In the month of September this year alone, 168 cases of child sexual abuse have been reported, and in that month alone, 22 girls under the age of 16 have become pregnant.
This was revealed in a special discussion held by the Committee on Government Finance with representatives of civil organizations in Sri Lanka including the Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD) to get ideas and suggestions on the budget proposals presented for the year 2024 and the policies to be prepared in this country.
In this discussion which was chaired by the Chairman of the Finance Committee, Member of Parliament Dr. Harsha De Silva, representatives of civil organizations pointed out the issues that have received less attention in the budget proposals of 2024, but which should be given full attention.
They informed the committee about the problems that may arise due to the lack of attention towards women’s welfare. The difficulties faced by school girls were discussed at length in the committee.
Accordingly, the attention of the Government Finance Committee was focused on identifying the number of school girls in need of other facilities including sanitary facilities and preparing a system to provide them with the necessary facilities.
According to that, creating a systematic program to provide sex education for children is a very urgent need, the representatives of Sichil organizations said.
For this occasion, Member of Parliament M.A. Sumanthiran, Rauf Hakeem, Chandima Weerakkodi, Mayantha Dissanayake, Harshana Rajakaruna, Mr. Weerasumana Weerasinghe with the permission of the Karakasabha Chairman, and a group of civil organization representatives participated.
