Mathur, Meena; Rathore, Prachi; Mathur, Monika. ‘Incidence and Intensity of Abuse in in .’ Abuse & Neglect: The International Journal, v33 n12 p907-913 Dec 2009. To access the published version, please visit: http://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ863541

Incidence, type and intensity of abuse in

Abstract

Objective: The aims of this cross- sectional survey were to examine the prevalence, type and intensity of abuse in street children in Jaipur city, India.

Method: Based on purposive random sampling, 200 street children, inclusive of equal number of boys and girls, were selected from the streets of Jaipur city, India, and administered an in-depth interview schedule which included five areas of abuse, namely, ‘general abuse’, ‘health abuse’, ‘verbal abuse’, ‘physical abuse’ and ‘psycho- emotional abuse’. Data was interpreted using percentages, t-test and correlations.

Results: Street children reported experiences of abuse in all the five areas under study. Larger numbers of children (61.8%) scored in the ‘moderate’ category’ of abuse while 36.6% children indicated abuse in ‘severe’ and ‘very severe’ categories on the intensity of abuse. Highest mean scores were obtained on the ‘psycho-emotional ’area of abuse. Gender differences were significant in health, verbal and overall abuse, indicating boys to be significantly more abused than girls. .Correlations of abuse with ‘age’ and ‘income’ of street children were found to be significantly positive; and the occurrence of ‘multi-type’ maltreatment and neglect in street children was clearly present.

Conclusion: Different forms of abuse are prevalent in street children in India. This area of study needs attention both by the researchers and the social –workers.

Practice implications: children who are identified in ‘severe’ and ‘very severe’ categories of abuse should be worked with in a follow up study with the help of governmental and non-governmental agencies working in the field for child welfare.

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank I- India and Jan Kala Sahitya Munch, the non-governmental organizations working for the welfare of street children in Jaipur city, India, in assisting and providing support to carry out this research work.

1 Introduction

With acceleration in economic growth, India has become one of the fastest growing developing countries. Nearly29% of the population lives in urban areas, leading to a dramatic growth of slums and shanty towns. The Human Development report of the United Nations Development Program estimates that India probably has the greatest number of street and working children (Barker & Knaul, 1997). Eleven million children on the urban streets are estimated, of them 420,000 street children live in the six metropolitan cities of the country (Butterflies: Annual Report, 2003). India also has the largest number of children in ‘difficult circumstances’ in the world (Pandya & Kacker, 1992). The term ‘children in difficult circumstances’ is an umbrella term which refers to many groups of children in need of care and protection .Statistics do not exist for many of these groups of children ,but with the erosion in values and disorganization of the family due to urbanization and industrialization, the magnitude of the problem is increasing ( NIPCCD, 2002).

Street children could be understood as a minor who appears to be without adequate protection in the streets (Deb, 2006). Myres (1989) classified them in the following three broad categories: “The children on the streets” are primarily working children who still have family connections of more or less regular nature. “Children ‘of’ the streets” see the street as their home and it is there, that they seek shelter, food and a sense of family among companions. Family ties exist but are remote and their former home is visited infrequently. The third category includes “abandoned children”, also called the ‘run- aways’ who are entirely on their own, not just for material but also for psychological survival.

This phenomenon is a manifestation of disturbing and abusive life experiences .Street children are caught in the cycle of and degradation. Almost all street children become a part of ecological conditions of poverty, alcoholism of father, large family size, death of one or both parents and strained relationships with step- parents (Mehindru,1998). Majority of street children come from slums or low cost housing, with high levels of illiteracy , drug use, strained parent- child relationships and unemployment (Mathur, 1997; Aptekar, 1989; De Lima & Gosalia, 1992; Kondaraju, 1996; Abdelgalil, Gurel, Theobald & Cuevas, 2004). Poor performance in school and conflict with teachers are common (Hagan & Mc Carthy, 1997) along with a history of conduct problems (Feital, Margetson, Chamas & Lipman, 1992; Rotherman- Borus, 1993). Experiences, as these, compel children to come to the streets to earn small money in the unorganized sector in the urban cities (Mathur, 1997; Bose, 1992; Aptekar, 1988; Tacon, 1986; Ennew, 1986 & Ghosh, 1992).

