/jda.0.0104.

McKenzie D, Rapoport H: Migration and Education Inequality in Rural Mexico. 2006, Buenos Aires: Institute for the Integration of Latin America and the Caribbean

Roer-Strier D: Reducing risk for children in changing cultural contexts: recommendations for intervention and training. Child Abuse Negl. 2001, 25 (2): 231-248. 10.1016/S0145-2134(00)00242-8.

Larson OW, Doris J, Alvarez WF: Child maltreatment among U.S. east coast migrant farm workers. Child Abuse Negl. 1987, 11 (2): 281-291. 10.1016/0145-2134(87)90068-8.

Ima K, Hohm C: Child maltreatment among asian and pacific islander refugees and immigrants: the San Diego case. J Interpers Violence. 1991, 6 (3): 267-285. 10.1177/088626091006003001.

Dong M, Anda R, Felittj V, Williamson D, Dube S, Brown D: Childhood residential mobility and multiple health risks during adolescence and adulthood. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2005, 159: 1104-1110. 10.1001/archpedi.159.12.1104.

Altemeier WA, O'Connor S, Vietze P, Sandler H, Sherrod K: Prediction of child abuse: a prospective study of feasibility. Child Abuse Negl. 1984, 8 (4): 393-400. 10.1016/0145-2134(84)90020-6.

Ben-Arieh A: Socioeconomic correlates of rates of child maltreatment in small communities. Am J Orthopsychiatry. 2010, 80 (1): 109-114. 10.1111/j.1939-0025.2010.01013.x.

Coulton CJ, Korbin JE, Su M, Chow J: Community level factors and child maltreatment rates. Child Dev. 1995, 66 (5): 1262-1276. 10.2307/1131646.

Deccio G, Horner WC, Wilson D: High-risk neighborhoods and high-risk families: replication research related to the human ecology of child maltreatment. J Soc Serv Res. 1994, 18: 123-137. 10.1300/J079v18n03_06.

Srivastava R, Sasikumar SK: An overview of migration in India, its impacts and key issues. Regional Conference on Migration, Development and Pro-Poor Policy Choices in Asia. 2003, Dhaka: Eldis Document Store

Registrar General of India: Census of India: D Series (Migration tables): 2001. 2001, Census of India, http://censusindia.gov.in/Tables_Published/D-Series/Tables_on_Migration_Census_of_India_2001.aspx ,

Government of India: The Inter-state Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act. 1979, New Delhi

Breman JG: Seasonal migration and co-operative capitalism: The crushing of cane and of labour by the sugar factories of Bardoli, South Gujarat - part 1. J Peasant Stud. 1978, 6 (1): 41-70. 10.1080/03066157808438065.

Connell J, Dasgupta B, Laishley R, Lipton M: Migration from Rural Areas: The Evidence from Village Studies. 1976, Delhi: Oxford University Press

Harriss-White B: Introduction: India's rainfed agricultural dystopia. Eur J Dev Res. 2008, 20 (4): 549-561. 10.1080/09578810802493291.

International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT): ICRISAT New Vision and Strategy to 2010…A Glimpse. 2008, Hyderabad, India

Haberfeld Y, Menaria RK, Sahoo BB, Vyas RN: Seasonal migration of rural labor in India. Popul Res Policy Rev. 1999, 18 (5): 473-489.

Rogaly B, Coppard D, Rafique A, Rana K, Sengupta A, Biswas J: Seasonal migration and welfare/illfare in Eastern India: a social analysis. J Dev Stud. 2002, 38 (5): 89-114. 10.1080/00220380412331322521.

Marius-Gnanou K: Debt bondage, seasonal migration and alternative issues: lessons from Tamil Nadu (India). Autrepart. 2008, 46: 127-142. 10.3917/autr.046.0127.

Breman J, Agarwal R: Down and Out: Laboring under Global Capitalism. Critical Asian Stud. 2002, 34 (1): 116-128. 10.1080/146727102760166626.

Rogaly B, Rafique A: Struggling to save cash: seasonal migration and vulnerability in West Bengal, India. Dev Change. 2003, 34 (4): 659-681. 10.1111/1467-7660.00323.

Olsen W, Ramanamurthy RV: Contract labour and bondage in Andhra Pradesh (India). J Soc Polit Thought. 2000, 1 (2):  -[ http://www.yorku.ca/jspot/2/wkolsenrvramana.htm ]

Mobile Creches: Distress Migration: Identity and Entitlements: A Study on Migrant Construction Workers and the Health Status of their Children in the National Capital Region 2007–2008. 2008, New Delhi: Mobile Creches Publications

Deshingkar P, Akter S: Migration and Human Development in India. Human Development Research Paper. 2009, New York: United Nations Development Programme, 13:

NCEUS: Report on Conditions of Work and Promotion of Livelihoods in the Unorganised Sector. 2007, New Delhi: National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector

Betancourt TS, Fawzi MKS, Bruderlein C, Desmond C, Kim JY: Children affected by HIV/AIDS: SAFE, a model for promoting their security, health, and development. Psychol Health Med. 2010, 15 (3): 243-265. 10.1080/13548501003623997.

Betancourt TS, Williams TP, Kellner SE, Gebre-Medhin J, Hann K, Kayiteshonga Y: Interrelatedness of child health, protection and well-being: an application of the SAFE model in Rwanda. Soc Sci Med. 2012, 74 (10): 1504-1511. 10.1016/j.socscimed.2012.01.030.

UN: United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. 1989, New York: United Nations General Assembly

Government of India: The Building and Other Construction Workers' (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act. 1996, New Delhi

CWG-CWC: Safety and Social Security of Construction Workers engaged in Major Projects in Delhi. 2009, New Delhi: Commonwealth Games - Citizens for Workers, Women & Children

Strauss A, Corbin J: Basics of Qualitative Research. 1998, London: SAGE Publications, 2

Smith CP: Motivation and personality: handbook of thematic content analysis. Cambridge [England]. 1992, New York, NY, USA: Cambridge University Press

QSR International: NVivo qualitative data analysis software. 2008, Doncaster, Australia, 8

Miles MB, Huberman AM: Qualitative data analysis: An expanded sourcebook. 1994, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2

Yanow D, Schwartz-Shea P: Interpretation and method: empirical research methods and the interpretive turn. 2006, Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe

Mobile Crèches: Site-specific crèche and daycare center malnutrition data: May-Sept. 2010. 2010, New Delhi

Government of India: The Right of Children to Free And Compulsory Education Act. 2009, New Delhi

Government of India: The Maternity Benefits Act. 1961, New Delhi

Bhandari N, Bahl R, Mazumdar S, Martines J, Black RE, Bhan MK: Effect of community-based promotion of exclusive breastfeeding on diarrhoeal illness and growth: a cluster randomised controlled trial. Lancet. 2003, 361 (9367): 1418-1423. 10.1016/S0140-6736(03)13134-0.

Broor S, Pandey RM, Ghosh M, Maitreyi RS, Lodha R, Singhal T, Kabra SK: Risk factors for severe acute lower respiratory tract infection in under-five children. Indian Pediatr. 2001, 38 (12): 1361-1369.

Victora C, Barros A, Fuchs S, de Francisco A, Morris J, Hall A, Schellenberg J, Greenwood B, Kirkwood B, Arthur P, Ross D, Morris S, Zaman S, Jalil F, Karlberg J, Hanson L, Ashraf R, Black R, Becker S, Yoon P, Gray R, Gultiano S, Garenne M, Fontaine O, Leroy O, Beau J, Sène I, Martines J: Effect of breastfeeding on infant and child mortality due to infectious diseases in less developed countries: a pooled analysis. WHO Collaborative Study Team on the Role of Breastfeeding on the Prevention of Infant Mortality. Lancet. 2000, 355 (9202): 451-455.

Bhutta ZA, Ahmed T, Black RE, Cousens S, Dewey K, Giugliani E, Haider BA, Kirkwood B, Morris SS, Sachdev HP, Shekar M: What works? Interventions for maternal and child undernutrition and survival. Lancet. 2008, 371 (9610): 417-440. 10.1016/S0140-6736(07)61693-6.

Victora C, Adair L, Fall C, Hallal PC, Martorell R, Richter L, Sachdev HS: Maternal and child undernutrition: consequences for adult health and human capital. Lancet. 2008, 371 (9609): 340-357. 10.1016/S0140-6736(07)61692-4.

Article   CAS   PubMed   PubMed Central   Google Scholar  

Walker SP, Wachs TD, Meeks Gardner J, Lozoff B, Wasserman GA, Pollitt E, Carter JA: Child development: risk factors for adverse outcomes in developing countries. Lancet. 2007, 369 (9556): 145-157. 10.1016/S0140-6736(07)60076-2.

Grantham-McGregor S, Cheung YB, Cueto S, Glewwe P, Richter L, Strupp B: Developmental potential in the first 5 years for children in developing countries. Lancet. 2007, 369 (9555): 60-70. 10.1016/S0140-6736(07)60032-4.

NSCDC: Timing and Quality of Early Experiences Combine to Shape Brain Architecture: Working Paper #5. 2007, Boston: National Scientific Council on the Developing Child

NSCDC: Excessive Stress Disrupts the Architecture of the Developing Brain: Working Paper No. 3. 2005, Boston: National Scientific Council on the Developing Child

Government of India: The Building and Other Construction Workers’ Welfare Cess Act. 1996, New Delhi

Government of India: The Integrated Child Protection Scheme. 2006, New Delhi

Pre-publication history

The pre-publication history for this paper can be accessed here: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/13/858/prepub

Download references

Acknowledgements

This research was made possible by the Oak Foundation, the Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights, Mobile Crèches (Delhi), and the Harvard School of Public Health. We are also endlessly grateful to Katrina Hann, our wonderful Indian research staff, and the children and families who contributed to this study. This work was funded by the Oak Foundation.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard School of Public Health, 651 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA, 02115, USA

Theresa S Betancourt

Research Program on Children and Global Adversity, François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights, Harvard University, 651 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA, 02115, USA

Theresa S Betancourt, Ashkon Shaahinfar, Sarah E Kellner, Nayana Dhavan & Timothy P Williams

Department of Social and Policy Sciences, University of Bath, Bath, UK

Timothy P Williams

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Theresa S Betancourt .

Additional information

Competing interests.

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Authors’ contributions

TSB conceived of the study and participated in its design and coordination along with TW and AS. TW and AS conducted the primary qualitative fieldwork. TSB, ND, and AS conducted the validity-enhancing member checks. All authors, including SK, contributed to the qualitative data analysis and helped draft and finalize the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Ashkon Shaahinfar, Nayana Dhavan contributed equally to this work.

Rights and permissions

This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article.

