Child abuse and rape in Sri Lanka seen a steady increase

The Child Development and Women Affairs Ministry of Sri Lanka says that the cases of child abuse and rape of women have increased over the past decade. Deputy Child Development and Women Affairs Minister M.L.A.M. Hisbullah has informed the parliament that at least 6,343 cases of rape and 15,158 child abuses cases have been reported in the past five years.
The Deputy Minister has revealed these figures in response to a question posed by the United National Party (UNP) Kurunegala District parliamentarian Dayasiri Jayasekera. 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 Deputy Minister has noted that one of the main reasons for the increase in child abuse and rape cases was the lowering the standards of education. Among other reasons that have been identified are insecurity of children, popularity of the usage of mobile phones with internet facilities among the youth, emergence of mentally imbalanced people due to use of cocaine and alcohol, increase of sexual misbehavior within sub-culture that has become prominent in the garment industrial sector and existence of a wrong impression among children and youth in the society about the low level of education on sex.