Much of the research related to the lives of street children and youth observes a high rate of physical and sexual abuse (Kufeldt & Nimmo, 1987; Whiteback & Hoyt, 2000 ) followed by emotional abuse (Ringwalt, Greene, Robertson & McPheeters, 1998) and neglect (Dadds, Braddock, Cuers, Elliot & Kelly, 1993). Further, commercial and other exploitation result in actual or potential harm to the child’s survival, health, development and dignity. The pattern of exploitation and victimization within the family has serious and cumulative consequences for these youth as they enter the street environment.

2 Demographic characteristics viz. maternal depression , parental alcoholism, inter-familial stress and history of violence largely contribute to children’s probability of being abused (Rew, 2002; Senanayake, Ranasinghe & Balasuriya, 1998) with higher levels of marital discord (Dadds, Braddock, Cuers, Elliot & Kelly, 1993) and domestic violence (Buckner & Bassuk, 1997). . Homeless and ‘runaway’ children and youth come from families that have been disruptive or dysfunctional in some way. On the streets, they survive and protect themselves to a certain extent by forming groups or cliques (Awad, 2002), and may develop their own territory or hierarchy. These groups often have a leader who sometimes exploit the younger children and persuade them to engage in petty theft, prostitution and drugs (Butterflies: Annual Report, 2003).

Literature on child abuse and neglect often suggests a considerable overlap in the occurrence of maltreatment and abuse types. ‘Multi-type maltreatment’’ refers to the coexistence of one or more of the following types of child maltreatment: physical abuse, psychological maltreatment and neglect witnessing family violence (Higgins & Mccabe, 1998). Different types of child maltreatment interact in a manner that is more detrimental to development than the influence of one type alone (Wolfe & McGee, 1994). Theoretical perspectives clearly reveal that various causal factors of child abuse and trauma are interrelated (Straus, 1979; Gelles, 1975; Burgess, 1979; Park & Collmer, 1975). Whether they are related to the characteristics of the perpetrator’s cultural factors; social, structural and environmental factors; parent-child interactions or are victim precipitated, it can be said that multivariate causes of abuse can lead to multi-level and multi-type of abuse in children (Parke, 1977; Nye, 1979)

The aims of this cross-sectional survey study were to examine the type and intensity of abuse in street children; compare the intensity of abuse on five areas, i.e., general abuse and neglect ,health abuse, verbal abuse, physical abuse, emotional and psycho-emotional abuse and sexual abuse; study age and gender related differences in abuse and existing correlation ships between different types of abuse, with a focus on identification of ‘multi-type’ child maltreatment and neglect in street children.

Methods

A large sample of 200 street children were planned to be included in the study, for which mapping of street children was carried out in Jaipur city. The major city was divided in six zones (A-F) on the basis of geographically approximately equal area. Prime city centers, market areas, parks, railway and bus stations and movie theatres were located on the city map in the selected zones and 478 street and working children were identified in these areas. Their names, ages, work status, residential address, income and parental status were obtained. From an identified population, 200 street children were included in the study who represented varied ages, occupations, incomes and working areas, and who were willing to participate in the study. These children were informed of the purpose of the study and the significant role they would play in providing the information. Children’s clear consent was taken to participate in the study. Many of the children were contacted through the help of non-governmental agencies ( I-India and Jan Kala Sahitya Munch) working for the welfare of children in Jaipur city, and in such cases, NGO consent and the consent of the children was sought. Within the selected sample 100

3 children were boys and 100 were girls and were equally split in two age groups, i.e., 10- 14 and 14-18 years. The sampling procedure was based on ‘purposive random’ and ‘snow ball’ technique where either a street child or an employer assisted in identification of another child.

