The City Social Welfare and Development Office (CSWDO) reported a consistent increase in child abuse cases over the past three years that warrants the implementation of a multi-faceted approach to address the pressing problem in the city.
In a report presented during the third quarter meeting of the City Peace and Order Council (CPOC), Social Welfare and Development Officer Coralee Dulnuan said that there are already 145 child abuses cases that have been documented in the city for the first semester of this year which is more than 50 percent more than the reported 96 cases during the same period last year.
In 2021, there were 95 child abuse cases in the city before dropping to only 45 cases the following year.
However, cases increased to 137 for the whole year last year where 96 were documented during the first semester.
Dulnuan added that there were 48 cases that were filed against the perpetrators while 47 were unfiled in 2021. In 2022, there were 12 filed child abuse cases while 33 were classified as unfiled. Sixty-seven cases were filed against the perpetrators of child abuse in 2023 while 70 cases ere unfiled. For the first semester of this year, only 46 cases were considered filed while 99 cases remain unfiled.
Among the top perpetrators of child abuse cases are fathers 78, none – 56, uncle – 27, mother – 25, neighbor – 16 and step father – 14.
Dulnuan claimed that the services extended to the victims of child abuse include medical, financial or educational; temporary shelter and homelife services; individual or parent-child counselling; psychological first aid; values formation; life skills sessions; food assistance; livelihood assistance; parent enhancement seminar to parents; referral such as protective custody, legal assistance and psychological evaluation.
She explained that among the challenges besetting the provision of interventions to child abuse victims are limited service providers for psychological and psychiatric evaluation needed by violence against women and children victims and expensive fees for this kind of intervention.
The CSWDO proposed the conduct of an inventory of service providers for the crafting of an agreement with them to expedite the provision of the necessary services; inclusion of plantilia positions for a psychologist under the CSWDO; amendment of the Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situation (AICs) ordinance to cover psychological testing fees and put up of a helpline gender-based violence cases to include child abuse cases that will start this month to address the earlier identified challenges. By Dexter A. See
