Move to curb incidence of violence:

Police gets tough over abuse of women and children

by Jayampathy JAYASINGHE

The Police Department has launched a program to curb the incidence of violence against women and children by setting up 43 branches of the Women and Children’s Bureau at police divisions and a single unit at every police station to investigate complaints of abuse against women and children, police Media spokesman SP Ajith Rohana said.

He said the move to set up more branches with women police officers for investigations was due to the increase in the number of complaints about women and children. The Police Spokesman said that a coordinated program has been launched in collaboration with the Attorney General’s Department, Justice Ministry, Judicial Medical Offices, Police Department, Probation and Child Care Department, with funds from the United Nations Children’s Fund for cases pending before the Gampaha, Polonnaruwa and Anuradapura courts.

According to statistics there were 1,169 complaints of rape of girls under sixteen and 256 complaints of assault of children, 11 cases of incest and 27 cases of murder of children in 2011.

Meanwhile, 90 complaints of assault against children, 317 cases of rape, 14 cases of murder of children were reported during the first quarter of 2012 (January 1 - March 31). SP Ajith Rohana said 99 percent of the cases had been resolved following the arrest of the suspects.

Police have filed cases against the offenders in Courts. Most cases involving children have been reported from Anuradhapura, Ampara, Kurunegala, Moneragala, Ratnapura, Polonnaruwa, Panadura, Matale, Kandy, Kegalle, Tangalle, Gampaha and Chilaw, the spokesman said.

The main office of the Women and Children’s Bureau is at Pagoda Road, Nugegoda