Betancourt, T.S., Shaahinfar, A., Kellner, S.E. et al. A qualitative case study of child protection issues in the Indian construction industry: investigating the security, health, and interrelated rights of migrant families. BMC Public Health 13 , 858 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-13-858

Download citation

Received : 07 August 2012

Accepted : 04 September 2013

Published : 17 September 2013

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-13-858

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Labor migration
• Child protection

BMC Public Health

ISSN: 1471-2458

• Submission enquiries: [email protected]
• General enquiries: [email protected]

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

• View all journals
• My Account Login
• Explore content
• About the journal
• Publish with us
• Sign up for alerts
• Open access
• Published: 03 January 2023

Implications of the POCSO Act and determinants of child sexual abuse in India: insights at the state level

• Shrabanti Maity   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-5791-3140 1 &
• Pronobesh Ranjan Chakraborty 2  

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications volume  10 , Article number:  6 ( 2023 ) Cite this article

18k Accesses

1 Altmetric

Metrics details

• Social policy

Child sexual abuse is a worldwide phenomenon, and India is not an exception. The magnitude of this grave crime is underrated because of under-reporting. The reality is that the incidence of child sexual abuse has reached epidemic proportions in India. In 2021 only there were 53,874 cases registered under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act of 2012. To enable the all-around protection of children, the Indian government administrated the “Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO)” Act of 2012. The act is a comprehensive piece of legislation designed to protect children from crimes including sexual assault, sexual harassment, and pornography. The degree to which this act has improved child protection is therefore an important issue for interrogation. Here, we consider the implications of the POCSO Act (2012) in enhancing children’s protection from sexual abuse and pin-point the role of quality of life together with other social, economic, and demographic determinants in foreshortening POCSO incidences. The empirical analysis of the paper is conducted based on secondary data compiled from National Crime Records Bureau. Our empirical results reveal that the POCSO Act has reduced the Growth rate of incidents of sexual offences against children in India from 4.681% to −4.611. Moreover, our empirical results also reveal that by enhancing the quality of life it is possible to restrict the POCSO incidences across Indian states. In addition, favourable sex-ratio, the increased gross enrolment ratio at the elementary level, the improvement in the judiciary and Public Safety Score of the state also enables the state to restrict the POCSO incidences. Based on our empirical result we recommend that future policies could include, for instance, aiming to improve the quality of life as well as the law and order conditions of the state, and increasing the enrolment of the girl children in higher education.

Similar content being viewed by others

Impact of artificial intelligence on human loss in decision making, laziness and safety in education

Sayed Fayaz Ahmad, Heesup Han, … Antonio Ariza-Montes

Investigating child sexual abuse material availability, searches, and users on the anonymous Tor network for a public health intervention strategy

Juha Nurmi, Arttu Paju, … David Arroyo

Age at onset of mental disorders worldwide: large-scale meta-analysis of 192 epidemiological studies

Marco Solmi, Joaquim Radua, … Paolo Fusar-Poli

Introduction

Around the globe, millions of children irrespective of gender face exploitation and sexual abuse every year. According to UNICEF ( 2022 ), “ About 1 in 10 girls under the age of 20 have been forced to engage in sex or perform other sexual acts ”. In 90% of cases, the accused is known to the victim (UNICEF, 2022 ). Globally, the highest prevalence of Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) is observed in Africa and the corresponding figure is 34.4% (Wihbey, 2011 ; Behere and Mulmule, 2013 ). The reported CSA cases in Europe and America are 9.2% and 10.1%, respectively (Wihbey, 2011 ). The lowest figure may not reflect controlling such horrendous crime but rather may be the consequence of under-reporting (Wihbey, 2011 ). The lowest prevalence of CSA should not be ignored as its scar on the victim should never be ignored (Wihbey, 2011 ). The National Child Abuse and Neglect Data reported in 2006 in the U.S.A., 8.8% of children were victims of child sexual abuse (Miller et al., 2007 ). The reported sexual abuse cases recognised that in 60% of cases victims are within the age of 12 years (Collin-Vézina et al., 2013 ). Barth et al. ( 2013 ) reported every year globally 4% of girls and 2% of boys are victims of CSA and the consequences become extremely severe for about 15% of girls and 6% of boys. The prevalence of CSA in urban China is 4.2% (Chiu et al., 2013 ). The identification of actual global figures concerning CSA is a challenging task because of under-reporting of such crimes (Miller, et al., 2007 ).

India is the home of 472 million children (Chandramouli and General, 2011 ). Children constitute more than one-third of the Indian population (39%). In India, we celebrate “ Children’s Day ” on 14th November, the birthday of the first prime minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, who is popularly known as “ Chacha Nehru ”. He dreamt of making India a “ Children’s paradise ”. However, the reality is something else. On 17th November 2020, a 6-year-old girl was raped and then murdered brutally to perform black magic and the accused were arrested under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act (Kanpur (UP), November 17, The Tribune). On 26 th August 2020, a 17-year-old girl was found dead near her house in Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri district (August 26, 2020, The Indian Express). Before that, another horrendous incident was reported in the same state for a forlorn 13-year-old Dalit girl. Because of the societal status, this case was less talked about. In India, “ child sexual abuse ” is an understated transgression. Only a handful of cases get media attention and the people of India sought justice. Most of the cases remain unexplored. The most talked about “ POCSO ” incident in India was the “ Kathua rape case ”. The case was about “Asifa Bano”, an 8-year-old girl from Rasana village near Kathua in Jammu and Kashmir, India, who was gang-raped and then killed in January 2018 Footnote 1 . By closing our eyes, we cannot deny the reality and the reality is that “ child sexual abuse ” in India has reached an epidemic proportion (Moirangthem, et al., 2015 ; Kshirsagar, 2020 ; Tamilarasi et al., 2020 ; Pallathadka et al., 2021 ; Maity, 2022 ). According to the “ National Crime Record Bureau ” in 2019 the highest “ rate of POCSO ” was reported for Sikkim (44.8%).In that list, Uttar Pradesh(8.6%) was ranked 16th among the twenty-eight Indian states (Crime in Indian, 2019 ). This simply evidences the under and/or un-reporting of “ child sexual abuse ” (Crime in Indian, 2021 ), the report shows that in 2021 only 36.5% of crimes against children are registered under POCSO Act (The Indian Express, September 23, 2022).

The Indian government has administrated the “Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO)” Act, 2012 (Ministry of Women and Child Development, 2013 ; https://wcd.nic.in ), a specified law, to ensure children’s protection from mal treatment. “ The Act has come into force with effect from 14 th November 2012 along with the rules framed there under. The POCSO Act, 2012 is a comprehensive law to provide for the protection of children from the offences of sexual assault, sexual harassment, and pornography while safeguarding the interests of the child at every stage of the judicial process by incorporating child-friendly mechanisms for reporting, recording of evidence, investigation and speedy trial of offences through designated Special Courts ” (Ministry of Women and Child Development, 2013 ; https://wcd.nic.in ). This act includes “Special Courts”, where the victim child is allowed to record his/her statement on camera in a child-friendly circumstance and simultaneously the child’s identity also remains un revealed. However, this special act is not infallible to protect children from sexual abuse. In 2019, 1510 rape cases in specific and 2091 reported POCSO cases, in general, were filed in Kerala (Kartik. The New Indian Express, 31/01/2020).In fact, in Kerala, children—both boys and girls, have had such horrid experiences at least once in life and the corresponding figure, in this case, are 36% and 35%, respectively (Krishnakumar et al., 2014 ; Moirangthem et al., 2015 ). However, it is not the exceptional one. Between January to June 2019, the total number of registered POCSO cases all over India was 24,212 (Ali, 2019 ).

Child sexual abuse is a global phenomena and a matter of concern for comprehensive existing literature. Researchers observe that CSA health professionals play a crucial role in the identification and protection of children (Fraser et al., 2010 ). Sometimes even a genuine allegation made by a child against a powerful person is reported casually based on the accuser’s disownment. Such reporting reduces the credibility of the incidence (Rubin & Thelen, 1996 ). Researchers also recognise that in most cases assailants are known to the victims (Haque et al., 2019 ; Maity, 2022 ). Concerning the Indian scenario we can say that 90% accused are known to the child (The Times of India, March 1, 2018 ; Maity, 2022 ). Economically weaker and vulnerable are always found to be the soft target for any crime, particularly in developing countries (Bower, 2003 ; Bywaters, et al., 2016 ; Sexton and Sobelson, 2018 ). In India, aged 40 and above, alcoholic, addicted to pornography, illiterate or minor literate, are the common characteristics of the accused of the POCSO Act (2012) (Chowdhuri & Mukhopadhayay, 2016 ).

On the contrary, quality of life indicates the well-being of a state or nation. The “Physical Quality of Life Index (PQLI)” helps in quantify the qualitative aspect of life (Morris, 1978 ). The variables utilised for index calculation are well defined (for details see Table 9 in appendices) in Morris’s ( 1978 ) article. To avoid the limitations of GDP as a measure of well-being this measure was developed by Morris ( 1978 ). An improvement in PQLI is supposed to be transmitted to minimise the ethnocentricity of culture and development. Accordingly, a favourable PQLI may indicate an environment for equal opportunities for all, and equal safety for all. Thus, it will be interesting to explore the implication of PQLI in protecting children from sexual offences. Childhood experiences of sexual exploitation adversely affect adulthood’s psychological, physical, and socio-economic well-being and thus deteriorate the adult’s physical quality of life (Downing et al., 2021 ). Childhood experiences of sexual abuse may result in permanent scars on a child’s well-being and quality of life (Chahine, 2014 ). It is noteworthy that earlier studies were concentrated on exploring the consequences of CSA on the physical quality of life. However, the present study unlike the earlier involves in self exploring the consequences of the improvement of PQLI on CSA. It is not worthy that the relation between CSA and PQLI is rare in literature and almost absent in empirical studies where improvement of PQLI’s effect on CSA is explored.

This back drop motivates us to explore the research questions, viz., does the POCSO Act, 2012 has any implication in creating India as a children’s paradise? Simultaneously, we also want to explore, does amplification of the quality of life of Indian citizens and Judiciary and Public Safety Scores help in reducing POCSO incidences? These research questions when unfold, result in twin objectives. Initially, the study explores the aftermaths of the “ Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act ” (POCSO) (2012), on protecting children from sexual offences. Then the paper tries to unfold different socio-economic factors, including “ Quality of Life ” that helps in revamping children’s safety across Indian states. The novelty of the study is that it is the first attempt to explore the role of the POCSO Act (2012), on child sexual abuse. The earlier studies, such as Kshirsagar ( 2020 ), Tamilarasi et al. ( 2020 ), are non-empirical documentation of the POCSO Act (2012).The study by Pallathadka et al. ( 2021 ), is an experimental study investigating the effectiveness of the inclusion of the knowledge of the POCSO Act (2012).

In a teaching programme in reducing CSA the only empirical study we find is Maity ( 2022 ). However, this study mainly focuses on the efficacy of the enhancement of police efficiency in reducing POCSO incidences across Indian states. In this sense, it is the first attempt of such type. Moreover, this study also explores the implication of the improvement of quality of life and improvement of Judiciary and Public Safety (JPS) in the foreshortening of child sexual abuse. This study perhaps is the first attempt of such kind. The present study explores the role of PQLI and JPS scores in foreshortening the CSA and this establishes the novelty of the study. Thus, our contribution to the existing literature is this study tries to test empirically the inevitability of the act in foreshortening CSA in India. Beyond that, this study tries to explore with other factors the role of quality of life in reducing CSA in India.

The study follows the aforementioned sequence: Section “Methods” deals with the materials and methods required for exploring the above-mentioned objectives. Section “Results and Discussion” presents the empirical results with a discussion concerning the implication of POCSO on children’s protection and the identification of the influencing factors of recorded POCSO incidences. Finally, Section “Conclusion and policy implications” concludes and presents policy implications.

The theoretical foundation of the economics of crime is discussed in this section. In conjunction with that, the major data sources and the concerned variables are described in this section. The econometric models, which are utilised to investigate the said objectives are also presented in this section.

