Sri Lanka records over 7,000 child abuse complaints
0 Comment(s)
Print
E-mail
Xinhua, November 6, 2011
Sri Lankan authorities said Sunday that over 7,000 complaints of children being abused have been recorded this year.
The National Child Protection Authority said most of the complaints included children being sexually abused or molested by their parents, guardians or people known to the victims.
Sri Lanka has a national telephone hotline to report child abuse and most of the complaints had been received on the hotline and they were authenticated, said Anoma Dissanayake, the chairperson of the National Child Protection Authority.
Dissanayake said people with political links in Sri Lanka are also believed to be involved in child abuse but the incidents go unreported owing to the political connections of the suspects.
The Sri Lankan police on Sunday reported two incidents of 15- year-old girls being raped by their lovers.
Both incidents had taken place in remote areas far from the capital Colombo and similar incidents had been reported last week as well, the police said.
Dissanayake said that there are concerns over the rising number of child abuse cases being reported both to her organization and the police.
The Sri Lankan government minister in charge of the welfare of women and children Tissa Karaliyadda told Xinhua that stiff laws need to be introduced to address child abuse cases in Sri Lanka.
He said that the Sri Lankan government hopes to bring amendments to the existing laws to address the issue.
Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)