News
|
||||
More
reporting child abuse now "As there was not much awareness, people tended to be silent on child abuse cases, but now more people have realised that child abuse is a crime and are reporting incidents," he said. Earlier child abuse was considered a minor offence, but now the amended Penal Code makes child abuse a serious crime. "All crimes committed against children are taken as serious crimes before the law" Prof. De Silva said. According to NCPA statistics, 16 child labour cases had been reported in six Provinces with the Western Province having 8 (4 girls and 4 boys), being the highest. It was also revealed girls between 3 and 6 years had been used as child labourers in the Eastern Province and Southern Provinces. Most child labourers are in the 10-14 age category. Ten corporal punishment cases had been reported, of which 6 are against the parents, mostly in the Southern Province. Six cases (five of them in schools) had been reported of emotional abuse, all of females 10-18 years of age. Eight out of fourteen cases of neglect had been reported in Western Province, which is the highest number. Out of 14 cases, only two had been reported on male children. Female children 14-16 years of age are more vulnerable to kidnappings. Twelve out of 14 cases of kidnapping are female children and most of them have been sexually abused. Forty children have been physical abused with the most number of cases being reported in the Western Province. More male children had been subjected to physical abuse than female children. One hundred and thirty children have been sexually abused, most cases being reported in the Southern and Western Provinces with females more vulnerable to sexual abuse than males. Meanwhile, the Women and Children's Bureau of the Police said 1,841 grave crimes had been committed against children, up to October this year. Ratnapura District has the highest number of child abuses cases with 142, Anuradhapura had 115 and Colombo 48 cases. With 762 reported cases rape is the highest number of crimes committed on children. "Child abuse is done by known people such as family members, friends, relatives and neighbours more than strangers" said a Bureau official, adding "People do not have sufficient awareness about child abuse. We have done lot of awareness programmes not only in Colombo but also in other parts of country, at public and school level," he said. " Next year we will continue the same programmes and specially carry out awareness programmes at village level," he said. |
||||
Copyright © 2001 Wijeya Newspapers
Ltd. All rights reserved. |