Conceptual framework

According to Becker ( 1968 ), criminals possess different attitudes concerning costs and benefits and this difference in viewpoint is the principal imputes for them to commit a crime. These attitudinal differences motivate a person to commit a crime despite the likelihood of being arrested by police, convicted and to be imprisoned by the legal system. In this regard, the “Economic Theory of Crime” is based on the assumption that a person will devote his/her time and other resources to commit a crime/offence if the person believes that his/her expected utility by committing the crime exceeds the expected utility from other activity utilising the same time and resources. The theory can be formulated mathematically by using vonNeumann and Morgenstern ( 2007 ), expected utility function.

Ehrlich ( 1996 ) defines that a person may decide to divide his/her total working time between criminal activities ( \(b_{{\mathrm{crime}}}\) ) under uncertain conditions and legitimate activities ( \(b_{{\mathrm{legal}}}\) ) under certain conditions. The income generated from devoting specific time to legal activities is denoted by \(W\left( {b_{{\mathrm{legal}}}} \right)\) . On the contrary, the income generated from devoting specific time to illegal activities is denoted by \(W\left( {b_{{\mathrm{crime}}}} \right)\) depending on the probability of being arrested p and not arrested ( 1–p ). If the person involves in both legal and illegal activities simultaneously and he/she has an initial wealth \(W_{{\mathrm{Initial}}}\) , then the income obtained from both legal and illegal activities and not being apprehended is given by:

On the contrary, if the person is convicted and arrested he/she has to pay a penalty \(Y_2\) depending on whether he/she is devoted to the criminal activities \(Z_{{\mathrm{crime}}}\left( {b_{{\mathrm{crime}}}} \right)\) . Under such circumstances the income generated is:

The objective of the individual is to maximise his/her expected utility by dividing his/her entire time into legal and illegal activities. Thus, the expected utility can be presented by the following equation:

To determine the optimal time to be devoted for criminal activities ( \(b_{{\mathrm{crime}}}\) ) we determine the first-order-condition as follows:

where \(w_{{\mathrm{legal}}} = \frac{{dW_{{\mathrm{legal}}}}}{{db_{{\mathrm{crime}}}}}\) , \(w_{{\mathrm{crime}}} = \frac{{dW_{{\mathrm{crime}}}}}{{db_{{\mathrm{crime}}}}}\) , \(z_{{\mathrm{crime}}} = \frac{{dZ_{{\mathrm{crime}}}}}{{db_{{\mathrm{crime}}}}}\) and \(U^\prime (Y_i) = \frac{{dU\left( {Y_i} \right)}}{{db_{{\mathrm{crime}}}}}\forall i = {\mathrm{crime}},{\mathrm{legal}}\)

We assume that the concerned person is a risk averter and thus the person copes with both legal and illegal activities simultaneously. This implies equilibrium is ensured by the condition \(U^\prime \left( {Y_1} \right) = U^\prime \left( {Y_2} \right)\) given that equal wealth is generated from legal and illegal activities, that is, \(Y_1 = Y_2\) . Therefore the necessary condition to devote time to illegal activities is given by the equation:

Díez-Ticio and Brande´s ( 2001 ), mentioned the propensity of criminality can only be reduced in society through a reduction in economic inequality. The economic paradigm discloses two types of incentives for crime, viz., positive and negative (Domínguez et al., 2015 ). The negative incentives will demoralise and prevent criminals to commit a crime. On the contrary, positive incentives will encourage delinquents to choose legitimate alternatives (Ehrlich, 1973 ; Domínguez et al., 2015 ).

Stationarity checking

The stochastic process must be stationary for the reliability and validity of the result. The prediction and policy prescription based on the non-stationary stochastic process is not reliable. The checking of “ stationarity ” of the time series variable is the primal concern for the time series analysis. This is particularly because stationarity of the time series variable ensures universality of the estimated result as well as applicability of the variable for prediction and policy prescription. Two non-parametric tests, viz., “ Augmented Dicky Fuller Test (ADF)” and “ Phillips Perron Test (PP)” are available for this purpose. However, we will conclude about “ stationarity ” of the stochastic process based on the “ Phillips-Perron (PP)” test. As the test is more robust for testing heteroscedasticity in error variance (Phillips and Perron, 1988 ) and has greater powers than the “Augmented Dickey and Fuller (ADF)” test (Banerjee et al., 1993 ). Moreover, the test is free from the specification of the lag length, which is mandatory in the case of the ADF technique (Debnath and Roy, 2012 ).

Test equations in two cases are presented below.

Augmented Dicky Fuller Test:

Phillips Perron Test:

In both cases the hypothesis to be tested is \(H_0:\delta = 0\) and the corresponding test statistic is

Structural break and growth rate

The implication of the “ Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act ” (POCSO) (2012), for revamping children’s security in India can only be explored by considering structural breaks together with analysing the growth of POCSO incidences. The study period for the empirical analysis is from 2001 to 2019. As the natures of crimes against children have changed over time we have included only those crime heads, which are common during the entire study period as well as in POCSO Act (2012). This practice enables us to ensure uniformity of the data and allows us to conduct time series analysis. The selection of the study period is guided by the availability of data. The study period is susceptible to various policy changes for the “ Protection of Women and Child Rights ”. The “Ministry of Women and Child Development” has been administrating various special laws focusing on women and child protection. It is noteworthy that India is a signatory to the “ United Nations Convention on Right of Child (UNCRC) ” since 1992. In adherence to its commitment to ensuring child rights, the Government of India has framed different national policies to protect child rights from time to time, viz., “The Commissions for Protection of Child Right (CPCR) Act, 2005”, “The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006”, “The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012”, “Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act, 2015”. The Government of India has also framed the National Policy for Children, 2013 and the National Plan of Action, 2016 (Ministry of Women and Child Development, Press Information Bureau, 2019). Naturally one can expect to have structural breaks during this period. The existence of the structural break makes the normal time series analysis and growth rate calculation inapplicable. Consequently, the identification of the switching point is essential and an appropriate growth rate can only be obtained by calculating the same for different regimes as depicted by the switching points. The identification of the break or switching point should be facilitated by some statistical criterion, viz., “ Chow Test ” (Chow, 1960 ), “ CUSUM ” and “ CUSUMQ ” tests. As “ Chow Test ” is criticised for the arbitrariness problem, we have utilised the “CUSUMQ” test. Brown et al. ( 1975 ), introduces the CUSUM and CUSUMSQ tests for stability checking in parameter. Based on the scaled recursive residuals the break points are identified by the CUSUM and CUSUMSQ tests. The identification of the break points is also facilitated by the Chow ( 1960 ) tests. However, the greatest advantage of the CUSUM and CUSUMSQ tests is that these tests do not require prior knowledge of the point where the hypothesised structural switching points are expected to occur. The mathematical underpinning of the CUSUMQ test is as follows:

We consider a generalised linear regression model as

where x is a ( k  ×  1 ) vector with unit first element and ( k–1 ) are the observed value of the independent variables at time t . \(\beta _t\) is the ( k  ×  1 ) vectors of parameters. \(u_t\) is IID and \(u_t \sim N(0,\sigma ^2)\) . The recursive residuals are defined as:

where \(X_r = \left[ {x_1,x_2,....\,,x_r} \right]\) and \(y_r^\prime = \left[ {y_1,y_2,....\,,y_r} \right]\) and \(\hat \beta _{r - 1}\) is the vector of OLS estimates of the regression Eq. ( 9 )

The test statistic corresponding to CUSUMQ test is developed based on the recursive residuals are defined in (10). The corresponding test statistic is given as follows:

where \(\hat \sigma ^2 = \frac{{\mathop {\sum}\limits_{t = 1}^T {(y_t - x_t^\prime \hat \beta _r)^2} }}{{T - k}}\)

Under the null hypothesis that the parameters are constant, that is,

\(H_0:\beta _t = \beta\) with \(\sigma _t^2 = \sigma _t^2\) \(\forall t = 1,2,....\,,T\) Eq. ( 11 ) follows a distribution with parameters r   –   k and T   –   k . In the conventional CUSUMQ test we use symmetric error bands and the corresponding pairs of lines are given by \(\left[ { \pm critical\,value + \frac{{(r - k)}}{{(T - k)}}} \right]\) . The critical value is obtained from the Durbin ( 1969 ), table.

After the identification of the switching points, the growth rate will be calculated following the “ Poirier’s Spline function approach (Poirier & Garber, 1974 )”. Poirier’s Spline function approach (Poirier & Garber, 1974 ), helps us to determine the trend in the growth of the variable of interest in different regimes.

Assuming a linear time trend, the postulated model is presented as follows:

where, \(t_1\) is the switching point.

We next define following variables:

By reparameterisize we rewrite the function as follows:

For the i th (i  =  1, 2) regime the growth rate in percentages will be obtained by using the following formula:

where \(\beta _1 = \gamma _1\) and \(\beta _2 = \gamma _1 + \gamma _2\) . The Eq. ( 15 ) helps in computing the growth rate for different regimes. Based on the change in economic policy or structure we may obtain more than one structural break point and accordingly, the corresponding model for analysing the growth rate will be modified. The growth rate for the entire study period will be computed by utilising the following equations:

Regression analysis

One of the objectives of the study is to explore the implications of the improvement in the “ quality of life ” and “ Judiciary and Public Safety Score (JPSS) ” in revamping children’s safety and security. This objective is explored based on the cross-sectional information of bigger Indian states’ on a list of relevant variables, including “PQLI” as one of the regressors. Another interesting regressor is the JPSS , which is used to portray the law and order condition of a state. This score is calculated using a number of indicators that reflect a state’s law and order situation (for more information, see Table 1 ). The selection of the sample period and the Indian states is strictly guided by data availability. The list of the regressors along with their definitions and data sources are presented in Table 1 . It is noteworthy that the regresand here is the rate of recorded POCSO cases. We didn’t pursue panel regression here because of the non-availability and decadal nature of data. The specified regression equation is:

where, x is a ( 1XK ) vector of regressor and \(\beta = (\beta _1,\beta _2,.....\,,\beta _K)^\prime\) is a ( KX1 ) vector. To incorporate an intercept term we will simply assume that \(x_1 \equiv 1\) , as this assumption makes interpreting the conditions easier (Wooldridge, 2016 ). y is a scalar. The equation-(17) can be estimated by using OLS method. The OLS estimators will be Best Linear Unbiased Estimators (BLUE) iff all the “ Gauss-Markov ” assumptions are satisfied.

It is noteworthy that “ quality of life ” here is proxied by the “ Physical Quality of Life Index (PQLI) ”. The index was developed based on Morris ( 1980 ) (see Tables 9 and 10 in the appendices for details). Thus, PQLI is calculated by using the following formula:

The regression analysis is conducted based on the latest available information of all concerned regressors as well as regressand (Bhaumik, 2015 ).

However, the regression analysis to explore the determining factors of POCSO incidences across Indian states will be meaningful if there is variation in the reported POCSO incidences. Thus, before conducting regression analysis, the appropriateness of such analysis is tested by performing non-parametric ANOVA.

The present study is entirely based on published secondary data. The major data sources are “ National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) ”, “ Census of India (2011) ”, “ Sample Registration System (SRS) ”, “ Central Statistics Office (CSO)” , “ Ministry of Human Resource Development ”, “ Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, Government of India ” and “ National Sample Survey Office (NSSO).” The crime statistics in the present paper have mainly been compiled from NCRB for different years. It is noteworthy that concerning the “Incidents of sexual offences against children”, we have considered statistics related to the crime heads, which are common in the entire study period. As such, we have considered only those statistics related to child sexual abuse that are included later in the POCSO Act (2012). We did not include all crimes committed against children in this paper. By summing some specific crime heads, we have calculated “Incidents of sexual offences against children” for this paper to ensure uniformity in the data to facilitate the time series analysis. On the contrary, the empirical analysis of the second objective is facilitated by various regressors, including a composite index, the “Physical Quality of Life Index (PQLI”),” which is compiled from various published sources. The composite scores of “ Judiciary and Public Safety Score ( JPSS )” reflecting the law and order condition of any state are obtained from the “ Good Governance Index, Assessment of State of Governance 2020–21 ” report. The detailed descriptions of the variables together with their sources are presented in Table 1 .

