Picket against Gender Based Violence & Child Abuse in Sri Lanka....

Women’s Development Centre has planned to organize islandwide pickets against Gender Based Violence and Child abuse. The first step towards it was taken in partnership with Matale Women’s forum. WDC with the support of Matale Women’s forum successfully organized a protest against gender based violence and child abuse in Rathtota, Matale. The main aim behind organizing this campaign was to direct the attention of the government on strengthening the laws on gender based violence and child abuse.

Recently, many child abuse cases and GBV cases were reported from all over the island and thus it was evident that there is a sudden increase in such issues. Furthermore, it was also identified that there are many reasons behind these problems such as poor family relationships, negligence of parents, migration of females in search of work, etc.

Therefore, the picket which was organized on the 7^th of August, 2012 aimed to attract the attention of both the responsible officers as well as the public towards these issues and to toughen the laws and other steps that could be taken against the people that engage in child abuses and violence against women.

Some demands of this picket can be mentioned as the following:

• Strengthening the legal system so that the defendants of such cases would be punished
• Requesting the public to not to nominate the politicians who have committed such crimes
• Creating an outcry to show the negative impact of gender based violence and child abuse and thereby to gain the attention of the public and the government towards these issues
• To make the parents aware of the repercussions of neglecting their own children

 

WDC would like to thank all the people who participated for this protest and made it a success.