WHAT  IS            
VIOLENCE  against  CHILDREN?

A lot of children everywhere in the world are abused and feel very sad and unhappy with their lives because of bad things that happen to them. Most of these bad things are done to them by other people. We call these bad things violence against children. Violence is harmful to children’s physical and mental development and will harm their lives.

Violence is when someone uses his or her strength or power to hurt someone else on purpose. There are three types of violence against children. These are:

       -     Physical Violence
   -     Psychological Violence
   -     Sexual Violence

What is Physical Violence? This is the use of physical force or bad treatment causing pain or discomfort. This is done in order to discipline, correct, control and change behaviour of children. Physical violence is hitting a child with hand or other object, kicking, shaking or throwing a child, pinching or pulling the hair, whipping or beating.

Another form of physical abuse is child labour – this is when children work long hours for low or no wages, when children do work that damages their health, physical and mental development. These children mostly do not go to schools and don’t have family support.

Another form of physical abuse is engaging children in war. Making them soldiers and forcing them to use guns.

WHAT IS Psychological Violence? It is when someone uses words or actions to humiliate and make children feel unwanted and bad about themselves. It is done in the form of neglect (not taking proper care of the child), degradation and demeaning (telling the child that he/she is useless etc), ridicule (making fun of the child) and threat (causing fear by saying things).

What is Sexual Violence?     

Sexual violence is violence committed against children in the form of rape (sexual intercourse forcefully or by cheating the child), commercial sexual exploitation (using children and forcing them to perform sex for money), trafficking (taking children from one place to another for sexual activities or to work in houses or to make money by doing hard work), early marriage (making a child marry before the age of 15), Female genital mutilation (cutting of part of baby girls’ sex organs), any other form of verbal threats, insults and comments that relate to sex.

What is ‘neglect’? Is it also considered as child abuse?

Neglect is the continuous failure to meet a child’s basic physical and/or psychological needs. Neglect is very likely to result in the serious impairment of the child's health and or development.
Neglect may occur when a child is not allowed to attend school, is denied access to appropriate medical care or treatment, a parent or care giver failing to provide adequate food and clothing, shelter - including abandonment, failing to protect a child from physical and emotional harm or danger. It may also include neglect or unresponsiveness to a child's basic emotional needs.
A lot of child victims of trafficking, who are exploited for their labour also suffer neglect because usually, their education and welfare is not a priority for their exploiter.