Physical Violence is the most common form of Violence against children in the country. As per the National Commission for Women and Children’s latest report on Violence against Children, more than 6 out of every 10 children in Bhutan experience at least one form of physical violence in their lifetime.
The country’s first ever comprehensive report on child violence was launched on Tuesday at Dawakha Lower Secondary School in Paro coinciding with the International Day of the Girl Child.
The Research Report says school is one place where children usually experience sexual violence, most commonly in the form of sexual touching. It has been found that more than 1 out of every 10 children experience sexual violence in their lifetime. Also, children, both male and female experience forced sexual intercourse.
Minister for Works and Human Settlement, Dorji Choden said such data would help understand the situation and underlying problems. “Most often there is a lack of girl specific data and as a result girls’ needs and challenges can remain unknown and unaddressed. Discrimination then becomes norms because we don’t have data, we are just making sweeping general statements. It is therefore critical that girl specific data are available so as to come up with targeted programs with special measures to address the problems”, said Dorji Choden.
As per the study, most perpetrators of violence including sexual violence are those responsible to care for them including their own families. Alcohol misuse was found to one of the most significant triggers of violence against children.
The National Commission for Women and Children in collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund Bhutan compiled the report over a period of three years.
“Investing in more and better data for girls and quantifying the challenges girls face is the first critical step towards meeting the Sustainable Development Goal of Gender Equality and breaking down barriers that hold girls across the world from reaching their full potential”, said Rudolf Schwenk, Representative of UNICEF Bhutan.
The International Day of the Girl Child was observed with the theme Girls’ progress equals Goals progress – A Global Call for Data.