The variables utilised for delineating the PQLI are narrated in Table 9 in the appendices. It is noteworthy that the exploration of the first objective is executed by considering the “ total number of reported cases of sexual offences against children, viz., Rape (Section 376 IPC), Unnatural Offence (Section 377 IPC), Assault on Women (Girl Child) with Intent to Outrage her Modesty (section 354 IPC), Sexual Harassment (Section 354A IPC), etc .,” during the time period 2001 to 2019. To ensure uniformity of data we have considered selected crime heads, which are common to entire study period and also included in the POCSO Act (2012). The uniformity of crime heads authorises us to conduct time series analysis over the study period. Moreover, we have considered here “Incidents of sexual offences against children” for the time series analysis and not the rate to avoid further normalisation. The “Incidents of sexual offences against children” are calculated by summing different crime heads committed against children. These crime heads are common for the entire study period as well as also included in the POCSO Act (2012) (see Table 1 for more information). The choice of the sample period is dictated by data availability. On the contrary, pin-pointing the socio-economic determinants of the “ Rate of cases reported under POCSO ” is accomplished by considering the cross-sectional data across Indian states. Because of the cross-sectional data we have considered the “ Rate of cases reported under POCSO ” as regressor and not the actual incidences to facilitate cross-sectional analysis. The empirical analysis of the second objective is facilitated by the latest available information for the twenty bigger states in India (Bhaumik, 2015 ). The selection of the states and the sample period is purely based on the availability of relevant information on the concerned variables.

Results and Discussion

In this section, we will present the empirical results related to the objectives obtained by applying the said methodology and the possible reasons behind such empirical results.

Summary statistics Sexual Offences Against Children

Sexual offences against children (SOAC) have been a hidden problem in India and are largely ignored both in social discourse as well as by the criminal justice system. Table 2 presents the summary statistics of the sexual offences committed against children over the time period from 2001 to 2019.

The table reveals that the mean incidence of SOAC is 13097.42 while the mean rate of the same is ~3%. Considering the huge population of India, this 3% figure is amounted to more than 13,000 incidences. The minimum incidence is a petrified figure (2113), and the corresponding maximum incidences are more than 47,000. As we are considering only the Indian scenario concerning SOAC, the impact of the POCSO act is analysed considering the “ Incidences of Sexual Offences against Children ”.

The incidences of sexual offences against children over the time period are also presented graphically in Fig. 1 .

Authors’ own presentation based on NCRB data.

The figure discloses a sharp increase up to 2013 and then, in 2014, it decreased marginally. In the next 2 years, India witnessed a sharp escalation of the incidences of sexual offences against children. In 2017, India witnessed a marginal decline in incidences. However, this decrease only lasts a year before the incidences rise again until 2019. The extreme fluctuations of the “ Incidences of Sexual Offences against Children ” indicating that there may be switching points in the study period and further investigation is required to understand the influence of different act legislated by the Indian government time-to-time for the protection of children.

Unit-root test

The stationarity of the time series is tested by using both the “Augmented Dickey and Fuller (ADF)” and the “Phillips-Perron (PP)” tests. However, to conclude about the stationarity of the stochastic process, we emphasise the “Phillips-Perron” test as it has greater power than the ADF test (Banerjee et al., 1993 ). The test result of the “ Incidents of sexual offences against children ” is presented in Table 3 .

The table reveals that we must accept the null hypothesis of unit root at the level. This means the variable is non-stationary and to make it stationary we consider the first difference of the variable. Further application of both tests on the first difference ensures the stationarity of the concerned variable. Therefore, for the analysis of the implication of the POCSO Act (2012), we must precede with a first difference as the differencing makes the stochastic process stationary. However, because of differencing, we lost one observation. Thus, the empirical investigation of the first objective will be executed by considering the “ Incidents of sexual offences against children ” for the time period 2002 to 2019. The apriori conditions for time series analysis, such as uniformity of statistical information and stationarity, are ensured, and thus we can proceed to structural break analysis.

Structural breaker switching points

Figure 1 discloses that there are fluctuations in the incidences of sexual offences against children in India. Moreover, the results related to PP and ADF tests suggest that the stochastic process is non-stationary at the level. Figure 1 and Table 3 together provide evidence to suspect that there may be structural breaks in the series. The structural break appears when there is an unexpected shift in the series. The possible reasons for that may be a change in the policy or structure of the economy, etc. In the present paper, the identification of the switching point of the time series variable is facilitated by the application of the “CUSUM squares test (CUSUMQ)” because of its superiority over the “Chow test”. When the switching points are unknown, the “CUSUM squares test (CUSUMQ)” is thought to be the most suitable method for determining the same. Figure 2 presents the test result of the CUSUMQ test.

Authors’ own calculation based on NCRB data.

The CUSUMQ test result reveals that the series has two break points, viz., in 2008 and 2015 and the result is significant at a 5% level. These two switching points divide our entire study period into three regimes viz., Regime-I (2002 to 2008), Regime-II (2009 to 2015), and Regime-III (2016 to 2019). Therefore, based on the switching point as dictated by the CUSUMQ test, we have divided our study period into three regimes. The critical question is, why do such unexpected changes occur with SOAC cases? In search of this question, we came across that the “Ministry of Women and Child Development” has been administering various special laws relating to women and children, such as “The Commissions for Protection of Child Right (CPCR) Act, 2005”, “The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006”, and “The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012”. Any policy change to protect children from any form of sexual abuse will take time to become effective. Consequently, if any policy change materialises in some period of time, say, 2005–2006, its implications will be felt after 1 or 2 years. Therefore, the first break point we obtain may be because of the influence of “The Commissions for Protection of Child Right (CPCR) Act, 2005”, “The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006”, and because of “The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012”, the second switching point appears. This is because although the act was passed in the Indian parliament in 2012, the implementation of the act takes time and was executed fully from 2016 onwards. NCRB also provides POCSO statistics from 2016 only. Consequently, the implications of these acts on children’s protection can be analysed by calculating the growth rate of SOAC for different time regimes by satiating the switching points.

Growth rate of incidents of sexual offences against children in India

We now consider the exploration of our first objective—the implication of the POCSO act in controlling the incidences of sexual offences against children in India. Based on the CUSUMQ test, we have divided our entire study period into three regimes, viz., Regime-I (2002 to 2008), Regime-II (2009 to 2015), and Regime-III (2016 to 2019). The third regime will enable us to analyse the implication of the POCSO act in revamping children’s paradise in India. To investigate the objective, we separately estimate the growth rate of SOAC incidences during these three different regimes, and the empirical result is shown in Table 4 . The estimations of the growth rates for different regimes are derived from Poirier’s Spline function approach (Poirier & Garber, 1974 ).

The growth rate of SOAC in Regime-I (2002 to 2008) was 1.219, a positive but controlled figure. As mentioned earlier, the Regime-II (2009–2015) may be expected to reflect the impact of two laws, viz., “ The Commissions for Protection of Child Right (CPCR) Act, 2005 ” and “ The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 ”, that have been administrated by “The Ministry of Women and Child Development” in 2005 and 2006, respectively. Unfortunately, our empirical findings indicate that these two laws do not protect children from “sexual offences.” The growth rate of SOAC during Regime-II escalated to 4.681. This may be because perhaps these laws are not focused on giving protection to children from sexual abuse. The former one was addressing the protection of children’s rights and the focus of the latter one was to forbid child marriage. None of these acts focus on terminating the sexual abuse of a child . Consequently, none of the act becomes king pin for minimising the sexual abuse of a child. On the contrary, on May 22, 2012, the Parliament of India passed the “ Protection of Children against Sexual Offence Bill, 2011 ” concerning the sexual abuse of a child (Bajpai, 2018 ) and, based on that, the “ Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 ” was enacted. The act is centred on ensuring a strong legal framework for protecting children from sexual offences of any kind, including rape, sexual harassment, and pornography (Ministry of Women and Child Development, 2013 ). Consequently, the “ POCSO Act, 2012 ”, becomes the first safeguard law for protecting children from sexual offences. The act was enacted in 2012, so we can expect the implication of this policy change to materialise from 2015 onwards. The NCRB provides recorded POCSO incidences, victims, and rates from 2016 onward. Therefore, we can expect the implication of the “ POCSO Act, 2012 ” to materialise in the Regime-III . Legitimately, the empirical result suggests that the “ POCSO Act, 2012 ” helps in reducing the sexual abuse of children . The growth rate of “ sexual offences against children ” in Regime-III declined to −4.611. Therefore, we can conclude that the “ POCSO Act, 2012 ” helps to reduce the sexual abuse of children and revamp children’s safety and security.

After exploring the implication of the “ POCSO Act, 2012 ”, in revamping children’s paradise, we next explore if there is any variation in reported POCSO incidences across Indian states or not. If variation exists, then only there organisation of the factors responsible for the successful implementation of the “ POCSO Act, 2012 ” across Indian states will be meaningful.

Variation in POCSO incidences across Indian states

To understand the variation in the “ Rate of cases reported under POCSO ” across Indian states, we performed a non-parametric ANOVA test considering 20 bigger Indian states for the time period 2016 to 2019. Table 5 presents the test result.

The table shows that the 1% threshold of statistical significance rejects the null hypothesis, H 0 : no inter-state variation , in the “Rate of instances reported under POCSO” across Indian states. The high F -statistic’s value of 19.417 demonstrates that there is considerable inter-state variation in the “Rate of instances reported under POCSO”. This result elucidates that there must be some determining factors for the inter-state variations. This test then authorised us to perform regression analysis in an attempt to identify the factors influencing the “ Rate of cases reported under POCSO ”.

Factors influencing the rate of reported POCSO cases

We next consider the pin-pointing of the role of PQLI along with other regressors in reducing reported POCSO cases for Indian states. The “ Ordinary Least Squares ” is our estimation technique, and thus the post-estimation of the validation of the OLS is also verified in this paper. The apriori condition for cross-sectional analysis, representative data, is primarily scrutinised by the descriptive statistics of the regression variables, which confirms the appropriateness of the regression analysis (see Table 11 in appendices). Table 6 presents the regression result.

A close perusal of the table divulges that the percentage of SC population, 0–19 Sex-ratio, Urbanisation, POCSO Percentage Share of Known Persons Cases to Total Cases, Secondary Gross Enrolment Ratio, PQLI, Judiciary and Public Safety Score (JPSS), and Employment relate male migration (Male migration) have a Significant footprint on the rate of reported POCSO cases . The regressors SC and ST are both positively related to POCSO . Historically, it is patently true that the lower castes, vis-à-vis weaker sections of society, are always as of target for any form of crime (Bower, 2003 ; Bywaters, et al., 2016 ; Sexton and Sobelson, 2018 ).

