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Yogyakarta sees increase in cases of sexual violence against children
The number of cases of sexual violence affecting children, or those under 18 years old, has continued to rise in Yogyakarta, showing that existing measures to protect children against violence are inadequate and ineffective, an agency has said
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he number of cases of sexual violence affecting children, or those under 18 years old, has continued to rise in Yogyakarta, showing that existing measures to protect children against violence are inadequate and ineffective, an agency has said.
The Women's and Social Empowerment Agency (BPPM) Yogyakarta said Yogyakarta's administration and residents had not made serious efforts to prevent violence against children such as the case involving Engeline, 8, who was found buried in the backyard of her family's house in Denpasar, Bali.
'We have striven to introduce measures on the elimination of violence against children but the results are not good so far. Maybe our measures are not yet optimal because of limited funding,' the agency's children and women's rights protection division head, Wati Marlinawati, told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
According to BPPM data, 280 cases of sexual violence against children occurred in Yogyakarta throughout 2014, 145 of which were molestation, followed by sexual harassment (72) and rape (63). The figures showed significant increases as only 43 cases of sexual violence against children were reported in 2013, up from 33 cases in the previous year.
'The trend of sexual violence against children has increased but the number of unreported cases might be much higher,' said Wati.
Data collected by the Women's Crisis Center (WCC) Rifka Annisa also showed a similar trend. In 2014, WCC Rifka Annisa handled 38 cases of sexual violence against children. Until the middle of this year, it had handled 21 cases.
'We can only hold one event to introduce preventive measures on sexual violence against children in one regency or municipality per year. It's clearly inadequate for the high exposures of sex-related global information received by Indonesian children,' said Wati.
She said the budgetary allocations for child protection in Yogyakarta reached around Rp 2 billion (US$150,000) annually, which was very small. Of the total, around Rp 500 million was used for advocating cases while the allocated budget for preventive measures was less than Rp 500 million, she added.
'Preventing sexual violence against children has not yet become a priority,' said Wati. (ebf)(+++)
