Wednesday, 17 February 2016

Domestic violence on the increase


The Lagos State Commissioner for Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Mrs. Lola Akande, has said incidents of domestic violence are on the increase in the state.

According to her, calls and electronic mails to the ministry in the last one year, have increased by 100 per cent.

Akande spoke on Friday during an interactive session with some professional female associations in the state.

Analysing the cases, Akande said while 13 cases of domestic violence were reported through telephone calls in January 2015, the number rose to 96 in January 2016.

She said while 20 cases of domestic violence were reported by emails in January 2015, it rose to 37 in January 2016.

She said, “Domestic violence is escalating at an embarrassing rate. But the sad thing is some of the abused women come back to say that they are not ready to prosecute the offenders. They say they have to go back to their husband’s house. That is a challenge. We still have some cases in court as we speak.”

The commissioner, who said the purpose of the session was to give opportunity to professional female groups to contribute ideas to the development of women in the state, added that the skill acquisition training programme of the state government had produced more than 45,000 beneficiaries.

Akande added that the state government would soon establish a child care centre, where nannies would be trained in care giving.

As part of the efforts of the ministry’s child development department, the commissioner said about 1,500 street children had been reunited with their families.

“A child care centre will soon be established to train care givers in the state. Day care centres are also to be established in work areas to assist nursing mothers give adequate and proper care to their children while at work so that they will be able to work more efficiently,” she said.

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