Here, we are also getting the reverberation of the paten fact. It is noteworthy that the estimated coefficient for ST is not statistically significant. The negative role of the JPSS demonstrates that enhancement in the law and order condition in the state results in the reduction of POCSO incidences. The result is pronounced. The improved law and order condition reflects the state’s efficacy in protecting its citizens. The state can provide a safe environment for normal daily life activities. Consequently, improvement in the JPSS fore shortens POCSO incidences in particular and crime as a whole. The absence of the implication of such an independent variable on POCSO cases in earlier studies prevents us from presenting any earlier study in support of our findings. The negative and significant value of the estimated coefficient 0–19 Sex-ratio enables us to pin-point that a favourable sex-ratio at any age will help to minimise any form of sexual offence.The favourable sex-ratio may give the voice less a voice and make it possible to recognise sexual offences, including sexual abuse of children (Kansal, 2016 ; Maity & Sinha, 2018 ; Maity, 2019 ). Based on our research, it is clear that most often it is a close family who abuses a child, the corresponding estimated coefficient, 0.438 is significant at 1% level. The well-established truth is confirmed by this finding. According to a research, the victims are familiar with 90% of the perpetrators (The Times of India, March 1, 2018 ; Maity, 2022 ). We draw two paradoxical results from our regression analysis, viz., an increase in both urbanisation and secondary gross enrolment ratio (elementary GER turns out statistically insignificant), and increase in the reported POCSO incidences. This may be because lower-class residents in urban regions frequently work in low-wage, ad hoc occupations. Even the primary female members need to work to pay the bills. Children become an easy target for any type of sexual assault when their parents are not present. Additionally, young kids are sometimes hired as domestic an assistant, which renders them more susceptible to this kind of crime. Education improves view points and gives the voice less a platform. The positive correlation between SGER and POCSO occurrences may be due to this. Here, we solely take into account recorded POCSO incidents. Because of their increased knowledge and awareness, the parents were eventually able to report the crime to the police after overcoming a variety of social stigmas, prejudices, and beliefs. The most interesting result is the relationship between POCSO-reported cases and PQLI. The estimated coefficient is not only statistically significant but also the sign of the coefficient is desirable. The estimated coefficient envisages a juxta position of the “ quality of life ” and “ reported POCSO cases ”. Consequently, the estimated coefficient allows us to conclude that by enhancing the “ quality of life ”, it is possible to deplete “ reported POCSO cases ” and revamp children’s paradise on earth. Finally, employment-related male migration is found to influence the reported POCSO cases positively. The result reflects the Indian societal structure where in the male is the undisputed leader of the family (Maity & Sinha, 2018 ; Maity, 2019 ). When the family’s main bread winner moves to another location, state, or country, the female members of the family become easy prey for others. Under such a scenario, the little one becomes more exposed to crime reported under POCSO. Only by speaking out against such crimes by other family members, including females, can such incidents be avoided. The absence of earlier literature concerning this prevents us from presenting any earlier study in support of our study. The table also presents the “ beta coefficient ”. A perusal of “ standardised coefficients ” discloses the paramount factor for reducing “ reported POCSO cases” Is the “quality of life” , followed by “ JPSS ” and a favourable “0 – 19 Sex-ratio ”. On the contrary, the “ standardised coefficients “reveal that “ POCSO known person ” and “ urbanisation ” is the most important factor in enhancing “ reported POCSO cases ”. The possible reasons for such results are explained earlier.

The testaments of the five basic assumptions which are necessary for the OLS estimators to be BLUE are examined thereafter.

The “ Adjusted Coefficient of Determination ”, \(\bar R^2\) is a measure of “ goodness of fit ” in a multiple regression model. The rule of thumb is higher the value better the fit. In the present model, \(\bar R^2\) is 0.8664, means best fit. The model is also well-specified, with a high F -statistic of 6.67 and a Prob >  F of 0.0062.

The normality of the error term is the primary condition for the OLS estimators to be BLUE. Graphical and statistical verification of the normality of the error term is performed here. For statistical verification of normality, we have used the “Shapiro–Wilk W -test for normal data.” The results are depicted graphically in Figure 3 and statistically in Table 7 .

Authors’ own calculation.

The null hypothesis of the test is that the corresponding distribution is normal. As disclosed in Table 7 , the large p -value (0.11) indicates the acceptance of \(\hat u_i\) is normally distributed. Thus, the normality of the residuals is established.

Heteroskedasticity

Based on the cross-sectional information, an empirical inspection of the determinants of the rate of reported POCSO cases across Indian states is performed. Accordingly, non-constancy of the error variance is a common phenomenon. To ensure homoscedasticity of the error variance, we conduct the Breusch-Pagan/Cook-Weisberg test for heteroskedasticity and Cameron and Trivedi’s decomposition of the IM-test. Here,

\(H_0\) : Constant Variance ,

The test results are presented in Table 7 ensures constancy of error variance or homoscedaticity .

Multicollinearity

Only in the absence of multicollinearity can independent effects of the regressors on the regressand be obtained. The Variance Inflation Factor (VIF) of the regression helps us to confirm the absence of multicollinearity. The corresponding result is presented in Table 8 .

Both VIF and the tolerance (1/VIF) are to be checked for the confirmation of the absence of multicollinearity. The table shows that for all regressors, the VIF and the tolerance (1/VIF) are within the prescribed level and thus corroborates the absence of multicollinearity .

Consequently, the OLS estimators presented in Table 6 are BLUE, and the conclusions drawn from these estimators are universal.

Conclusion and policy implications

The present study pivot around two research questions, viz., firstly, does the “ Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act” (PCSO) (2012), contribute to reducing “ sexual abuse of children ” in India? Secondly, does the escalation of “ Quality of life ” also entail a reduction of “sexual abuse of children”? Our empirical findings authorise us to conclude affirmatively in both cases. Based on our empirical findings we can suggest the following policy prescriptions to fore shorten “ child sexual abuse ” in India.

Firstly , improvement of “ quality of life ” will benefit everyone in society and that is the rudimentary reason for the negative sign. Improvement of the “ quality of life ” also ensures child protection together with the up-gradation of human capital. This yields in the enhancement of socio-economic conditions and that results in enhancing the safety and security of all. Therefore, both the state and the central governments must focus to improve the “ quality of life ” of their citizens. Secondly , the positive sign of the estimated coefficient of the “ secondary gross enrolment ratio ” encourages us to prescribe that emphasis should be placed on the enrolment of children in schools and encourage them for continuing education. Education will empower them, equip them to recognise “ good and bad touch ”, give them to voice against any “kind of sexual offence” without fear, and ultimately empower them to break “ irrational social stigma ”. In fact, only education empowers them to recognise and protest when they are the victims of “ sexual abuse ” by the “ known person ” Hence, only by encouraging parents to enrolment and continue of education of their children, including girl children, it is possible to fore shorten “ reported POCSO cases ” one day. Thirdly , recognising that lower cast people are soft targets of crime including “ child sexual abuse ”, a special provision in the law is demanded to protect these people. In fact, the “Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989”,is there to protect SC and ST people. However, the mere existence of such acts does not guarantee the protection of SC and ST people. Only detecting and punishing such offences on a fast-track basis can foreshorten such crimes. The concentration of power among the high-caste people is one of the sources of such crimes. The distribution of powers, especially political power may furnish some solution. Identifying this, the Government of India reserved certain numbers of political positions for specific groups of the population including “ Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes ”. However, without changing the mentality of people, it is not possible to stop these cast-based crimes. Fourthly , the scenario of law and order condition of any state is proxied by the “Judiciary and Public Safety Score”. A higher value of JPSS indicates improved law and order conditions in any state. This means greater protection for all. By improving law and order conditions the concerned state will be able to provide an appropriate environment for social and economic activities. Accordingly, irrespective of the JPSS status Indian states are recommended to improve their law-and-order conditions. Finally , recognising the positive correlation between “ reported POCSO cases ” and “ urbanisation ” it is patently true that “child protection” is an emergent issue in urban India. In this respect, the local-state-central governments need to work in one line appropriately.

In the present study the pin-pointing of the determinants of the “reported POCSO act” is conducted by considering cross-sectional data. However, such a study can be better understood by considering panel data. Unfortunately, because of the unavailability of such statistics, we cannot pursue this. This can be considered a limitation of the study. However, based on the availability of the data, this extension is a future plan.

Data availability

The present study is based on secondary data. All relevant data are available at free of cost. The data sources are mentioned in the text.

TimesofIndia,15/04/2018

Ali S (2019) Death penalty in POCSO Act imperils child victims of sexual offences. Retrieve from: https://www.indiaspend.com/death-penalty-in-pocso-act-may-imperil-child-victims-of-sexual-offences/ . Accessed 14 May 2020

Bajpai A (2018) Child rights in India: Law, policy, and practice. Oxford University Press

Banerjee A, Dolado J, Galbraith JH, Hendry DF (1993). Co-integration, error-correction, and the econometric analysis of non-stationary data: advanced texts in econometrics. Oxford University Press, Oxford

Barth J, Bermetz L, Heim E, Trelle S, Tonia T (2013) The current prevalence of child sexual abuse worldwide: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Int J Pub Health 58(3):469–483

Article   CAS   Google Scholar  

Becker GS (1968) Crime and punishment: an economic approach. J Polit Econ 76(2):169–217

Article   Google Scholar  

Behere PB, Mulmule AN (2013) Sexual abuse in 8-year-old child: Where do we stand legally? Indian J Psychol Med 35(2):203–205

Bhaumik SK (2015) Principles of econometrics: a modern approach using eviews. OUP Catalogue

Books SW (2016) Regression with Stata. Chapter 2-Regression Diagnostics. UCLA: Academic Technology Services, Statistical Consulting Group. Retrieve from: https://www.coursehero.com Accessed 11 Aug 2016

Bower C (2003) The relationship between child abuse and poverty. Agenda 17(56):84–87

Google Scholar  

Brown RL, Durbin J, Evans JM (1975) Techniques for testing the constancy of regression relationships over time. J Royal Stat Soc: Series B (Methodological) 37(2):149–163

MathSciNet   MATH   Google Scholar  

Bywaters P, Bunting L, Davidson G, Hanratty J, Mason W, McCartan C, Steils N (2016) The relationship between poverty, child abuse and neglect: an evidence review. Joseph Rowntree Foundation, York

Chahine EF (2014) Child abuse and its relation to quality of life of male and female children. Procedia Soc Behav Sci 159:161–168. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.12.350

Chandramouli C, General R (2011) Census of India. Rural urban distribution of population, provisional population total. Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, New Delhi, India

Children in India-Statistical Information (2022) Retrieve from: https://toybank.in/children-in-india-statistical-information . Accessed 05 Jul 2022

Chiu GR, Lutfey KE, Litman HJ, Link CL, Hall SA, McKinlay JB (2013) Prevalence and overlap of childhood and adult physical, sexual, and emotional abuse: a descriptive analysis of results from the Boston Area Community Health (BACH) survey. Violence Vict 28(3):381–402

Chow GC (1960) Tests of equality between sets of coefficients in two linear regressions. Econ: J Econ Soc 28(3):591–605

Chowdhuri S, Mukhopadhayay P (2016) A study of the socio-demographic profile of the persons accused under POCSO act 2012. Int J Health Res Med Leg Pract 2:50–55

Collin-Vézina D, Daigneault I, Hébert M (2013) Lessons learned from child sexual abuse research: Prevalence, outcomes, and preventive strategies. Child Adolesc Psychiatry Ment Health 7(1):1–9

Crime in Indian (2018) Statistics, Volume-I. National Crime Record Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs. Government of India, New Delhi. Retrieve from: https://ncrb.gov.in/

Crime in Indian (2019) National Crime Record Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs. Government of India, New Delhi. Retrieve from: https://ncrb.gov.in/

Crime in Indian (2021) National Crime Record Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs. Government of India, New Delhi. Retrieve from: https://ncrb.gov.in/

