Sri Lanka, June 24 -- Yesterday's edition of the Daily Mirror highlighted a case of stark cruelty to a nine-month-old infant. The child and his/her mother was apparently left in the care of a carer, while the father went in search of employment. The child was tied to a chair, as the court heard, and was mercilessly thrashed by the carer for crying!
This is not the first time we Lankans have heard of children being abused by adults. According to the Sri Lanka Journal of Child Health 2021, during the study period, cases studied comprised of 82.9% females, and 67.1% were older than 12 years. The majority (73.6%) had suffered penetrative abuse. Multiple incidents of abuse occurred in 58.5% of the cases. Of the perpetrators, 94.5% were known to...