His Silent Experiences

Abstract

Child sexual abuse has been recognized and widely discussed as a social problem over the last three decades in India. Most of the studies dealing with the question of child sexual abuse have highlighted the issues of girl children and, as a result, the abusive sexual experiences of male children have remained as random sensational news in media rather than as a subject that required serious attention and interventions. It is against this background that the chapter attempts to review and synthesize the literature on sexual abuse and commercial sexual exploitation of male children in India. It challenges many popular understandings about sexual abuse of male children, including forms of abuse, gender of perpetrators, disclosure, and effects in everyday life. The chapter suggests contextualized qualitative research on abusive sexual experiences of boys and their resilience by following ethical guidelines. It further argues for adopting a conceptual framework of gender, masculinities, and sexuality to develop a nuanced understanding about the reality.

Appendices

Summary of the Studies

Author(s)	Methodology	Methods of data collection	Study population and age in years	Sample size and design
Pagare et al. (2005)	Quantitative	Structured interview	Runaway boys (6–18)	189, not specified
Gaidhane et al. (2008)	Quantitative	Structured interview	Adolescents street (11–19)	163, Simple random sampling
Nayak et al. (2010)	Quantitative	Structured interview	Young and adult men (16–49)	1137, Stratified random sampling
Mitayani (2011)	Quantitative	Structured Interviews	Boys (6–18)	50
EQUATIONS (2003)	Mixed	Structured interviews, FGDs	Boys (10–18)	50
Akula (2006)	Mixed	Structured interviews IDIs, FGDs	Boys <18 years	66 [30+30+6]
Lahiri & Kar (2007)	Mixed	IDIs FGDs	Young people (15–25)	425
EQUATIONS & ECPAT International (2008)	Mixed	IDIs and FGDs	Boys (6–18)	22 (9+13)
Tomori et al. (2016)	Mixed	Structured interview FGDs and KIs	MSMs (>18)	11788, Respondent driven
Subramaniyan et al. (2017)	Qualitative	Semistructured, IDIs	Boys (<10, 10–17)	3
Bhaskaran (2003)	Qualitative	FGDs, IDIs	Boys	50
Sahay (2008)	Qualitative	FGDs and IDIs	Young male sexual offenders (15–26)	131 (85 Tribal and 46 Non-tribal males) Purposive sampling
Jayaraj (2009)	Qualitative	IDIs	Boys (15–18)	12
Mimiaga et al. (2015)	Qualitative	FGDs, IDIs, and KIs	MSMs (>18)	55, Purposive sampling

Definitions of Child Sexual Abuse

Author(s)	Definition of CSA
Pagare et al. (2005)	The involvement of a child in a sexual activity that he or she does not fully comprehend, is unable to give informed consent to or that violate the laws or social taboos of society
Gaidhane et al. (2008)	Forcibly (without consent) involved in act of sex by anyone, even once
Sahay (2008)	The measure of sexual offence consists of action that includes a range of relatively minor acts such as passing comments as well as more serious offences such as forcing victims to watch masturbation or to help in masturbation, touching, pressing, and fondling the genitals or breasts of the victims or introducing them to pornography
Nayak et al. (2010)	“Do sexual things or watch sexual things?” before they were 16 years old
Mimiaga et al. (2015)	Experienced unwanted/nonconsensual sexual contact
Tomori et al. (2016)	CSA defined as unwanted sexual experiences such as touching or sexual intercourse (either oral or anal) before 16 years old
Subramaniyan et al. (2017)	Not Specified
EQUATIONS (2003)	Not Specified
Akula (2006)	The use of a child in sexual activities for remuneration or any other form of consideration/ Abuse ranges from fondling to forced sex
Lahiri & Kar (2007)	NS
EQUATIONS & ECPAT International (2008)	It comprises sexual abuse by the adult and remuneration in cash or kind to the child or a third person or persons. The child is treated as a sexual object and as a commercial object
Bhaskaran (2003)	Sexual abuse takes place when you have been kissed, forcefully toddled, handled, forced to have sexual intercourse or when sexually violated through oral or anal intercourse and penetrated with a foreign object against your will. Sexual abuse may involve touching private parts, asking him or her to touch himself or others, bathing together. Showing the child sexually arousing photographs or films, taking pornographic photographs, making personally gratifying sexual comments in front of, or with reference to the child, forcing the child to indulge in oral or anal sex and sexual intercourse
Jayaraj (2009)	Sexual exploitation of children refers to the use of children (under 18 years) for the sexual satisfaction of adults. The basis of the sexual exploitation is the unequal economic and power relationship between the child and the adult
Mitayani (2011)	Child sexual abuse is the involvement of a child in sexual activity that s/he does not fully comprehend, is unable to give informed consent to, or for which the child is not developmentally prepared and cannot give consent, or that violate the laws or social taboos of society. Child sexual abuse is evidenced by an activity between a child and an adult or another child who by age or development is in a relationship of responsibility, trust or power; the activity being intended to gratify or satisfy the needs of other person. This may include but is not limited to: the inducement or coercion of a child to engage in any unlawful sexual activity; the exploitative use of a child in prostitution or other unlawful sexual practices; and the exploitative use of a child in prostitution or other unlawful sexual practices; and, the exploitative use of children in pornographic performance and materials