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Nair offers solace to abused children
For the last one month, a multi-disciplinary panel of doctors has been working with victims of abuse as police officers sit by and record statements. This ensures that the traumatised kids don’t have to talk about their horrors over and over again .........SANTOSH ANDHALE
It’s been nearly two months since nine-year-old Roshni Singh [name changed to protect identity] was raped by a 27-year-old man while she was alone at home, but the girl is still traumatised. Fortunately for her, her parents took her for treatment to the BYL Nair Hospital, which recently set up a multi-disciplinary child protection centre.
A victim of abuse has to relive the trauma again and again as he/she gives statements to the police. At the Nair Hospital centre however, there are a panel of doctors who examine the child and start treatment almost immediately, even as police officers record the statement. The centre also works with the UNICEF and a social worker is usually present when the victim meets the doctors. Started a month ago, this is Mumbai’s only such centre.
Roshni and her mother [a commercial sex worker] now receive counselling by the centre’s psychiatrist. The man who had raped her tried to escape after committing the crime, but the girl raised an alarm and he was caught by neighbours. “She was extremely traumatised when she was brought in. She refused to reveal her injuries as they were painful. She was bleeding profusely. Our gynaecologist had to administer her anaesthesia to conduct the examination,” said Dr Shailesh Mohite, head of the Nair Hospital’s forensic science department. Mohite added, “We told Roshni and her mother that if they co-operated we could punish the rapist. It helped and she [Roshni] identified him during the identification parade.”
However, all the work is not yet over. “She has not recovered yet. She doesn’t want to remember the incident at all. When she returned for a follow-up we sent her and her mother for counselling. We hope that she learn to cope with reality after the treatment,” Dr Mohite added.
THE USUAL DRILL When a victim of abuse is brought to the hospital the child is first taken to a medical officer who takes down all the details. Then the victim is referred to a gynaecologist for examination.The victims is made to relive the trauma all over again. The gynaecologist then sends the victim to the forensic department where they collect her blood samples and examine her from a medico-legal point of view. Finally, the police ask the victim to speak again, in detail, as they must record her statement for the FIR. A social worker is usually present when the victim meets the doctors
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