Saturday, 24 May 2014 00:00
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Sri Lanka’s horrific child abuse rates reached Parliament once again on Thursday, but provided no hope of a policy shift on the side of the Government to stem the awful situation. In fact it even showed the incapacity of the members to at least get the abuse numbers to tally correctly.
Chief Government Whip and Water Supply and Drainage Minister Dinesh Gunawardena had told Parliament the number of abused Sri Lankan children averaged 17 a day. According to him there were 3,276 complaints of child abuse in 2008, 3,248 complaints in 2009, 3,915 complaints in 2010, 4,331 complaints in 2011 and 6,070 complaints in 2012.
Yet, according to Child Development and Women’s Affairs Minister Tissa Karalliyadda, 7,418 children were victimised by various types of abuse in 2012, significantly more than the number cited by Gunawardena. This makes for a staggering 20 children abused each day. Of those incidents, the highest number – 1,174 – had been reported from the Colombo District.
Police statistics show the total number of child rapes in 2011 as 1,463; the figure jumped to 1,759 cases in 2012, according to a Parliamentary report. Police records also give a total of just over 2,000 sexual offenses against children, besides rape, in 2011; child molestation cases in 2012 soared to over 5,000, according to Parliamentary figures. The total number of all crimes against children — which besides sex crimes include crimes of violence, abduction, trafficking and other offenses — increased by a dramatic 64% between 2011 and 2012.
Whatever the real numbers may be, there can be no question that even one is one too many. Even once the offence is discovered and the responsible parties arrested, children often have no one to take care of them and are shuttled to State or non-State run juvenile centres. They then have to undergo more heartbreak and fear as a sluggish legal system mires them in years of litigation – sometimes for as long as a decade. Often, during this time, the perpetrators roam free.
In its shambling way the Government is responding to the crisis by attempting to reduce the number of mothers seeking employment overseas. Even though a popular belief is that migrant workers create social problems, when comparing Sri Lankan child abuse with statistics from other migrant-oriented countries such as the Philippines, Sri Lanka’s abuse is an anomaly. It points to deeper issues triggering the devastatingly high numbers here. Moreover, there was no mention by the Minister about steps being taken to fast-track rehabilitation and empower the justice system to aid victims.
Rampant abuse is completely swept into the shadows and while the Government has taken some steps such as establishing two courts only for child abuse cases, estimates indicate around 10,000 cases are pending at all courts around the island.
Caught in a vicious cycle of injustice, ever-growing impunity, stigma and judicial inefficiency, thousands of children are part of a tragic lost generation in Sri Lanka. Month after month goes by with nothing done and one is forced to ask the question, does anyone care?