Measures

Available literature on Indian street children was reviewed to develop a theoretical frame work of the measure to be used for the present investigation (Glaser, 2002; Mathur, 1997; Kewalramani, 1992; Ahuja, 2002 and Maher, 1987). An interview schedule was formulated based on six areas of abuse. They were: ‘general abuse and neglect’, ‘health abuse’, ‘verbal abuse’, ‘physical abuse’, ‘emotional and psychological abuse’ and ‘sexual abuse’. In the first section on ‘general abuse and neglect ’statements related to child’s life in the family / on the streets; lack of adequate care and protection; absence of parental contact for long hours; educational neglect; absence of hygienic and sanitary living conditions; odd hours for eating meals; moral neglect; encouragement in antisocial activities etc. were included. The section on ‘health abuse’ included statements regarding overall health status of the child; health neglect; inquiry regarding availability of food, water, shelter, medical care, hours of sleep / rest and opportunities for recreation. Questions related to community on personal hygiene; regular bathing, medical facilities; various forms of addictions, knowledge regarding reproductive and sexual health and HIV / AIDS, teenage pregnancy and abortions were also part of this section. In the section in ‘verbal abuse’ statements related to verbal abuse faced by the child at home by parents and amongst siblings, within the community, on the streets, at work place by the employer, amongst peers and by the police. In the section on ‘physical abuse’ experiences of physical beating, harsh punishments, use of property while beating, alcoholism and beating, physical assaults amongst peers, at work place by the employer, on the streets by the police and strangers were tapped. ‘Emotional and psychological abuse’ included statements which dealt with feelings of insecurity, anxiety, anger and depression; exposure to morally disturbing events, feelings of mistrust / deceit / revenge, risk factors to wellbeing, difficulty in sleeping, lack of concentration, disinterest in life and hopelessness leading to committing suicide. This section intended to explore ‘sexual abuse’ faced by children in form of any objectionable sexual behavior, , incest and rape. Children’s experiences of morally wrong and disturbing sexual events within the family, in the community, amongst peers and at the work site were also aimed to be tapped. Willful sexual activity at a young age, offers of money / food for sexual favors, sexual abuse under threat, and feelings of shame, guilt and fear were also explored in this section.

There were 20 items in ‘general abuse and neglect’ section; 20 in ‘health abuse’; 8 in ‘verbal abuse’; 15 in ‘physical abuse’; 35 in ‘emotional and psychological abuse’ and 18 in ‘sexual abuse’. In all the measure contained 98 items in the interview schedule. Few items were gender and situation specific. The schedule had a structured format where the responses of the subjects were obtained on four categories which were ‘sometimes’, ‘often’, ‘frequently’ and ‘always’. A column for special remarks was also included. The

4 four categories were given a score 1, 2, 3 and 4 respectively which denoted four categories of the intensity of abuse, namely, ‘mild’, ‘moderate’, ‘severe’ and ‘very severe’. A socio-economic profile inventory was also developed to obtain the information of the subject’s name, age, sex, religion, native place, address and family size; familial background (father, mother and siblings; their age, occupation, income and history of migration); residential status (place of living, ties with family / runaway / living in an institution); educational status; occupation and income of the children. This inventory consisted of multiple choice close ended questions and few open ended statements. It comprised of a total of 22 items.

Procedure and statistical analysis

Since, prior to sample selection, mapping of street children was done in the concentration areas of Jaipur city; it was not very difficult to locate the children for the main study. However, a pilot study involving 20 street children was carried out to check on the applicability of the measure; familiarize oneself with the field situation and the moods and variations of the settings and children. Children were able to answer on almost all the sections except in the section on ‘sexual abuse’. After the pilot study, this section was deleted from the tool, instead, was included in the mode of a’ case study’ method.. Street children were found at various street corners and on the road side; working in market centers, roadside restaurants or at railway stations and in institutional care. In-depth interviews, ranging from 35 minutes to 1 hour in duration were conducted. A lot of probing was needed to elicit responses from the children. The interviews were conducted in an informal ‘conversational’ manner and children were encouraged to speak freely and easily in order to maintain the flow and comfort during the interviews. A crucial part of the interaction with these children involved building rapport, so that a level of trust was established for the child to speak out. Besides this, observation and specific case studies were used as other techniques to supplement the primary data and gain information about the abusive experiences of children especially in the area of ‘sexual abuse’ as children did not respond to revealing their encounters of sexual exploitation/ abuse in the interview process. The data was treated using frequencies, percentages, independent sample ‘t’ test and correlations.

Results

The frequencies obtained on the questionnaire were scored, added and tabulated for each section and a grand total score indicated the category of intensity in which the child’s responses of abuse fell .Figure 1gives the percentage profile of street children depicting the intensity of abuse from ‘mild’ to ‘very severe’ categories.

