NEW DELHI, March 17: Almost half of Indian children surveyed for a landmark national study were physically, sexually or economically abused, according to leaked results.

One quarter of almost 17,000 children and young adults surveyed had been sexually abused, many by relatives, while 40 per cent had been beaten, many by persons in authority, the results showed.

The survey is part of the first comprehensive study of child abuse in India, a child welfare official said on Saturday, but would not comment on the findings, which are not yet public.

However, national news magazine Outlook, which has obtained a copy of the study, reported that “close to 50 per cent of the respondents spoken to have suffered some form of abuse”.

“Twenty-five per cent of the children have suffered sexual abuse. In more than 30 per cent of the cases, relatives of the child are involved,” the magazine said. The same findings were reported in the Hindustan Times daily.

Forty per cent of the children in the study, which the government plans to release at the end of March, had been beaten, the media reports said.

The beating figures were even worse for children in the capital New Delhi.

“Nearly 71 per cent have been physically beaten by persons in position of authority,” the Outlook report said.

“In more than 56 per cent of the cases (in New Delhi), the beating resulted in bleeding,” it said.

The study also said 60 per cent of those children surveyed had suffered economic abuse which included forced labour.

It was conducted in 13 states by Indian nongovernmental group Prayas and backed by the UN’s child welfare agency Unicef and Save the Children Fund.

Children, chosen at random, were questioned on the street, at jobs, in schools, in institutions and in their own homes.

The study would shed much-needed light on the nature and extent of child abuse in India which was under-reported to government authorities, the project’s leader said.—AFP