News
New committee on child abuse to hold first meeting on Oct. 8
The newly appointed Committee to look into child abuses will meet on October 8, its Chairman Minister of Law and Order and Prisons Reforms Thilak Marapana said.
Two of its five members, Ministers Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe and Chandrani Bandara are out of the country and the committee will meet following their return, he said.
Cabinet gave approval for the appointment of the Committee after considering a proposal made by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in the wake of the increasing number of child abuse cases being reported from across the country.
Its other members are Child Affairs State Minister Vijayakala Maheswaran and City Planning and Water Supply State Minister Sudarshini Fernandopulle.
Minister Marapana said that the Committee will formulate new measures to tackle child abuse. While the brutal rape and murder on September 13 of a four-year-old girl in Kotadeniyawa brought the issue to the spotlight, it wasn’t the only case reported this month.
According to Police four incidents of child abuse were reported in the past two weeks alone. A 62-year-old man was arrested last Sunday (Sept 20) in Minuwangoda for allegedly sexually harassing several children between the ages of seven and nine.
The suspect was employed as a security guard near a temple in Minuwangoda. On the pretext of helping little children who attended Sunday school at the temple, to adjust their lama saree (half saree) he had allegedly sexually harassed them.
He was produced on Monday before the Minuwangoda Magistrate who remanded him till September (30). In another incident, three people were apprehended in the Ganemulla area, on Thursday for allegedly abusing an eight-year-old girl.
Police said the girl lived with her single mother and grandmother. One of the suspects, a 68 year old man had been helping the family over the years. He used to take the girl to school and drop her at her home after school.
The alleged incident had occurred when he was dropping her back home, police said. The Police also apprehended the man’s son and another for the alleged incident.
The suspects who were apprehended after police received an anonymous complaint were produced before the Ganemulla Magistrate who remanded them till Tuesday (Sept 29).
Meanwhile, an eleven year old boy was allegedly sexually abused last Sunday in Mirigama, by a 47 year old man, while he was travelling in a three wheeler.
Police say of the child abuse cases reported, a majority were related to adults eloping with under-aged girls. Two such incidents were reported this week from Wattegama and Ambalantota areas.
In one instance a 36-year-old man was apprehended on Tuesday, in the Wattegama Police area, while attempting to elope with a 12-year-old girl.
In the other which occurred on the same day a 16 year-old boy was caught while attempting to elope with a 14 year-old girl, in Ambalantota.
Meanwhile the National Child Protection Authority (NCPA) said a majority of the child abuse cases were reported from Colombo and Gampaha.
NCPA Chairperson Natasha Balendra said the organisation will conduct a study on how sexual issues were affected by the social context.
She said while paedophilia and family living conditions were among the major causes for child abuse in Sri Lanka the root cause is yet to be found.
She said in a majority of the cases reported, the suspect was known to the victim and it was rarely that the abuser was a stranger.
The NCPA chairperson was critical of the long drawn-out legal procedure, adding that a child abuse case could take up to nearly eight years in court.
She added, “By that time the accused is often out on bail and also when there is such a delay the deterring effect of the sentence is lost and the people soon forget about it.”
“The victim also goes through a lot of trauma particularly if he/she is alive, because by the time the case is called the victim would have grown up,” she said.
Nearly 4000 cases remain in the High Court, to date, she said. The NCPA has received nearly 184 complaints relating to grave sexual abuse of children, 430 complaints relating to sexual harassment and 254 complaints relating to rape until September 11, this year.