20,000 women have been abused this year

The Family Health Bureau says that the number of women who have been victims of various forms of abuse and violence in Sri Lanka this year is over twenty thousand, and a significant number are victims of violence even during pregnancy.

Addressing a workshop to discuss the content of the multi-sectoral national action plan to address sexual violence against women and gender-based violence (SGBV), Dr Netanjali Mapitigama of the Family Health Bureau of the Ministry of Health said this.

This program is chairperson of the Parliamentarians’ Forum
Dr. Sudarshini Fernandopulle and Chairwoman of the Child, Women and Gender Sectoral Monitoring Committee Talatha Athukorala chaired the meeting.

Speaking there, the MPs said that these plans should be effectively implemented to prevent violence against women in the home as well as violence against women at the workplace.

Under the initiative of the Ministry of Women, Child Affairs and Social Empowerment, this multi-sectoral national action plan has been prepared focusing on 18 areas related to the curricula of 13 ministries.