| Abstract: | ‘Rape’ as a sexual offence has been existing since time immemorial. In a country like India with her conservative and traditional society, sex is not discussed freely and a sexual offence particularly in childhood is hushed up, for fear of the victimised girl's future. Here an attempt is made to study the relavent factors responsible for ‘rape’ in children. These individual cases were followed up, rescued and rehabilitated whenever possible. This paper deals with a prospective study of 130 cases, between the ages of 6 months to 18 years from Bombay, over a period of 15 months. Over 77.68% oases were more than 4 years of age and 6.15% were between the ages of 6 months and 6 years. Shockingly, 2 young infants were of 6 months of age. Majority of these girls belonged to various slums of Bombay. 34.5% of girls were illiterate, and 79.23% had some knowledge about sex. Surprisingly 36.16% were willing victims and the criteria for including these cases under ‘rape’ was their under age i.e. less than 18 years. Of these 130 victims, 23 conceived, of which 6 delivered after full term. The remaining 17 cases were medically terminated. Of the accused, neighbours were responsible in 51.53% of cases, the remaining being contributed by employer, relative, friend and known hooligans from the same area. Some of these girls were rehabilitated and some are still in the remand home. Few girls, though minor, were married to the accused and were still keen on accepting them as their husbands against the wish of their parents. |
