The Child Welfare League Founda-tion yesterday urged the government to do more to prevent child abuse, saying that the nation's networks protecting children are under-funded and under-staffed.
The increasing numbers of abuse cases in recent years and the large number of high-profile child-abuse tragedies in the news point to problems within the system, said Wang Mei-en (
PHOTO: LUO PEI-TE, TAIPEI TIMES
The foundation pointed out that, according to the Children's Bureau, the number of child-abuse cases reported last year increased to 8,013 from 6,093 cases the year before. In 2001 the figure stood at 6,059.
Even without taking into account the number of cases that go unnoticed and instances of neglect, abandonment and sexual abuse, it is clear that maltreatment of children is on the rise, the foundation said.
The foundation estimates that an instance of child abuse occurs every 54 minutes.
"There are only around 250 workers who handle domestic abuse and child protection in the entire country. Social workers are terribly overburdened and take care of many sorts of disadvantaged groups outside their field of specialty," Wang said. "Although the number [of social workers] may seem like a lot to the government, the increasing number of child-abuse cases requires a proportionate increase in personnel."
Besides increasing the number of child-protection personnel, the government should make child protection a funding priority, the foundation said.
Pointing out that child protection services only merited 0.96 percent of the Children's Bureau's budget last year, and child placement systems 2.2 percent, the foundation said that the bureau was misallocating its resources.
The foundation said that the government also needs to improve the protection of abuse victims' identity.
"Many specialists or civilians are afraid to report abuse because of the problems it brings. They are scared that families may take revenge on witnesses when their identities are exposed by the media or in court. The government, police and media need to work together to ensure the privacy and protection of these people," said the foundation's deputy director, Feng Yen (
"At a time when children spend up to 80 percent of their time at school, schools need to step up their vigilance," Wang said.
The foundation also called on children to look out for themselves and their peers.
"When we have statistics showing that child abuse happens every hour, when parents harm their children, when the people around the children ignore what's happening, and when the government does not have the funds or human resources to protect our children, children need to stand up and protect themselves," Feng said.
The foundation yesterday announced its new hotline number, 0800-003123. Children or adults can also call 113, the government's support hotline for women and children, if they suspect abuse.
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