CHILD neglect recorded the highest number of reported cases under the Child Welfare Decree statistics with a total of 73 cases from January to March of this year.
Minister for Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation Mereseini Vuniwaqa said this was reported through their toll free child help line.
“Our role in the upbringing of the child that is holistic, here when we talk about early child hood education and education generally it’s more a focus on academic excellence. so when we talk about social issues like child abuse, child neglect, it’s a holistic development of a child,” Mrs Vuniwaqa said.
She said the rates of child abuse cases were concentrating particularly for cases where there was a established relationship between the victim and the perpetrator.
“Family at the end of the day is where children are supposed to feel safe and secure at home and if this offences and crimes are happening within the home then where are our children going to seek refuge who are they going to if something like this happens in their very own homes?” she said.
She said more needs to be done in order to address this issue.
“The statistics are saying that we need to do more than what we are currently doing because what we’re currently doing is not doing anything to the numbers these things may have been there before but not reported I don’t know but it’s very worrying we need to come ways to strategies this social ill that is amongst us,” she said.
