Sexual harassment, road accidents and corruption in Lanka

According to a report by UNFPA, 90% of Sri Lankan women and girls have faced sexual harassment in public buses and trains, while 1 in 4 women report having experienced physical and/or sexual violence since age 15

According to media reports and police department statistics, during the 11 months up to January this year, Sri Lanka recorded 2,937 crimes against children. This number includes 1,526 cases of rape and 544 instances of serious sexual abuse. The Western Province reported the highest number of incidents (489), with Anuradhapura district leading with 173 cases. 
A study carried out by Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Sri Jayewardenapura, Sri Lanka, shows 35% of the children live in a single-parent family or under another guardian, more than 60% of the parents have low education, 74% of the families are in debt and 77% of the fathers use drugs.  The report also reveals that between 2019 and 2023, the number of cases reported  rose from 3450 to 3855 cases.
In other words around 11 children are being raped and or sexually harassed (the offence of assault or criminal force directed at women with the intention to “outrage her modesty”) on a daily basis. In simple language violence against women and children in our country is increasing. 
According to a report by UNFPA, 90% of Sri Lankan women and girls have faced sexual harassment in public buses and trains, while 1 in 4 women report having experienced physical and/or sexual violence since age 15.  Making matters worse, “14% of Sri Lankan men admit to rape”. “13% of women had experienced IPV (Inter Partner Violence) and 8% of women had experienced non- partner sexual violence reported this violence to the police.
It is in  this light that we have to view the sad suicide of a sixteen year-old school girl from Kotahena last week.
Leader of the House comrade Bimal Ratnayake originally known for standing up for worker rights and defending causes of the ‘oppressed masses’ is now behaving more like a jack-in-the-box defending the indefensible in Parliament. 
Just last week, Comrade Ratnayake accused Opposition politicians in parliament of sensationalising the sad suicide of the sixteen-year-old at Kotahena -- a victim of sexual harassment first by her school master and subsequently berated by the owner of a private tutory  supposedly close to those in power.
Publicising the despicable crime is necessary. Attempting to hide it is trivialising the crime. The minister of Women’s and Child Affairs jumped on to the bandwagon claiming she had asked the parents of the child to meet her but they failed to do so! 
It appears the NPP is descending to the depths our past regimes sank to, where successful prosecution becomes possible only if politicians intervene on behalf of victims or litigants!
To make matters worse our prime minister who while an ordinary MP was known as a prominent feminist, condemned the publicity following the child’s suicide claiming it could be detrimental to a police investigation. The fact that the case was taken up seriously only after the publicity generated by mainstream and social media gives lie to the PM’s claim.
At the same time we are witnessing a spree of fatal road accidents involving public transport. Just yesterday it was reported 21 passengers were killed when a bus went off the road in the Kotmale area. A number of smaller accidents involving vehicles carrying members of the public are now becoming a daily occurence. Trains derailing are becoming the norm.
Are our doctoral thesis dominated cabinet of ministers, unable to draw up a workable time table controlling the timings buses leave and  arrive at destinations, instead of racing each other on our roads in the hope of catching passengers? Or could it be that since cabinet ministers travel in private vehicles they are unaware of the travails of the common man/woman?
To cap a bad week,comes information that the ruling party is attempting to buy over local government MPs in electorates where they have run short of a majority.  The people voted for the NPP to make not just a change, but to clean out the political stables so-to-say. What we are seeing is a repetition of the same old story.