On what is Sexual Abuse

In the course of every edition of Sattva comes a point when the theme redefines itself and we truly understand the varied perspectives of the issue under discussion. It happened, for instance, during the edition on Health. The story about the terminally ill patient (Ayesha) preparing for her IAS exams extended our definition of Health from being a social issue to a very personal and subjective topic.

There was a similar moment during our current issue on Sexual Abuse.

We had defined Sexual Abuse as 'as any form of physical, psychological, moral and social abuse against an individual in the name of sex. This included physically exploiting women and children to denying sexual minorities and hijras their rightful place in the society'. And we made a list of support groups for sexual minorities, organizations working with hijras, CSWs and experts based on this broad definition.

It was when we met Vinay, the executive director of Swabhava, that we saw our spread in an entirely different light. He has strong opinions against addressing Sexual minorities and issues like child sexual abuse in the same issue. While we saw them fitting under the common umbrella of sexual abuse, he saw the obvious differences between the two.

Child sexual abuse is about victimization. And as much as we believe it is terrible, we can rationalize it in some way and can define a cause and effect. And when we discuss the issue, we talk of therapy, corrective measures and ways of 'bringing the victims back to normal' life. However, with homosexuals, the issues that usually are raised, as Vinay mentioned, are "normal, moral, natural and cultural". In other words, alternate sexual preference is unnatural, against our culture and is far from normal. We cannot rationalize it but see it as an aberration to the natural and normal order.

And one of the issues that support groups are fighting is the social view that homosexuals need therapy, corrective measures and ways of 'bringing them back to normal' life.

What they are fighting for is their rightful place in the society, and to be able to live without being judged purely on their sexual preference. That is a much more existential struggle.

We had two choices - We could have either revamped the issue and removed any references to the Child sexual Abuse. Or rather than resolving the issue, we could highlight the different perspectives - Which is what we have tried to do. One of these days, I hope to convince Vinay to share his thoughts on this subject with a broader audience through Sattva, with the same conviction and clarity as I heard it over the phone - thoughts I can only paraphrase but never reciprocate with the same honesty.