90 cases of violence against children reported in October

A total of 90 cases of violence against children were reported to the authorities in October 2023 alone.

This was revealed by the Child and Family Protection Service in its monthly statistics publicized for the month of October.

As such, authorities received and attended a total of 146 cases involving 77 girls and 69 boys, during the past month.

These include cases of violence against children, family issues, care and support issues, behavioral problems and child rights violations among others.

43 of the 146 victims were between the ages 14 – 16, 39 between the ages of 10 – 13, 30 between the ages of 2 – 5, 16 between the ages of 6 – 9, 13 under a year old and five victims were above 17 years of age.

Looking at the places of incidence, two of these cases were reported from Haa Alif atoll, two from Haa Dhaal atoll, five from Raa atoll, three from Baa atoll, six from Alif Alif atoll, five from Alif Dhaal atoll, two from Faafu atoll, four from Thaa atoll, six from Gaaf Dhaal atoll, four from Shaviyani atoll, one from Noonu atoll, six from Lhaviyani atoll, three from Kaafu atoll, 74 from capital Malé City, one from Laamu atoll, three from Gaaf Alif atoll, two from Fuvahmulah City and 17 cases were reported from southernmost Addu City.

90 cases of violence against children were reported to the authorities in October 2023.

These include 16 victims of sexual abuse all of whom were girls, 19 victims of physical abuse including 13 boys and six girls and four victims of emotional abuse including three girls and one boy.

Further, 15 victims of neglect including 10 boys and five girls and five victims of harassment including three girls and two boys were also reported.

25 of the victims had witnessed domestic violence in the past month including 14 girls and 11 boys.

The Child and Family Protection Service added that three girls fell victim to cyber bullying, two girls were victims of other cases and one girl was a victim of blackmail.

Out of the 15 behavioral problems filed with the authorities in October, five were to do with children throwing temper tantrums involving three boys and two girls. Three boys and one girl refused to attend school in the past month.

Five boys and a girl were implicated in other behavioral problems in October.

The authorities also received 24 cases linked to family issues including four girls and one boy trapped with parenting issues, three girls and two boys embroiled in a custody battle, two boys and a girl with parents that had maintenance issues and eight boys and three girls with parents who had issues with getting access to their children.

17 other types of cases were also reported involving nine girls and eight boys, however, the authorities did not provide the details of the nature of these cases.

During October the Child and Family Protection Service’s child helpline 1412 received 1,730 calls including 609 follow-up calls on reported cases, 184 calls seeking information, 48 to report cases, 167 silent calls, 75 prank calls and 647 others. The caller identification of 741 phone calls remains unknown. 30 children and 959 adults are to have made the remaining phone calls.

Statistics go on to indicate that 164 children were under state care by the end of October, including 94 boys and 70 girls.

Three girls were reintegrated with families and one boy, and three girls were newly taken into state care. One girl was placed with a foster family during October.