A Comparative Study to Assess the Knowledge of Rural and Urban Mothers Regarding Child Abuse in Selected Areas of Bhandara with a View to Develop an Information Booklet

1. Introduction: UNICEF estimates that, globally 40 million children aged less than 15 years suffer from abuse and neglect. An estimated two million children are involved in pornography and 300, 000 serve as soldiers in armed conflict. In its 5th edition of the Innocenti Report Card a series of analyses of child health and welfare in the 30 nations in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the nations producing two thirds of the worlds services and goods, the United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF) Estimates that 3500 children die annually from child abuse occurring in developed nations. Death rates due to abuse range from 0.1 per 100, 000 children in Spain to2.4 in the United States and Mexico. Objectives: 1) To assess the knowledge of rural mothers regarding child abuse.2) To assess the knowledge of urban mothers regarding child abuse.3) To compare the knowledge of rural and urban mothers regarding child abuse.4) To find out the association between the knowledge scores of rural and urban mothers regarding child abuse with selected demographic variables.5) To develop an information booklet regarding child abuse. Methods and materials: The research approach used was Descriptive Survey approach. A comparative study design is used to reveal the difference in knowledge of urban and rural mothers regarding child abuse. Setting of the study: The study will be conducted in rural and urban places in selected areas of Bhandara district. Samples are mothers with children of age 5 to 14 years; sampling technique was used convenient sampling. Result and discussion: The findings of the study were showed that mothers of urban have moderate knowledge (86 %) and rural mother has (58 %) knowledge regarding child sexual abuse.