Figure 1 about here

The projection of overall abuse in the total sample was primarily reported by larger numbers of children (61.8%) under ‘moderate’ categotry on intensity of abuse, followed by ‘severe’ (16.9%); ‘very severe’ (19.7%) and ‘mild’ (1.6%) category.All the children reported the incidences of abusive life experiences in ‘general abuse and neglect’, ‘health abuse’, ‘verbal abuse’, ‘physical abuse’ and ‘emotional and psychological abuse’. The

5 mean scores obtained on each of the type of abuse were calculated and these values were compared to identify the areas where children have indicated highest responses in abuse.Figure 2. presents the mean score values on different types of abuse in the total sample.

Figure 2 about here

Figure 2 indicates that highest mean scores were obtained in the area of ‘psycho- emotional abuse’ ( 59.14%), followed by ‘general abuse and neglect’ (31.24%), ‘health abuse’(29.53%), ‘physical abuse ( 20.67%)’ and ‘verbal abuse’(13.60%).

Impact of gender, age and income of street children were also studied with type and overall abuse experienced by them. The mean scores on five types of abuse of boys and girls were statistically calculated using ‘t’ test and significant differences were obtained in the area of ‘health abuse’, ‘verbal abuse’ and ‘overall abuse’. Boys indicated significantly higher abuse as compared to girls in these areas (health abuse- boys: n= 100, mean = 31.71, s.d. = 11.13; girls: n = 100, mean = 27.35, s.d. = 9.60; t = 2.96** > at 0.01 level; verbal abuse- boys: n = 100, mean = 14.54, s.d. = 5.54; girls: n = 100, mean = 12.66, s.d. = 5.64; t = 2.37** > at 0.01 level; overall abuse – boys: n= 100, mean = 159.77, s.d. = 43.10; girls: n = 100, mean = 148.60, s.d. = 38.62; t = 1.93* > at 0.05 level)

Age was taken as a consideration to understand the intensity of abuse in the five areas within the sample .As street children were drawn from two broad age groups, i.e., from 10-14 years and 14-18 years of age, primarily to compare the extent of abuse in early street adolescents and late street adolescents ( middle adolescents falling in both the age groups); age comparisons were made using statistical measures (t-test). The data did not show any significant differences in the intensity of abuse in all the five areas for the early street adolescents and the late street adolescents group.However, when correlations of different types of abuse were calculated with the ‘age’of the subjects, highly significant positive correlations were obtained. Table 1 presents the correlation values of the total sample between ‘age’ and types of abuse.

Table 1 about here

The table indicates a highly significant positive correlation of age with all the five types of abuse at 0.01 level of significance, there by suggesting an increase in abuse with an increase in age.The overall abuse scores were also found to be positively correlated with age (‘r’=0.167 *, n=200 ,significant at 0.05 level of significance).

Correlations in daily income and all five type of abuse were examined for 176 children, (excluding 24 institutionalized runaway children), who were engaged in some form of economic activity for money on the streets. Table 2 presents the correlation values obtained between the income and different types of abuse in children

Table 2 about here

A highly significant and positive correlation was found at 0.01 level of significance in the incomes earned by street children and the abusive experiences in the five areas in the

6 total sample, suggesting that with the increase in income, there was a significant increase in the abuse on all the five type of areas under study.

Multi-Type Abuse and Maltreatment

The data was analyzed for studying ‘multi-type abuse and maltreatment’ in street children for which the scores obtained on all the five areas of abuse, i.e., general abuse and neglect, health abuse, verbal abuse, physical abuse and emotional and psychological abuse per child were correlated (Table 3). All the five type of abuse were found to be positively correlated with each other, thereby suggesting a highly significant positive relationship among all the five types of abuse in the life of street children.

Table 3 about here

Discussion

The results of this study indicated that street children responded to being abused in all the five categories undertaken which were ‘general abuse and neglect’, ‘health abuse’, ‘verbal abuse’, ‘physical abuse’and ‘psycho- emotional abuse’.To examine the intensity of abuse,the responses of children were classified in four categories,i.e., ‘mild’, ‘moderate’, ‘severe’ and ‘very severe’ depending upon the frequency and intensity of a certain abusive experience; this study reported 61.8% street children in Jaipur city, experienced abuse in ‘moderate’ category while16.9% children reported to experience ‘severe’abuse; and 19.70% street children reported abuse in ‘very severe’ category.Only 1.60% children fell in ‘mild’ category . A large group of steet children experienced severe and very severe abuse in their familial and work life . Research conducted in India on street children support these findings by reporting the prevalence of different forms of abuse and exploitation faced by children within the family and at their work place. (Bose, 1992; Pandey, 1993; Kondaraju, 1996; Mehindru, 1998).

