A report compiled by United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said that disabled children are three to four times more likely to face sexual and physical abuse in their life.
The report 'The State of the World's Children,' states that the main reason behind this is the improper parental care an d institutionalisation. The report was launched in Da Nang city of central Vietnam.
According to UNICEF's executive director Anthony Lake, physically handicapped children tend to be "invisible" because of poor data on them.
"This has been a vicious circle," he said in a press release. "They (disabled children) don't get registered at birth, for example, disproportionately; then we don't see the pressure to develop more data. And since we don't develop more data we tend to see them less." Although, according to him there are no reliable records, it is widely estimated that 1 in 20 children in the world are disabled.
The report stated that these children are not provided with proper sex education and HIV programs, which results in them being the victims of sexual and physical abuse. "Many have been taught to be silent and obedient and have no experience of setting limits with others regarding physical contact," the report said.
Misinformation seemed to be the cause of poor understanding of disability. The report stated that in Madagascar 48 percent of the presidents of parents' associations believed disability was contagious.
UNICEF said that such kind of attitude should be changed and disabled children should be provided with better social services. "The greatest barrier they face is not so much the disability as the discrimination they face," Lake said. "So unless you tear down the barriers against their being included in society and unless you provide assistance ... then they are not going to make it."
