A total of 76 cases of violence against children were reported to the authorities in December 2023.

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

As such, authorities received and attended a total of 131 cases involving 66 girls and 65 boys, last month.

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

39 of the 131 victims were between the ages of 10 – 13, 40 between the ages of 14 – 16, 15 between the ages of 6 – 9, 20 between the ages of 2 – 5, 10 above 17 years of age and seven victims under a year old.

Looking at the places of incidence, eight of these cases were reported from Haa Alif atoll, two from Haa Dhaal atoll, 10 from Raa atoll, one from Baa atoll, five from Alif Alif atoll, one from Alif Dhaal atoll, five from Thaa atoll, one from Faafu atoll, one from Shaviyani atoll, five from Noonu atoll, one from Lhaviyani atoll, two from Kaafu atoll, 69 from capital Malé City, one from Meemu atoll, two from Laamu atoll, three from Gaaf Alif atoll, four from Fuvahmulah City and 10 cases were reported from southernmost Addu City.

The cases of violence against children include 13 victims of sexual abuse, 12 of whom were girls and one was a boy, 26 victims of physical abuse including 15 boys and 11 girls and four victims of emotional abuse including three girls and one boy.

Further, 11 victims of neglect including six boys and five girls and five victims of harassment, including four boys and one girl, were also reported.

Two girls were victims of cyberbullying, four boys and one girl were victims of bullying and six boys and three girls had witnessed domestic violence in the past month.

One girl was a victim of other cases.

Out of the 20 behavioral problems filed with the authorities in December, four were to do with children throwing temper tantrums involving two girls and two boys. Three girls and one boy refused to attend school during that month and six boys and a girl were linked with other behavioral problems.

Four girls and one boy were also reported to have run away from home during the past month.

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 16 cases linked to family issues including six boys and three girls trapped with parenting issues and six boys and one girl with parents who had issues with getting access to their children.

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

Eight cases of child rights violations were reported during that month as well, involving one boy who was denied birth registration, one girl who was denied their national identity card, passport and birth certificate, three boys and a girl who were violated of their right to shelter and two boys involved in other cases of child rights violations.

During December the Child and Family Protection Service’s child helpline 1412 received 1,846 calls including 789 follow-up calls on reported cases, 198 calls seeking information, 36 to report cases, 225 silent calls, 109 prank calls and 489 others.

The caller identification of 635 phone calls remains unknown. 93 children and 1,118 adults are to have made the remaining phone calls.

Statistics go on to indicate that 159 children were under state care by the end of December, including 91 boys and 68 girls.

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

One boy and one girl were fostered during December.

In addition to this, the Child and Family Protection Service provided counseling services to 24, including parenting sessions for five, and psychosocial support services for four.