1,165 girls sexually abused within a year

A seminar on international women’s day was told that a total of 1,165 girls had been sexually abused last year.

It was also revealed at the UN organized event in Colombo yesterday (Mar. 05) that Polonnaruwa, Anuradhapura and Ratnapura have been identified as the districts with the highest incidences of rapes, marriages of underage girls and women abuse.

Senior lawyer Kalyananda Thiranagama said that there has been an alarming increase in the incidence of abuse of females.
Dr. Harini Amarasuriya said five females on average are sexually abused every day, and that three of them are girls.

She said 1,054 of child abuse incidents were reported in 2010, but the figure rose to 1,636 within the first 11 months of the following year.

Prof. Savitri Gunasekara proposed several measures to arrest this situation, including the strict implementation of the law against the marriage of girls aged below 18 years.
Also, women have to be educated on controlling their sexual desires and schoolchildren should be given sexual education at school, she said.