Millions of children around the world are being abused right this minute but only a few have access to any form of redress due to various reasons such as the lack of awareness about the help lines available and also due to the many loopholes in the legal systems that are in force for the protection of such abused children in different countries. According to recent reports from UNICEF, there are over two million children who are subject to human trafficking on an annual basis around the world.

They state that many children are abducted and deliberately maimed and forced into begging by certain gangs especially in Bangladesh today.

Child abuse is on the increase everywhere and our country too is no exception to this. It is for this reason that President Mahinda Rajapaksa directed that a special unit be set up under the National Child Protection Authority (NCPA),to provide an opportunity for everyone to report instances of such abuse to the authorities and thereby save an innocent child who may be suffering in silence from such abuse at home, school or neighbourhood. The hot line is the lifeline of abused children and the authorities are vigilant and active at all times to come to the rescue of such abused children.

However, do not get discipline and abuse mixed up and waste the valuable time of the authorities by reporting instances of discipline, especially by parents ,to the authorities.

Many children seem to be confused with the two different meanings of abuse and discipline.

Children who are abused are generally those who are physically and mentally maimed , subject to acts of cruelty and are forced to do various unpleasant and unlawful tasks by adults which children are not supposed to be engaged in .Parental discipline which sometimes may result in mild forms of corporal punishment, certainly cannot be classsed as abuse, especially in our country where parents and adults do resort to such forms of discipline.

So, do not get confused over these two. Be sure you call the hotline only in the instance that abuse has really taken place.