Woman and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi proposed amendment of an existing “scheme” for boys, who have been raped or sexually exploited on Tuesday.
“Another much neglected sphere of child sexual abuse is male survivors. Child sexual abuse (CSA) is gender neutral. Boys who are sexually abused as children spend a lifetime of silence because of the stigma and shame attached to male survivors speaking out. It is a serious problem and needs to be addressed,” she said in her response to a petition on Change.org by filmmaker Insia Dariwala on male child sexual abuse. The online petition that launched last month has already gathered over 45,000 signatures.
She also announced a study on male survivors of child sexual abuse, a first of its kind study exclusively for males.
The online campaign, called “End The Isolation”, has male child abuse survivors who have come forward to share their stories in a bid to help others to speak openly about their perpetrators. Through their campaign, they hope that the government will pay more attention to the issue.
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