By Mildred Siabi-Mensah
Sekondi, Nov. 30, GNA-The Members of the Western Region Department of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Essential Service Committee have hinted to the public on the growing debilitating acts of some basic school children inserting their hands into their private parts.
The phenomenon, according to them, had become prevalent in schools and communities with the Effia Kwesimintsim Municipal Assembly (EKMA) and Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly (STMA) and called on parents to be high alert and re-orient their wards.
The committee members also expressed worry about teachers luring girls into sex.
A committee member who raised the issue at the second meeting of the Committee said, “We found out on our community engagement that children in some communities were developing unusual infections in their private parts and investigations revealed that this is what they were doing.
“We have asked the teachers to monitor them especially when they rush in groups to go to the washrooms”.
Meanwhile, Violence against women has gained worldwide currency in both advanced and deprived economies due to its pervasive and debilitating nature.
Ms Maribel Okine, the Western Regional Director for the Department of Gender said Ghanaian women faced barriers in reporting such violence.
The Essential Services Package aims to fill the gap between the agreements and obligations made at the international level for the provision of services for Violence Against Women (VAW), including the agreed conclusions of the 2013 Commission on the Status of Women, and country-level activity by providing technical guidance on how to develop quality essential services.
A public health report showed that 33 to 37 per cent of women in Ghana had experienced intimate partner violence during their relationship which included physical, sexual, and emotional violence.
In Ghanaian schools, studies found that 14 per cent of girls were victims of sexual abuse and 52 per cent had experienced Gender-Based Violence.
She said under International Human Rights Treaties ratified by Ghana, the government was obligated to address, prevent, investigate, and punish domestic violence perpetrators.
This was aimed to provide greater access to a coordinated set of essential and quality multi-sectoral services for all women and girls who had experienced Gender Based Violence, she added.
Ms Okine said the committee, among others, identified the essential services to be provided by the health, social services, police, and justice sectors.
These obligations are detailed in Human Rights instruments, international agreements and accompanying declarations and policies that provide global norms and standards.
GNA