Protecting the girl child

Today is a day reserved to recognise and pledge assistance to protecting the rights of the girl child. The United Nations has decided that this first year should be dedicated against child marriage but there are other serious concerns closer to home.

Investing in girls is a moral imperative – a matter of basic justice and equality. It is an obligation under the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. It is also critical for achieving the Millennium Development Goals, advancing economic growth and building peaceful, cohesive societies.

For this inaugural day, the United Nations is focusing on the issue of child marriage. Globally, around one in three young women aged 20 to 24 – approximately 70 million – were married before the age of 18. Despite a decline in the overall proportion of child brides in the last 30 years, the challenge persists, particularly in rural areas and among the poorest. If present trends continue, the number of girls who will marry by their 18th birthday will climb towards 150 million in the next decade.

In Sri Lanka, despite the minimal incidents of child marriage there are many more serious abuses taking place every day. Deputy Child Development and Women Affairs Minister M.L.A.M. Hisbullah in May this year informed Parliament that at least 6,343 cases of rape and 15,158 child abuses cases have been reported in Sri Lanka during the past five years.

According to the Deputy Minister, there has been an increase in the cases of girl rape in five years with 799 cases reported in 2006, 805 cases in 2007, 914 cases in 2008, 922 cases in 2009, 1,089 cases in 2010 and 1,169 cases in 2011. The Police say during last year, the National Child Protection Authority had received more than 20,000 complaints of child abuse. The shocking part is that this might just be the tip of the iceberg. Civil organisations estimate that more than 15 per cent of all cases persecuted in Sri Lanka are related to child abuse.

The tale has become progressively gloomy and is all the more shocking because it is almost normalised. The appearance of these incidents in the newspapers have ceased to shock people; in fact they have become so commonplace that most reports are now bumped down to inside pages or left out of news broadcasts. After being called on to provide more protection to women and children, the Government reacted by forbidding the National Child Protection Authority (NCPA) to release data on abuse to media.

Such backward, selfish and unconstructive methods do nothing to stem the statistics that on average four children, mostly girls, are abused in Sri Lanka every day. Such damning numbers are the main reason why the Government needs to move beyond making empty promises on 11 October and implementing sustainable social policies that actively minimise and punish child offences.

Clearly there is a need to take a holistic approach by fast-tracking the Police and legal process as well as increasing awareness and ensuring that children are educated against the menace around them. The fact that most abuses are committed by adults close to the family is an indication of how high the level of vigilance should be.

A time of peace should not be headlined by horrific stories of seven-year-olds being killed after gang rape or almost daily stories of statutory rape. There cannot be any excuse from society as a whole for letting these crimes take place. Development also encompasses protecting Sri Lanka’s children from paedophiles and psychopaths.