Debnath A, Roy N (2012) Structural Change and Inter-sectoral Linkages. Econ Polit Week 47(6):73

Díez-Ticio A, Brande´s E (2001) Delincuencia y accio´n policial. Un enfoque econo´mico. Revista Economı´a Aplicada 9(27):5–33

Domínguez JP, Sánchez IMG, Domínguez LR (2015) Relationship between police efficiency and crime rate: a worldwide approach. Eur J Law Econ 39(1):203–223

Downing NR, Akinlotan M, Thornhill CW (2021) The impact of childhood sexual abuse and adverse childhood experiences on adult health related quality of life. Child Abuse Neglect 120:105181. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2021.105181

Durbin J (1969) Tests for serial correlation in regression analysis based on the periodogram of least-squares residuals. Biometrika 56(1):1–15

Article   MathSciNet   MATH   Google Scholar  

Ehrlich I (1996) Crime, punishment, and the market for offenses. J Econ Perspect 10(1):43–67

Ehrlich I (1973) Participation in illegitimate activities: A theoretical and empirical investigation. J Pol Econ 81(3):521–565

Fraser JA, Mathews B, Walsh K, Chen L, Dunne M (2010) Factors influencing child abuse and neglect recognition and reporting by nurses: a multivariate analysis. Int J Nurs Stud 47(2):146–153. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2009.05.015

Haque MA, Janson S, Moniruzzaman S, Rahman AKM, Islam SS, Mashreky SR, Eriksson UB (2019) Child maltreatment portrayed in Bangladeshi newspapers. Child Abuse Rev. https://doi.org/10.1002/car.2606 . https://indianexpress.com/article/india/crime-against-kids-a-third-still-under-pocso-8119689/ https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/7-pocso-cases-every-month-90-of-accused-known-to-child/articleshow/63118909.cms

Kanpur UP (2020) The Tribune, November 17. 6-year-old girl found dead in Kanpur was gang-raped; heart, lungs taken out to perform black magic

Kansal I (2016) Child sexual abuse in india: socio-legal issues. Int J Sci Res Sci Technol 2(2):1–4

Kartik KK (2020) The New Indian Express, January, 31. Number of POCSO cases in Karnataka moved up in 2019

Krishnakumar P, Satheesan K, Geeta MG, Sureshkumar K (2014) Prevalence and spectrum of sexual abuse among adolescents in Kerala, South India. Indian J Pediatr 81(8):770–774

Kshirsagar J (2020) POSCO-an effective act of the era. Supremo Amicus 18:428

Maity S (2019) Performance of controlling rape in India: efficiency estimates across states. J Int Women’s Stud 20(7):180–204

Maity S (2022) Escalation of police efficiency diminishes POCSO incidences—myth or reality? Evidence from Indian states. Int J Child Maltreat Res Policy Pract 5(1):155–180

Maity S, Sinha A (2018) Interstate disparity in the performance of controlling crime against women in India: efficiency estimate across states. Int J Educ Econ Dev 9(1):57–79

Miller KL, Dove MK, Miller SM (2007) A counselor’s guide to child sexual abuse: Prevention, reporting and treatment strategies. In: Paper based on a program presented at the Association for Counselor Education and Supervision Conference, Columbus, OH

Ministry of Women and Child Development (2013) Model Guidelines under Section 39 of The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012. Retrieve from: https://wcd.nic.in/sites/default/files/POCSO-ModelGuidelines.pdf . Accessed 12 Feb 2020

Moirangthem S, Kumar NC, Math SB (2015) Child sexual abuse: Issues & concerns. Indian J Med Res 142(1):1

Morris MD (1978) A physical quality of life index. Urban Ecol 3(3):225–240. https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-4009(78)90015-3

Morris MD (1980) The Physical Quality of Life Index (PQLI). Dev Digest 18(1):95

CAS   Google Scholar  

Pallathadka H, Kumar S, Kumar V (2021) A socio-legal analysis of child sexual abuse in India. Des Eng 2021(9):1768–1775

Phillips PC, Perron P (1988) Testing for a unit root in time series regression. Biometrika 75(2):335–346

Poirier DJ, Garber SG (1974) The determinants of aerospace profit rates 1951–1971. South Econ J 41:228–238

Rubin ML, Thelen MH (1996) Factors influencing believing and blaming in reports of child sexual abuse: Survey of a community sample. J Child Sex Abuse 5(2):81–100. https://doi.org/10.1300/J070v05n02_05

Scroll Staff (2020) The Indian Express, August 26. Uttar Pradesh: 17-year-old girl raped, murdered in Lakhimpur Kheri; no arrests so far

Sexton DL Jr., Sobelson B (2018) Examining the connection between poverty and child maltreatment and neglect. September 10, 2018. Retrieve from: https://militaryfamilieslearningnetwork.org . Accessed 18 Dec 2019

Soondas A (2018) The Times of India, April, 15. Kathua rape case: ‘Not just me, the nation lost a daughter’. Retrieve from: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com . Accessed 25 Jun 2018

Staff Reporter, New Delhi (2018) 7 POCSO cases every month, 90% of accused known to child Retrieve from: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/63118909.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst . Accessed 18 Dec 2019

Tamilarasi B, Kanimozhi M, Kumari J (2020) Effectiveness of planned teaching programme on knowledge regarding pocso act among school teachers. TNNMC J Med Surg Nurs 8(1):36–39

UNICEF (2022) Retrieve from: https://www.unicef.org/protection/sexual-violence-against-children . Accessed 28 Jun 2022

vonNeumann J, Morgenstern O (2007) Theory of games and economic behavior. Princeton University Press

Wihbey J (2011) Global prevalence of child sexual abuse. Journal Resour 15(4):25–30

Wooldridge JM (2016) Introductory econometrics: a modern approach. Nelson Education

Download references

Acknowledgements

This research did not receive any specific grant from any funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Department of Economics, Vidyasagar University, Midnapore, West Bengal, India

Shrabanti Maity

Department of French, Assam University, Silchar, Assam, India

Pronobesh Ranjan Chakraborty

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Contributions

SM, conceived of the study, participated in its design and coordination, performed the statistical analyses, and drafted the manuscript; PRC, helped to draft and revised the manuscript. Both the authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Shrabanti Maity .

Ethics declarations

Competing interests.

The authors declare no competing interests.

Ethical approval

This study does not involve human participants.

Informed consent

Additional information.

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Tables 9 , 10 , 11

Rights and permissions

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ .

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article.

Maity, S., Chakraborty, P.R. Implications of the POCSO Act and determinants of child sexual abuse in India: insights at the state level. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 10 , 6 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-022-01469-x

Download citation

Received : 30 March 2022

Accepted : 29 November 2022

Published : 03 January 2023

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-022-01469-x

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

Quick links

• Explore articles by subject
• Guide to authors
• Editorial policies

• High contrast
• Our history
• Children in India
• Our partners
• Where we work
• Frequently asked questions
• Press centre

Search UNICEF

Child protection, we work to ensure the realization of children's rights to grow up in a family environment, protected from violence, abuse and exploitation.

• Available in:

Protecting India’s children from violence, abuse and exploitation

India has a wide range of laws to protect children and child protection is increasingly accepted as a core component of social development. The challenge is in implementing the laws due to inadequate human resource capacity on the ground and quality prevention and rehabilitation services. As a result, millions of children are prone to violence, abuse and exploitation. 

Violence takes place in all settings: at home, school, childcare institutions, work and in the community. Often violence is perpetrated by someone known to the child.    India has a fairly comprehensive policy and legal framework addressing rights and protection for children, providing opportunities to ensure that all children have equal access to quality protection services. The core child protection legislation for children is enshrined in four main laws: The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act (2000, amended in 2015); The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act (2006); The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (2012), and The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act (1986, amended in 2016).     Over the past five years, notable efforts have been made to set up fast track courts and deal with cybercrime against children and women.  In 2019, the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Bill was amended, stipulating stricter punishment for sexual crimes against children.    Violence against children is widespread and remains a harsh reality for millions of children from all socio-economic groups in India. Both girls and boys in India face early marriage, domestic abuse, sexual violence, violence at home and in school, trafficking, online violence, child labour and bullying. All forms of violence, abuse and exploitation have lifelong consequences on children’s lives. 

Exact data on violence, abuse and exploitation is not sufficient, but overall the nation is becoming increasingly aware of violence against children, especially sexual abuse. Several cases that may have earlier gone unnoticed, are now being reported.  Anger and shock at child sexual abuse and violence against children are not enough. We all need to come together to #ENDviolence against children. 

Violence against children is widespread and remains a harsh reality for millions of children from all socio-economic groups in India. Both girls and boys in India face early marriage, domestic abuse, sexual violence, violence at home and in school, trafficking, online violence, child labour and bullying. All forms of violence, abuse and exploitation have long-lasting consequences on children’s lives.

Exact data on violence, abuse and exploitation is not sufficient but overall India is becoming increasingly aware of violence against children, especially sexual abuse. Several cases that may have earlier gone unnoticed, are now being reported.

Anger and shock at child sexual abuse are not enough. We all need to come together to #ENDviolence against children.

India has articulated its commitment to eliminating child marriage through numerous policies, laws and programmes. The country’s progress in past decade is one of the strongest among countries in South Asia.    Yet, one in four Indian girls aged 20-24 were found to have been married before 18 years of age, as per the National Family Health Survey (2019-21). The persistence of child marriage remains a potential deterrent to India’s likelihood of achieving Sustainable Development Goal 5 by 2030.  

Child labour remains a complex problem in India. Despite proactive legislative measures and policies to combat the problem, the decline in child labour has been less progressive than expected. Children are most often found working in agriculture and households, with girls often being invisible.  

Data on sexual violence is scarce and is mainly based on the reporting of cases, thus implying that the figures underestimate the magnitude of the problem, especially as many cases go unreported. From the cases that are reported, it can be observed that sexual abusers are mainly male and often individuals known to the child. As per the National Family Health Survey (2019-21), 1.5% of young women in the age group 18-29 reported having experienced sexual violence before the age of 18.

UNICEF strongly believes that all children have the right to grow in a safe and nurturing family environment. Yet, across the world, children continue to be separated or are at a risk of being separated from their families. These children include those living on the streets, transport terminals, and childcare institutions as well as child workers or child victims of human trafficking.  

In the absence of viable options, institutional care is the primary response for children in such situations. However, research studies show that children who grow up in institutional care demonstrate long-term adverse outcomes in terms of physical, cognitive, and mental health. 

Solutions to end violence, abuse and exploitation

Progress has been made in generating social awareness, enhancing legislation and nurturing action towards ending violence, abuse and exploitation of children, but more needs to be done to ensure survivors and their families benefit from sensitive, timely and efficient protection and services.    UNICEF in India works towards strengthening child protection systems; ending child marriage; protecting children on the move; promoting family-based alternative care,  adolescent participation and engagement, and mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS); and preventing child labour, violence against children, and gender-based violence.    UNICEF also focuses on implementation of key child protection legislation and promotion of practices that protect children from violence, abuse and exploitation.    Building on increasing awareness towards child abuse in India, UNICEF can play a major role in enhancing two missing elements of government action: prevention and rehabilitation of survivors of child abuse and exploitation.  

Prevention is central to UNICEF programming as it is the most effective way to deal with child sexual abuse and exploitation. Ensuring India’s children are sufficiently protected requires more than the existing investment, which too is focused on post-incident responses.    UNICEF India also works with the government to provide well-established family-based alternative care options for children without parental care. UNICEF focuses on services to prevent separation of children from families and on rehabilitative services for deinstitutionalized children and care leaving youth. 

