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Child-molestation blamed on poor sex education
A series of child-molestation cases in China have exposed a dearth in sex education for the world’s most populous country and fueled an outcry for better protection of the underage population.
Last Tuesday, a primary school teacher was detained after being suspected of raping several girls in a rural school, local police in central China’s Hubei Province announced.
Since July, the public security bureau of Yunxi County, Shiyan City, had received reports that a male teacher surnamed Ding raped a number of female pupils at a primary school in Guanyin Township.
Ding, 61, regularly targeted students aged 8 and 9 beginning in September 2013. The suspect confessed he would ask them to come to his dormitory with the excuse of examining their homework and then rape them, the bureau said.
In a separate case, a primary school teacher was detained in southwest China’s Yunnan Province for molesting several girls in July. These are just examples of a worrisome situation in China. According to a joint investigation by the Guangdong Women’s Federation and the provincial procuratorate, in the past three years more than 2,500 underage girls were sexually assaulted in the province.
Data from the United Nations Children’s Fund show that about 120 million girls under the age of 20 worldwide (about 1 in 10) have experienced forced intercourse or other forced sexual acts.
China’s rural areas, still plagued by poverty and deep-rooted traditional beliefs, seem to be prone to such sexual assault cases, as children receive very little education about sex. Research by the Beijing Youth Legal Assistance Research Center (BJYLARC) reveals that more than 60 percent of such cases take place in less-developed localities.
Keeping skeleton in closet
But there is a bigger concern. For a big number of the victims or their families, cases are often kept quiet. Bound by traditional values, families of sexually abused children in China’s vast rural areas tend to keep the skeleton in the closet to avoid potential backlash.
A survey among 5,800 students in middle and primary schools in China shows that for each molestation case exposed, there are at least seven similar cases concealed, according to People’s Public Security University of China that conducted the survey. To make matters worse, danger is usually lurking in their most familiar environment. According to a 2013 investigation on child molestation by the BJYLARC, 80 percent of the crimes were committed by acquaintances of the victims.
One of the underlying reasons for the frequent sexual assault on minors is low thresholds in teacher recruitment in China’s rural schools. The headmaster of a rural school in central China’s Hunan Province told Xinhua that teaching staff are usually dwarfed by the number of “left-behind children,” children who remain in rural homes while their parents work in the city. That lowers the threshold for recruitment of teachers.
Li Bin, a sociology professor at Central South University, said values in our society seldom encourage children to say no to teachers who conduct inappropriate actions to them.
In recent years, China has stepped up efforts to encourage sex education among the country’s minors.
In 2011, the State Council, China’s Cabinet, published a broad-stroke outline for the healthy growth of children, stating that sex education should be included in China’s compulsory education.
In the same year, the Shanghai municipal government began giving out sex education pamphlets to students. Other places like Beijing and Guangdong have tried similar efforts, but the results have been less than satisfactory.
In 2013, at least 125 molestation cases were reported by media, averaging one case every 2.92 days, according to the China Social Assistance Foundation.
Qin Xiyan, a lawyer with the Hunan Qinxiyan law firm, said China’s current law has many loopholes when it comes to the protection of children. “For instance, many law items are not specific enough regarding child molestation, and penalties are not harsh enough,” Qin said, adding that insufficient law enforcement also hampers protection efforts.
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