News
Child sex harm on rise: warnings of ‘professional’ abusers
Despite energetic public campaigns child sexual abuse is reported to be on the rise, with a leading NGO saying four to five cases of abuse are recorded each week.
The Government, however, says the picture is “complicated” by the authorities having to follow the law in laying charges where males having sex with under-aged girls were having “love affairs” and had promised marriage.
As police deal with a string of cases of rape and sexual abuse of minors, Save the Children International said it was strengthening efforts this year to raise awareness about perpetrators who worm their way into areas where children are active in order to prey on them.
A 40-year-old army corporal was arrested this week for allegedly raping his 15-year-old niece in Butthala, Helagama.
A gang of seven was arrested while raping a 14-year-old girl in a house in Bingiriya on Tuesday (January 14). The house was raided on a tip-off. The girl had reportedly been sold to several abusers.
Reports emerged this week that three girls aged 10 in Chilaw had been allegedly sexually molested over the past year by a 14-year-old boy. The little girls attended the same class in a school in Arachchikattuwa and lived close to each other.
Balapitiya Magistrate last weekend ordered a 19-year-old to be placed in remand on a charge of raping his under-aged girlfriend, aged 15. Police reports say the couple had been in an eight-month affair wit the young man often sleeping the night at the girl’s house.
A similar incident was reported from Kanthale where a 24-year-old had allegedly been having sex with a 15-year-old girl promising he would marry her but had later shunned her. The suspect was ordered to be placed in remand.
Child Development and Women’s Affairs Minister Tissa Karaliyadda said the number of reported rape cases could be skewed by the fact that, according to the law, charges are laid in all cases where children aged under 16 years are engaged in sex with or without consent.
Even if the couple involved in sex said they intended to marry charges were laid if one or both the parties were under the legal age of consent.
“Therefore finding a fully accurate statistic on this subject is very complicated,” Mr Karaliyadda said.
Child and Women’s Bureau Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Sandungahawatte said rape cases had actually decreased in Puttalam, an area that had a high rate of incidents.
“Puttalam is an area where numerous child abuse cases were reported earlier. But since last month only two cases from Kalpitiya and one case from Bundala, where an eight-year-old girl was abused by her father, have been reported,” SSP Sandungahawatte said.
“This is where we see a positive result of the awareness programmes that has been carried out. Now people are aware of the legal consequences for rape, such as 20-year imprisonment.”
International Child Safeguarding Director at Save the Children International, Menaca Calyaneratne, asserts there is an increase in child sexual abuse.
“According to the National Child Protection Authority (NCPA) with which we work closely, it is reported that four to five child sexual abuse incidents take place in Sri Lanka every day,” she said.
Save the Children wants to raise awareness this year about the dangers of “professional perpetrators” – abusers who deliberately make their way into areas of child activity to prey on children.
“We are aware that people who want to sexually abuse children enter fields of work where they have unhindered access to children such as schools, orphanages, sports and child care organisations and they are called professional perpetrators,” Ms. Calyaneratne said.
“As Save the Children is very keen on preventive work, this year we would like to raise more awareness among the public about the threat of professional perpetrators.”
She emphasised that parents should ensure their trust is not misplaced when they leave their children in the care or company of others since more than 90 per cent of abuse was committed by people known to children who win the trust of the family and the child and then abuse that trust and power.
“Parents need to take on the responsibility of protecting children, especially those who are under the age of five as well as adolescents, which is the group often misunderstood and neglected,”she said.
Children of migrant parents, children with disability and children under five were the most vulnerable to abuse.
“Children from lower-income families end up as child labourers, child sex workers and child domestics. Now with the boom in tourism children are also exploited in sex tourism,” Ms. Calyaneratne said.
“In many cases those who have been abused become abusers themselves,” she added.