Child victims of sexual abuse in India are often mistreated and humiliated by the police, doctors and officials, a study by an international human rights group said Thursday.
The Human Rights Watch (HRW) report said child sexual abuse was "disturbingly common" in Indian homes, schools and care homes and called on the government to improve protections for them as part of reform efforts following the gang rape and killing of a student in New Delhi.
"Children who bravely complain of sexual abuse are often dismissed or ignored by the police, medical staff and other authorities," HRW regional director Meenakshi Ganguly said at the release of the report.
HRW said many children are "effectively mistreated a second time by traumatic medical examinations and by police and other authorities who do not want to hear or believe their accounts."
It said government efforts to tackle the problem will also fail "unless protection mechanisms are properly implemented and the justice system reformed to ensure that abuse is reported and fully prosecuted."
The report pointed out that abuse of children at care homes for orphans and at-risk children was a "particularly serious problem."
It was based on detailed case studies and 100 interviews with victims, relatives officials and experts.
According to a government report, 7,112 children including infants were raped in 2011, an increase of 30 per cent from the previous year. Another report in 2007 said over 53 per cent of 12,447 children surveyed reported one or more forms of sexual abuse.
Rights activists say the vast majority of cases go unreported because of social stigma attached to abuse and poor monitoring by the government.
India last year implemented the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, which for the first time made all forms of child sexual abuse a criminal offence.
But changes in social attitudes as well as the way police, doctors and the judiciary deal with such cases were as important as proper implementation of the laws, HRW said.