UNICEF takes a broad view of the range of support services that provide healing to victims/survivors and their families including focus on counselling, restorative justice programmes, support for school continuation, employment and social protection. Priority is given to promoting social protection programmes which incentivize the reduction of child labour and child marriage.  

A key area of work for UNICEF is to strengthen and advocate for effective delivery of preventive and responsive child protection services in selected states. Working in coordination with the Government of India, 17 state governments, and civil society organizations, UNICEF is creating the building blocks of a child protection system, including financial and human resources, financial institutions, delivery of programmes and monitoring and evaluation.    UNICEF and its India partners are working together to ensure that children are protected from work and exploitation, which is harmful to their development. They are working to ensure that children remain in economically stable family homes and get the opportunity to go to school and be educated. 

UNICEF joins hands with government, civil society organizations and other partners in building communities and families where children are safe and free of abuse and exploitation. 

EVAC Strategy India

The Strategy cuts across sectors and maximizes the convening capacity of UNICEF to support government and partners

Explore more

UNICEF India with IIHMR Delhi and IIT Mumbai launch digital health course to bridge tech-knowledge gaps

Your Role in Water Conservation

Join me in my journey to conserve water and build a sustainable future. Every drop counts!

A Water Warrior's Journey to Transforming Communities

Shankar Bandi's story is one of inspiring change through personal passion and collective action

Child abuse: A social evil in Indian perspective

1 Senior Resident, Department of Pediatrics, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Rishikesh, Uttarakhand, India

Vyas K. Rathaur

2 Professor and HOD, Department of Pediatrics, Veer Chandra Singh Garhwali Govt Institute of Medical Science And Research, Srinagar, Uttarakhand, India

Nowneet K. Bhat

3 Professor and HOD, Department of Pediatrics, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Rishikesh, Uttarakhand, India

Rajkumar Sananganba

4 Junior Resident, Department of Pediatrics, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Rishikesh, Uttarakhand, India

Amanta L. Ittoop

5 Junior Resident, Department of Anesthesia, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Rishikesh, Uttarakhand, India

Monika Pathania

6 Associate Professor, Department of Internal Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Rishikesh, Uttarakhand, India

Child abuse is a social evil which has existed in our society since a long time. The awareness regarding the same has been minimal in developing countries. Many a times, punitive measures taken by parents to discipline their children turn out to be painful scars in their childhood resulting in stunting of their mental and social growth. Doctors and other health care workers have a very important role in identifying and reporting such issues. Law has also evolved over the recent past in safeguarding the future of our children. However, awareness regarding this issue has remained to be the same as before. During the current era of COVID, parents and children have been restricted to their homes. Livelihood of many families have been at risk. These issues have burdened the caretakers at home and absence of teachers who were otherwise their guardian angels have impacted the minds of these children adversely. Hence in this article we intend to provide good clarity about this social evil, and the rights of our children. We also wish to stress upon the duties of parents, doctors, teachers in molding these tender minds so as to get the best out of them.

Introduction

Children are vulnerable and need love, care, shelter, and protection from their caretakers for appropriate growth and development. Abuses against these tender beings often blight their childhood, leading to inability in reaching their full potential—both physically and mentally.[ 1 ] Though child maltreatment has existed for many centuries, contemporary societies have either remained in denial or have been snail-paced to acknowledge them as issues. India houses the second largest child population—India houses 19% of the total children in the world and 18% among them are below 18 years.[ 2 ] Cumulative prevalence of physical, sexual, emotional, neglect, and witnessing intimate partner violence were 5–35%, 15–30%, 4–9%, 6–12%, and 8–25% according to Gilbert R et al . in 2009.[ 3 ] A government of India survey showed that 53% of our children face some kind of abuse.[ 4 ] The last decade has seen a gradual rise in the number of child abuse victims–8,804 in 2014, 14,930 cases in 2015.[ 5 ] In a study conducted in Kerala, 35% of boys and 36% of girls below 18 had faced some kind of sexual abuse during their childhood.[ 6 ] Children between 5 and 12 years were found to be more at risk. The most vulnerable among them were those homeless on the streets, children recruited for child labor, and those in institutional care.[ 7 ]

The various kinds of abuse are:

Physical abuse

Emotional abuse, sexual abuse.

• Fabricated or induced illnesses[ 1 ]
• Societal abuse[ 8 ]

Apart from the above-mentioned abuses, witnessing intimate partner violence has also been regarded as child maltreatment recently in UK.[ 1 ]

Risk Factors

A potential risk factor identified is the concept of intergenerational transmission which showed that victims of child abuse during childhood later became the perpetrators of the same in their adulthood—thus forming a vicious cycle.[ 9 ] In the same study, a childhood abuse potential (CAP) score has been deduced—taking into account their past history of child abuse.[ 9 ] A strong predictor of CAP was also thought to be post-traumatic stress caused by intimate partner violence—its severity and recency.[ 9 ]

Parenting is an art and can make or break a child. Some parents believe that physical punishment could be used to discipline their little ones—leading to another important reason for the long lasting negative impact on their children because of this evil.[ 7 ] Occasionally, parental frustration, alcoholism, mental illness, and disharmony could also add on to the list.[ 7 ]

It was also noticed that most children refused to disclose about the abusive events since the perpetrators were parents and others who were well trusted.[ 7 ] On many occasions, fear of falsely accusing parents who are well reputed and decorated in the society lead to missing the cases of child abuse and hence its continuation.[ 1 ]

Social reasons such as general preference of boys could also lead to the selective neglect of girls leading to their abuse.[ 8 ] Other common social evils such as poverty, illiteracy, caste system, lack of family planning, etc., also contribute to the intensity of the abuse and its ill effects. Increase in urbanization with a recent trend of preferring nuclear families has shown to increase the stress levels in families, and a lack of adequate support structure due to the same—leading to creating an environment amenable for abuse.[ 8 ] Female sex, physical disability, low intelligence quotient, behavioral disorders, maternal illiteracy, maladaptive maternal personality traits, young mothers, parents involved in anti-social activities such as drug abuse, and unwanted pregnancy were the recognized risk factors.[ 10 ]

Identification of Abuse

Physical abuse should be suspected when the child is seen to have injuries in un-exposed areas and posterior areas.[ 11 ] Examination of skin is of prime importance since it is the most commonly affected and visible organ.[ 11 ] Unexplained injury marks on protected parts such as buttocks, thighs, torso, frenulum, ears should raise red flags while we examine children. Similarly, babies who have not achieved the milestones of cruising or crawling cannot have bruises or abrasion on their skin unless intentionally harmed.[ 11 ] An identifiable shape or imprint on the skin could be a tell-tale sign of abuse, such as handprints, belt buckles, cord loops.[ 11 ] Other forms of physical abuse such as shaking, drowning, poisoning do not show any external skin manifestation, and hence a vigilant history taking and examination is mandated.[ 1 ]

Fracture of bones are also seen in cases of physical abuse in children, although there are no pathognomonic signs. Any child less than 1 year of age presenting with a fracture should be evaluated for abuse.[ 12 ] A thorough examination of eye and fundus is also important since a shaken baby could have retinal hemorrhages.[ 13 ] A study conducted in Bahrain showed Skin manifestations, fractures, and head injuries in 59.0%, 10.5%, and 9.7% of the victims, respectively.[ 14 ] Burns are also occasionally inflicted by those who hurt them and may be identified by the shape of imprint, for example, cigarette tip, glove and stocking shaped burns in immersion injuries.[ 1 ]

Any persistent act or conversation conveying messages of worthlessness cause emotional trauma to these children.[ 1 ] However, imposing inappropriate expectations, overprotection, and abnormal social interaction also could be considered emotional abuse, although these acts are well intentioned.[ 1 ]

Features secondary to emotional abuse are very difficult to identify and hence requires multiple focussed sessions with the victim. Children upto 5 years are more vulnerable since the relationships acquired during this period contribute to the socio-emotional development and psycho-social functioning.[ 15 ] Cognitive, motor, and language delays are seen secondary to this reason.[ 16 ] The clinical features may vary in different age groups:

• Babies show delayed development, and excessive crying[ 1 ]
• Toddlers show apathetic behavior, fearfulness, or violence[ 1 ]
• School children show wetting, soiling, non-attendance[ 1 ]
• Adolescents show self-harm, depression, oppositional, and aggressive behavior[ 1 ]

Sexual abuse involves forcing, leading, or enticing anyone below the age of 18 years to participate in sexual activity of any kind, irrespective of the awareness of consequences. Activities could range from contact activities—such as intercourse, buggery, oral sex, or could be non-contact activities—such as watching pornographic materials, or encouraging to behave in a sexually inappropriate way.[ 1 ]

In most cases, children do not complain about such events directly and comes to light when they are identified in pornographic materials, be pregnant, or have a sexually transmitted disease with no clear explanation. Head, face, and mouth should be thoroughly examined since injuries in these areas account for around 60% of the lesions noted. Within the mouth, injuries on frenulum, tongue, mucosa, and lips are the most common.[ 17 ] Vaginal bleeding, itching, discharge, or rectal bleeding could be important clues to further investigate. Children exposing excessive awareness about sexual activities which is unexpected for that age or enacting sexualized behavior should also be considered seriously.[ 1 ] Usually, these activities leave behind long lasting scars in children leading to unnecessary fears suggested by the uneasiness shown to proximity and touch of the caretakers.

Other forms of child abuse

Neglect is an act of omission resulting from the inability to acknowledge and fulfil the needs of a child—both physical and psychological which may have an impact on his/her health and development. Any failure in provision of food, shelter, clothing, protection from danger, adequate supervision, basic medical care and treatment would amount to neglect of child which is considered an abuse.[ 1 ]

Intimate partner violence (IPV) in front of the child contributes to short-term and long-term adverse effects on the behavior of the child. Many a times, children do not speak about it fearing embarrassment. It is estimated that around 15 million youngsters face this issue every year in the United States of America.[ 18 ] It could occur when the child is present in the room in which the violence is happening, when the child overhears the conversations or experiences the aftermath of the incident.[ 18 ] Depression, anxiety, hypervigilance, peer aggression, extreme separation anxiety, tantrums are the specific problems in these scenarios.[ 18 ]

Societal abuse is seen as child beggary, child labor, child marriage, etc., which are seen mostly in poorer and developing nations.[ 8 ]

Approach to Child Abuse

Children who are victims go through conditions of secrecy, helplessness, entrapment, and accommodation. Most of the cases of abuse happen while the perpetrator is alone with the victim, and that leads to the first condition of secrecy. The second condition of helplessness arises out of the power imbalance between the perpetrator and victim and vulnerability of the child which forces the child to go into the third and fourth conditions of entrapment and accommodation. Children may experience various kinds of feelings, including that of embarrassment, shame, guilt, helplessness, and punishment leading to delayed disclosure. These 5 conditions of secrecy, helplessness, entrapment, accommodation, and delayed disclosure together constitute child sexual abuse accommodation syndrome.[ 19 ]

Children should be interviewed in room which is silent, and provides appropriate privacy. A good rapport must be built with the child early in the interview making him comfortable and more willing to disclose.[ 20 ] Before questioning, the child should be made to understand that it is not his/her mistake to get victimized. Assurance must also be given to the child that their narrative would be accepted, and the interviewer should never be judgemental. Patient and compassionate listening over several hours and multiple sittings should be used before any conclusions are drawn. Confidentiality must also be promised.