The type of abuse in the five areas in the present study indicated that the ‘psycho- emotional’ abuse was highest in street children (mean:59.14) followed by ‘general abuse and neglect (mean:31.71), ‘health abuse’, ‘physical abuse’ and ‘verbal abuse’.As Dingwaney, Dogra,Vidhyasagar & Gupta (1988) point out, “ The various forms of abuse- excessive hours of work,low remuneration,constant exposure to unhealthy and unsafe working conditions, long and sometimes permanent separation from families, physical abuse and cruelty are found in many work settings.There are also other kinds of deprivations from which street children suffer, including the absence of clear and written contractual agreements, the dearth of feeding programmes, health care facilities and other welfare services, and the lack of insurance and social security . The effects of all these, on the physical and psychological development of the working child can be far reaching and often irreversible”. It is clearly seen from the results that street children face a high degree of ‘psychological and emotional’ abuse, both within their family and working on the streets. Children, denied of the basic facilities of every day living; frequent absence of parental supervision, alchoholism and substance abuse among adults, stressful family

7 environment and long hours of work with very less wages contribute to low self esteem, depression, negatively and anti- social behaviour.

Gender differences were reported in the area of ‘health abuse’ and ‘verbal abuse’ in which boys reported significantly higher abuse in comparison to the girls.Also on the ‘overall abuse’ boys indicated significantly higher abuse than the girls. In a field study conducted earlier by Mathur (1997), it was observed that boys worked on the streets for significantly longer hours when compared to girls; also the tasks undertaken by boys were by far, more tedious, laborious and difficult in comparision to girls. Longer hours away from home exposes the boys to greater risks and abuse in comparision to girl street children. These findings are further supported by studies conducted by Pandey (1993), Reddy (1992) and Verma & Dhingra (1993).

‘Age’ was used as a significant parameter for understanding the type and intensity of abuse in children as it raises certain research questions as to whether child abuse increases with increase in age or vice-versa. In the present study when the two main age group samples (10-14 and 14-18) were compared, significant differences in the type of abuse were not noted. However when correlations of different types of abuse were calculated with the age of the subjects, highly significant positive correlations were obtained. These findings indicate a pattern that as street children advance in age; spend more time working on the streets and get exposed to more risks and hazards; their abusive experiences also increase multifold. A similar trend is observed when ‘income’ of street children is correlated with intensity of abuse in children.

In the present study considerable overlap was found in the occurrence of maltreatment and abuse types. In the data when interrelationships within the five types of abuse, i.e., ‘general abuse and neglect’, ‘health abuse’, verbal abuse’, ‘physical abuse’ and ‘psychological and emotional abuse’ were calculated, a highly significant positive correlation ship was observed among the five types of abuse. This finding clearly suggests that if a child experiences high level of abuse in one area, he will be encountering high level of abuse in other areas as well. Hence this study establishes the manifestations of abuse to be multivariate and significantly correlated; thereby supporting the theoretical stand of ‘multi-type’ abuse and maltreatment. Within the present study, it is observed that street children who reported higher ‘psychological and emotional abuse’ were also higher on other types of abuse. Several studies reveal that abused and neglected children develop heightened sense of vulnerability, anxiety, anger, fear and low self esteem (Whiteback and Hoyt, 2000; Emery, 1989; Park, 1977) which further show impact on general health and development of the child.

The major aims of this study were to identify and present the type and intensity of abusive life-experiences in street children as narrated by them. Reaching the families of these children and cross- examining the validity of the responses of children was not a part of this investigation which emerges as one of the limitations of this study. Working with street children itself poses many challenges for the researcher and the task of gathering data is equally difficult. The researcher needs to probe with a clear focus as children may sometimes lie or manipulate their audience (Lusk, 1992; Felsman,1989; Leite & Esteves,1991, Aptekar, 1994). In continuation to the present study, the familial

8 and other significant ecological factors of severely and very severely abused children can be examined. In the area of ‘sexual abuse’ often the researcher and the children were at a loss of words as children were not willing to speak about their sexual encounters /assaults. However, on deep probing, incidences of sexual abuse were reported by both boys (n=7) and girls (n=4) in the case-profiles and this area needs far more sensitive handling to obtain accuracy and authenticity.

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