Understanding Child Sexual Abuse: Findings from an Ethnographic Research Among the Mothers in Delhi National Capital Region (India)

Abstract Child sexual abuse (CSA) is a widespread problem against children in India. Data suggest that every hour four children are being sexually abused in the country. In this context, the current qualitative research intends to explore the awareness, beliefs, and perceptions about the CSA among the mothers from the lower economic sections of the society. Using in-depth interviews, 30 females aged 18–54 years were interviewed from five marginalized communities in Delhi National Capital Region (NCR), India. The sampling was purposive and convenient, and the data collected were thematically analyzed using the interpretive paradigm. The findings reveal that awareness about CSA is quite high among the research participants. However, the testimonies of the participants reflect limited and narrowed understanding of CSA as most of the participants believed that only penetrative sexual assaults such as rape or sodomy qualified as sexual abuse, thereby underestimating the other non-penetrative sexual abuses such as verbal abuses, voyeurism, contact abuses such as fondling, sharing pornographic materials, or internet-based sexual abuse. The data further reveal that the participants were quite aware of the potential threat of CSA; however, they were uninformed of the preventive measures to prevent and stop the CSA. The results reveal the dire need for intervention in the form of education and awareness for the mothers using suitable Information, Education, and Communication (IEC) materials to accomplish CSA prevention.