Any injury or medical finding must be carefully noted, measured, recorded, and drawn on a body map and photographed with consent.[ 1 ] The interaction between the child and parents must be noted. History regarding siblings must be noted and their protection should also be ensured. A meeting with respective social worker, health visitor, police, general practitioner, pediatrician, teachers, and lawyers must be convened to draw a child protection plan.[ 1 ]

Ill Effects of Child Abuse

Childhood abuse leads to cyclothymic mood disorders, depression, anxiety, and irritable temperament.[ 21 ] As mentioned earlier, it adversely affects a child's physical and mental health and causes developmental delay in infants. Physical, cognitive, and reproductive adversities were results of such abuses in early childhood.[ 13 ] A study done in Britain on adults with childhood abuse showed poor physical performance in 12% of people at the age of 50. They also opined that cumulative risk increases with every episode of various types of maltreatment.[ 22 ] Kristen et al . showed that 11.4% of respondents in their study had mental or physical illness.[ 23 ] Children with adverse childhood experience had much more suicidal ideation according to a Chinese study by Kristen clemen et al .[ 24 ] Somatic complaints, asthma, recurrent infections, sleep disorders were also seen to have a significant correlation with adverse events earlier on in childhood.[ 13 ]

Reporting of Abuse and Role of Doctors, Teachers, and Parents

Safeguarding our children is one of our primary responsibility and timely intervention when there are clear events of child maltreatment is our duty toward the society. Parents, teachers should identify vulnerable children and situations and take timely action.[ 1 ] In many cases, reporting was not done by clinicians in spite of knowing about the abuse, since they thought that the repercussions it may have on the child and the family would be devastating.[ 25 ] Few clinicians also avoided reporting because of the intricacies in the legal formalities which could disrupt their smooth practice.[ 25 ] A study conducted by Inanci et al . showed that 21.5% of the primary care doctors who participated in their study had dealt with a case of abuse at least once in their career and 50% among them did not seek any guidance nor report the case. A questionnaire given to the participants showed that the most important factors leading to this act of omission was the unawareness about the formalities of notification and fear of misdiagnosis which scored a mean of 3.48 and 2.93 out of a scale of 5. The most important risk factors identified by the same group was children or parents suffering from mental disabilities, and alcohol and drug abuse among parents which scored 4.3 out of a scale of 5.[ 26 ] A study conducted on the proficiency of family physicians in identifying the cases of child abuse and correctly acting on meeting them showed that a significant 39.7% of the 375 participants were not taught about child abuse in their under graduation and post-graduation days.[ 27 ] This shows the lack of importance given to this topic in the medical curriculum, and the pressing need to inculcate the same in our system.

Pierce et al . had suggested a mnemonic—“TEN-4” which stands for Torso, ears, neck, and 4 stands for the age of 4 years. According to this, any bruises in these areas occurring during the first four years of life should raise suspicion in the minds of primary physicians. It was further enhanced to “TEN FACE sp,” whereby any injury to Frenulum, Angle of jaw, Cheeks, Eyelids along with Sub-conjunctival hemorrhage and Patterned bruises were also added. This rule of thumb was 97% sensitive and 87% specific in predicting abuse.[ 28 ] Abuse of children could be missed in a busy emergency department, and it is very important to set up “child protection service” units specialized in dealing with such cases. A study conducted by Tiyyagura et al . showed that when Community emergency departments, referred cases to dedicated child protection team, on identifying any of the above-mentioned TEN-FACE-sp injuries, an increased reporting of child abuse occurred (from 10.7% to 32.6%).[ 29 ]

Apart from identifying these tell-tale signs, it is also important for a primary care physician to take an elaborate history from the parents and the child—both together and individually. Any discrepancy could be an alarm toward a possibility of maltreatment. Observing the family relationship could also provide few clues. Socioeconomic status is never a factor, since children from all strata of society have been noticed to be victims of this evil.[ 26 ]

Teachers and parents are the guardian angels of these children and school should be their second home. Any small change in behavior or wellbeing in children could be picked up by these people and should be investigated by them by taking these children into confidence. It is the professional responsibility of a teacher to prevent future harm of their young student who will be an asset of the nation in future.[ 30 ] Fear that reporting will affect the relationship between teacher, student, and family, adverse consequences of wrong reporting of a sensational issue, possibility of increase of torture and abuse with reporting, and the inefficiency of the foster homes, hold teachers back from reporting.[ 31 ] Training of teachers to improve their skill and accuracy in detecting this evil and awareness of the various laws to safeguard children will also enhance their confidence in this regard. Prompt action from doctors, police, and legal experts is also essential to ensure smooth running of the safeguarding machinery.

Child Abuse and Law

Protection of children from sexual offences was an act framed by the Indian parliament in 2012.[ 32 ] It is a gender neutral act and encompasses all kinds sexual acts—sexual intercourse, non-penetrative sexual assault, sexual harassment, using child for pornographic purpose, and trafficking of children for sexual purposes.[ 33 ] There are further provisions in this act to preserve the confidentiality and to conduct trial through camera. It also asks for special courts for speedy trials. Failure to reporting a case by a clinician is also punishable—with 6 years of imprisonment and a fine under section 21 of the POCSO act and if a doctor or a hospital staff is involved in rape—a 7 year punishment will be given.[ 33 ]

The duties of a doctor while coming across abuse victims are:

• Thorough medical examination and documentation of evidences
• Treat the injuries
• Age evaluation of the child
• Providing prophylaxis for diseases which could be sexually transmitted or offer contraceptives if penetrative sexual assault has occurred
• Monthly follow-up till 6 months and look for any mental health issues
• Family counselling
• Assist the court in their proceedings

However, there are few flaws in this law:

• In case the victim is an adolescent, consent should be given by both parents and the child. If the child does not give consent, then the law does not provide a clear guidelines for further action.[ 34 ]
• If both victim and perpetrator are adolescents, then there are no provisions or clear instructions.[ 34 ]
• The law has made it mandatory for a medical centre to provide free treatment to a victim. However, if the state does not bear the cost of the treatment and procedures, it will lead to centres providing sub-standard treatment.[ 34 ]

Conclusion and Summary

Children are dependent on their parents along with other caretakers for their appropriate growth and development. These guardians are also duty-bound to provide them with love, care, shelter, and protection. Abuse during this period leads to long lasting effects, which if not picked up at the right time, could continue for a longer time causing non-healing scars in the minds of these children.

Many a times these victims are later seen to be perpetrators of this evil. Systematic approach toward patients with usage of easy to remember checklist such as “TEN-4-FACEsp” should be used to screen children with injuries, and suspicious cases should be reviewed by a dedicated child protection team.

Doctors along with teachers and parents are at many times the first to identify these vulnerable children and have a primary responsibility of championing the drive toward soothing the inflicted physical and mental wounds of the victims, as well as eradicating this evil from our societies. Makers, guardians, and enforcers of law have a role of providing with the adequate checks and balances in the system.

Though there are many laws to prevent abuse, they are mostly confined to sexual abuse. The other forms of abuse including societal abuse and neglect are still hidden in our society hurting our future demographic dividend. They can be uprooted only through strict legislations and collective vigilance of all the sections of society. Apart from reporting such incidents and bringing the perpetrators to light, we need to heal their present and nurture their future so that they could lead a normal life.

Declaration of patient consent

The authors certify that they have obtained all appropriate patient consent forms. In the form the patient (s) has/have given his/her/their consent for his/her/their images and other clinical information to be reported in the journal. The patients understand that their names and initials will not be published and due efforts will be made to conceal their identity, but anonymity cannot be guaranteed.

Financial support and sponsorship

Conflicts of interest.

There are no conflicts of interest.

A qualitative case study of child protection issues in the Indian construction industry: investigating the security, health, and interrelated rights of migrant families

Affiliation.

• 1 Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard School of Public Health, 651 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA. [email protected].
• PMID: 24044788
• PMCID: PMC3848774
• DOI: 10.1186/1471-2458-13-858

Background: Many of India's estimated 40 million migrant workers in the construction industry migrate with their children. Though India is undergoing rapid economic growth, numerous child protection issues remain. Migrant workers and their children face serious threats to their health, safety, and well-being. We examined risk and protective factors influencing the basic rights and protections of children and families living and working at a construction site outside Delhi.

Methods: Using case study methods and a rights-based model of child protection, the SAFE model, we triangulated data from in-depth interviews with stakeholders on and near the site (including employees, middlemen, and managers); 14 participants, interviews with child protection and corporate policy experts in greater Delhi (8 participants), and focus group discussions (FGD) with workers (4 FGDs, 25 members) and their children (2 FGDs, 9 members).

Results: Analyses illuminated complex and interrelated stressors characterizing the health and well-being of migrant workers and their children in urban settings. These included limited access to healthcare, few educational opportunities, piecemeal wages, and unsafe or unsanitary living and working conditions. Analyses also identified both protective and potentially dangerous survival strategies, such as child labor, undertaken by migrant families in the face of these challenges.

Conclusions: By exploring the risks faced by migrant workers and their children in the urban construction industry in India, we illustrate the alarming implications for their health, safety, livelihoods, and development. Our findings, illuminated through the SAFE model, call attention to the need for enhanced systems of corporate and government accountability as well as the implementation of holistic child-focused and child-friendly policies and programs in order to ensure the rights and protection of this hyper-mobile, and often invisible, population.

Publication types

• Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
• Child Welfare*
• Child, Preschool
• Construction Industry*
• Focus Groups
• Health Services Needs and Demand
• Infant, Newborn
• Transients and Migrants / statistics & numerical data*

• GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
• SKIP TO MAIN CONTENT

राष्ट्रीय बाल अधिकार संरक्षण आयोग

National commission for protection of child rights.

Whats New Pause

NCPCR PORTAL'S

Ebaalnidaan.

Online complaint registration system for general public.

Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh Cell

Register your complaint regarding violation of child rights

Baal Swaraj

Rescue and Rehabilitation of Children in Need of Care and Protection

Welcome Please Login To Fill Up The Information.

An Exclusive portal for Children of Border Security Force Personnel who laid down their lives in the line of duty

Out Of School Children Tracking Portal

Click Here To Login

NCPCR@ SOCIAL MEDIA

View this post on Instagram A post shared by NCPCR (@ncpcr_)

VIDEO GALLERY

PHOTO GALLERY

organising Bench in Aspirational Blocks, 20.12.2023 at Kabrai Block of Mahoba Distt.of UP .in the presence of Dr. Divya Gupta, Member, NCPCR

NCPCR Bench Organized in Aspirational Blocks on 29.12.23 at Dakshin Dinajpur Distt W.B.in the presence of Smt.Rupali Banerjee Singh Member Secretary NCPCR

Bench organising in Aspirational Block on 06.02.24 at Distt Nuh Haryana in the presence of Smt.Preeti Bharadwaj Dalal Member, NCPCR

© 2022 National Commission for Protection of Child Rights

Visitor No. : Last Updated: 15-Apr-2024

• Child Participation
• End Violence Against Children

Full Case Study on Child Protection Minimum Requirements: Learnings from World Vision Burundi, Cambodia & Nepal

• Link for sharing
• Share on Facebook
• Share on LinkedIn

This comprehensive case study encapsulates the global effort of World Vision in implementing Child Protection Minimum Requirements across Cambodia, Nepal, and Burundi. It shows the transformative impact of the CPMRS on creating safer environments for children through community-led interventions, reporting and referral mechanisms, and adolescent empowerment. The study showcases the power of collective action and strategic planning in advancing child protection and well-being across diverse communities worldwide. 

Related Resources

CHILD PROTECTION: our collective responsibility