A total of 131 cases of violence against children were reported to the authorities in November 2023 alone.

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

As such, authorities received and attended a total of 221 cases involving 123 girls and 98 boys, during November 2023.

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

70 of the 221 victims were between the ages of 10 – 13, 57 between the ages of 14 – 16, 42 between the ages of 6 – 9, 34 between the ages of 2 – 5, eight above 17 years of age and eight victims under a year old.

Looking at the places of incidence, six of these cases were reported from Haa Alif atoll, 10 from Haa Dhaal atoll, 15 from Raa atoll, nine from Baa atoll, 13 from Alif Alif atoll, six from Alif Dhaal atoll, seven from Thaa atoll, four from Gaaf Dhaal atoll, three from Shaviyani atoll, one from Noonu atoll, three from Lhaviyani atoll, three from Kaafu atoll, 103 from capital Malé City, one from Meemu atoll, five from Laamu atoll, eight from Gaaf Alif atoll, two from Fuvahmulah City and 22 cases were reported from southernmost Addu City.

131 cases of violence against children were reported to the authorities in November 2023.

These include 29 victims of sexual abuse, 22 of whom were girls and seven were boys, 20 victims of physical abuse including 13 boys and seven girls and 15 victims of emotional abuse including 10 girls and five boys.

Further, 22 victims of neglect including 10 boys and 12 girls and two victims of harassment, both girls, were also reported.

Three girls were victims of blackmail and one boy was a victim of cyber bullying during the month.

28 of the victims had witnessed domestic violence in the past month including 13 girls and 15 boys.

The Child and Family Protection Service added that one boy was exploited, three boys were victims of bullying, one girl was a victim of commercial sexual exploitation and four boys and two girls were victims of other cases.

Out of the 22 behavioral problems filed with the authorities in November, three were to do with children throwing temper tantrums involving two girls and a boy. Five boys and one girl refused to attend school during that month and seven girls and six boys were linked with other behavioral problems.

Further, a girl and a boy were linked to social support and well-being cases, where they were not provided adequate shelter.

The authorities also received 30 cases linked to family issues including six girls and six boy trapped with parenting issues, two girls and two boys embroiled in a custody battle, two girls and two boys with parents that had maintenance issues and seven girls and three boys with parents who had issues with getting access to their children.

33 other types of cases were also reported involving 26 girls and seven boys, however, the authorities did not provide the details of the nature of these cases.

Three cases of child rights violations were reported during that month as well, involving two girls and a boy who had their right to shelter violated.

During November the Child and Family Protection Service’s child helpline 1412 received 1,665 calls including 665 follow-up calls on reported cases, 191 calls seeking information, 53 to report cases, 164 silent calls, 95 prank calls and 497 others.

The caller identification of 583 phone calls remains unknown. 72 children and 1,010 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 November, including 93 boys and 71 girls.

One girl and one boy were reintegrated with families and two girls were newly taken into state care.

Further, the Child and Family Protection Service provided counseling services to 24, including parenting sessions for four, training sessions for four and counselling sessions for 16.