Over 9000 instances of violence against children have been reported to the National Child Protection Authority (NCPA) in 2016.
The Women and Child Affairs Ministry launched the National Partnership to End Violence Against Children by 2030 yesterday.
The launch held at Water's Edge, Battaramulla saw the government agencies sign on together with UN agencies, international organizations, civil society, faith groups, private sector, media, children and other key stakeholders to protect children in the country from violence.
“The government is very committed to result oriented action to end violence against children and through this platform the government will work in close collaboration with stakeholders to end violence”, Women and Child Affairs Minister Chandrani Bandara said.
She said the action plan involves dealing with issues in; improving quality of the evidence on violence against children, physical and humiliating punishment, sexual and gender based violence, children in institutions, child marriage, online safety and emotional wellbeing and mental health of children.
“The common misconception is that violence occurs outside of a child’s immediate circle of trust but evidence suggests that cruelty occurs from members of his or her inner circle”,Bandara said .
The biggest hurdle in achieving the target however would be addressing the normalisation of violence as punishment in homes, schools and institutions, said the Minister.
The launch also highlighted studies on sexual and gender based violence which showed that 14 percent of adolescent girls and 13.8 percent of adolescent boys surveyed had experienced some form of sexual abuse while 27.2 percent of Sri Lankan men aged 18 to 49 reported having experienced some form of sexual abuse as a child.
Prof Piyanjali De Zoysa speaking on punishment said corporal punishment was different to physical abuse, “Corporal punishment is the use of violence without leaving a mark on the body of the child while physical abuse leaves a mark. Excessive use of corporal punishment leads to physical abuse. But in Sri Lanka only physical abuse is an offense but corporal punishment is still legal”, she said.
In a survey conducted by the NCPA, 70 percent of 12 year olds have experienced corporal punishment while teachers said they only used corporal punishment on 60 percent.
There is a circular issued by the Education Ministry advising teachers not to use corporal punishment but only 20 percent of teachers were even aware of the contents of the circular, Prof Zoysa said.
She stressed the need to ensure that legal provisions be introduced to include corporal punishment as an offense, a stance also concurred by the Minister.
Minister Bandara said the government was in the process of finalizing a draft National Policy on Child Protection and was preparing a new policy document on child care, child protection and child alternative care, to support necessary amendments to the Children (Judicial Protection) Bill, and had proposed to include a bill of rights in the Constitution with a special clause to include child rights and protection.