• The NCPA, the Police and the Health Promo Bureau push for addressing sex-edu. stigma in a bid to holistically prevent child sexual abuse   

Even though child sexual abuse has remained one of the most pressing social ills for a long time, with social, economic, cultural, and technological changes, the approach used to deal with such abuse should also change, and Sri Lanka has reached such a point. While social and economic changes have placed children in vulnerable situations like never before, technological advancements have given rise to new forms of sexual abuse and have made the fight against such abuse more difficult.

This situation was discussed by an expert panel comprised of the National Child Protection Authority’s Chairman and Senior Lecturer Udayakumara Amarasinghe, the Police Children and Women’s Bureau’s Abuse Investigations Unit Head and Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Renuka Jayasundara, and the Health Ministry’s Health Promotion Bureau’s (HPB) Director Dr. Ranjith Batuwanthudawe, during a discussion organised by the Department of Government Information recently.

The experts noted that in a context where addressing sexual abuse has become more difficult due to the aforementioned changes and remedying such incidents is largely limited to punishments and compensations, the prevention of sexual abuses should receive utmost attention. This, they added, requires a holistic approach supported by increased awareness at different levels of society. They emphasised the need to address the existing stigma against sex education, and noted that it is an important step in these efforts.

State of sexual abuse in SL

DIG Jayasundara stressed that the Children and Women’s Bureau is attempting to ascertain the true situation of the abuses faced by children through statistics, and that the Bureau has access to all statistics related to such abuses including the details of the victims. According to her, last year (2023), 3,074 crimes against children had been reported, and that these cases include murder, attempted murder, causing serious injuries, trafficking, sexual abuse, abduction, rape, statutory rape, and various forms of mistreatment. In addition, 1,463 minor cases of sexual abuse have been reported last year.

“We don’t see a constant rise in other crimes. However, we have observed a gradual rise in sexual crimes over the years. In 2023, 1,502 girls under the age of 18 have been subjected to rape, while 584 girls of the same age have been subjected to serious sexual abuse.” Adding that 167 girls have got pregnant in 2023 as a result of various forms of sexual abuse, she said that of them, 127 have been impregnated by their boyfriend. She expressed concerns that some of them had not been aware that sexual intercourse could lead to pregnancy. DIG Jayasundara explained that many of these girls lived in insecure environments where they were vulnerable to unprotected or uninformed sexual relationships, and that adults, especially parents, have a responsibility to be vigilant of such situations. Children of divorced families having to stay in places with adults that do not provide them adequate protection was also noted.

Addressing and compensating for sexual abuses

Increased awareness and interest in child abuse, according to Amarasinghe, is a positive sign, as it could help create a proper discourse on the same and lead to actions against child abuse. He added that when the various forms of abuse against children are considered, sexual abuse is deemed one of the most serious crimes. 

Adding that guardianship-related issues are connected to sexual abuse, he said: “Every year, the NCPA records around 2,000 cases pertaining to children’s guardianship. Of the children who are subjected to sexual abuse, a considerable share is in vulnerable situations because they don’t have proper safety or guardianship. We pay attention to addressing not only day to day incidents. The NCPA, along with the other relevant institutions, pay attention to preventing these abuses as a whole.”

Regarding boys that face sexual abuse, he added that although both girls and boys face sexual abuse alike, many in the general society believe that girls are more vulnerable to sexual abuse. While acknowledging that as a result of sexual abuse, girls face short- and long-term impacts, he said that it is important to acknowledge that boys too face such issues. With regard to the legal situation pertaining to sexual abuse against boys, Amarasinghe pointed out that while certain laws pay specific attention to girls, some laws cover boys as well.

The prevention of sexual abuse also received special attention. “Although we acknowledge that penalising the culprits in cases of sexual abuse committed against children is crucial, punishing the culprits does not fully remedy the child’s victimhood, and it is also difficult to compensate for that damage. In many cases of child pregnancies, it is girls at the ages of 12 and 13 years that get pregnant. In other words, children have to give birth to children. Merely punishing the culprits does not provide adequate reliefs to the victim child, because even if compensation is provided and proper guardianship is ensured, a child loses many things as a result of being a victim of sexual abuse. Because of this situation, many countries including Sri Lanka are paying attention to prevention, which is considerably more important than taking legal actions once abuses have occurred. They consider it an extremely important approach or a strategy in this discussion.”

Evolving sexual abuse

In addition, the discussion paid attention to how child sexual abuse has evolved and become more complex to address.

Noting this as a challenge, Amarasinghe explained: “Society changes with time. People’s knowledge, attitudes, opinions and experiences also change. If we look at the past decade, the society has changed in terms of technology. In addition, during the Covid-19 pandemic, physical education was disrupted, paving the way for alternative education systems such as online education. This situation too has changed the challenges pertaining to child abuse or child sexual abuse. Children including teenagers have received the opportunity to freely use social media platforms and the Internet, and through this, the nature of and challenges posed by child sexual abuse have changed. The possibility of children getting sexually abused has changed.”

In this context, he said, plans have been devised to raise awareness about the dangers of cyberspace.

Awareness and knowledge for prevention

When it comes to awareness, children have been identified as an important party that should be included in these efforts in addition to adults, according to Amarasinghe. He added that these efforts focus on the legal, sociological, psychological, and health related aspects of abuses, especially sexual abuse.

“The manner in which children comprehend matters relating to sex varies depending on age groups. One erroneous understanding that we see in the society is that matters pertaining to sex are not meant for children. However, a key point that we should understand is that providing children with sex education is not equal to teaching them how to engage in sexual intercourse. Children’s bodies change, and when it comes to teenagers, they become curious about sexuality and the release of sex and reproductive hormones begins. This is a natural phenomenon.” Amarasinghe further underscored that it is during this period that children can be vulnerable to sexual abuse. Had children been provided with proper sex education and their personality been improved, he added, children would be less likely to be victims of such abuse.

Meanwhile, Dr. Batuwanthudawe explained that the Sri Lankan society does not teach children or discuss how to be safe from sexual abuse, and that that inaction places children in vulnerable situations. He added that teaching children about these matters should be a common practice. He stressed that children should be provided with the relevant knowledge at any age in which they could be subjected to such abuse. Opining that regardless of a child’s age, children should be taught about these matters as soon as possible, he added that this process should include knowledge about the children’s body parts including reproductive system, various forms of abuse, and the ways in which such abuse could take place and be prevented.

“We, as a society, have reached a point of no return as this problem has worsened to such a level. Therefore, children should be educated through their education curricula and the general public too should be educated through other ways. The HPB is currently looking into providing this knowledge to the general public.”