“Why won’t you believe me?”: Disbelief In Youngsters Is At The Root of CSA In India

Child sexual abuse shouldn’t be taken lightly anywhere

Photo by Church of the King on Unsplash

There’s a particular phenomenon that’s gripped Indian families. The staunch refusal to take the words of youngsters at face value.

Distrust and disbelief in youngsters is so common in Indian households, it’s probably an epidemic of its own right now. I felt the first hand effects of this growing up in an Indian household.

My parents never used to believe me as a kid. They usually rushed to break up a fight, not to my aid or defence, but because they assumed it to be started by me. They would forcefully pull me off the other kid completely unaware of what’s going on believing me to be the cause of the trouble by default. Because of my childish and playful nature at home they would reprimand me for “provoking others unnecessarily” whenever they caught me in a scuffle outside, thereby playing the devil’s advocate by default.

On the flip side, when it came to the parents of other kids, they would take their words at face value even when they were lying. In the eyes of my parents, other kids were truthful by nature and I was the liar by default. I was incredulous with disbelief too shocked and stunned, but also too immature to believe what was going on at the time. I just…