Hyderabad: Minor boys in Hyderabad are at the risk of being raped or sodomised by perverts, and often dare not report what has happened out of fear.
Last week, a 22-year-old caretaker of a madrasa was booked for sexually harassing a nine-year-old boy.
In another shocking case in the city, a 11-year-old boy was sexually assaulted and murdered in Chandrayangutta, allegedly by his 17-year-old neighbour who the police suspect has assaulted at least 15 other children in the area over two years and was a victim of rape himself. He worked in a paan shop, and used to spend most of his time in a playground in Barkas where he targeted boys who came to the ground regularly and lured them with toffees and cookies, the police said.The accused juvenile said he was also a victim of sodomy and police have identified two men as the perpetrators, one of whom is in police custody.
Male survivors go through much the same psychological torture and trauma that female victims of rape do, but there is a lack of supporting institutions for them.
Purnima Nagaraja, a consulting psychiatrist, says the same mindset that blames women for being raped affects men as well.
“When raped, a man is termed as unable to protect himself and at times labelled ‘unmanly’. Survivors are dismissed because it is believed that they surely ‘must have enjoyed it’, a reasoning stemming from the thinking that men are ever-ready sexual beings, and thus the concept of ‘consent’ is often ignored in the context of men.”
While society has started talking a little more openly about rape of women, even the basic acknowledgement of sexual violence against men is absent.
