By IANS,
Bhubaneswar: More than 500 people representing various sections of society formed a human chain here Saturday and launched a signature campaign in Odisha to protest child abuse.
Various politicians, government officials, journalists, editors, film stars and athletes participated in the event organized near the state assembly on the occasion of World Day for the Prevention of Child Abuse Nov 19.
“Child abuse is a universal and alarming problem and effective preventive measures are necessary at all level,” Ranjan Mohanty, secretary of the NGO People’s Cultural Centre (PECUC) told IANS.
“We organized this event to create awareness among the general public and to fetch the attention of policy makers and enforcement authorities into the problems,” he said.
“Child abuse is a major cause of concern, which creates barrier for growth of children,” he said adding that India has the dubious distinction of having the world’s largest number of sexually abused children.
Citing World Health Organization (WHO) statistics, he said there are about 500,000 children in prostitution and over 15 million children in bonded labour.