Kerala is a state in India, and while I will not claim to be any sort of expert on Indian culture and society, I know that male sexual abuse is a taboo subject to talk about, much as it is everywhere.<\/p>\n
For that matter any sexual abuse is a taboo subject to talk about, but males being sexually abused is mostly considered an anomaly, and frankly, boys are not exactly encouraged to come forward with stories of being abused. People in any society are likely to make a lot of assumptions about the relative “strength” of males who admit to being sexually assaulted, and we know that the number of reported cases of sexual abuse of boys is very likely to be only a portion of the actual cases. And yet, in Kerala, there are thousands of reported cases:<\/p>\n
“As per a report, boys are victims in 17 per cent sexual abuse cases that are reported in Kerala”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
If we assume this is only a portion of the actual cases, we are looking at thousands of boys, sexually abused by adults, of all genders. And, in Kerala and in most places around the world as well, very few resources to help them, because sexual abuse resources, few as they are, are overwhelming designed to assist girls.<\/p>\n
I share this article not to pick on India, or Kerala, but because that number, 17 percent, means there are a lot of male victims out there. If we assume, and I know we can, that only a small percentage of victims ever report, that’s a whole lot of victims, who may believe that, because of their gender, they cannot possibly be victims.<\/p>\n
That is a recipe for disaster at the personal, and societal, level. We need to stop with this stigma. We need to see victims and survivors, of all kinds, as needing support and help. Until we do, we are leaving far too many boys behind, to a life less than it could be with some help.<\/p>\n