The Ministry of Women and Child Affairs has called for a report on the case of a four-year-old girl abandoned by the roadside in Wattegama, NewsFirst reported.
Deputy Minister Dr. Namal Sudarshana said the National Child Protection Authority and the Department of Probation and Child Care Services are taking steps to secure the child’s future welfare.
Child still in hospital
The girl was found abandoned on August 13 at Mudunegammedda in Wattegama and is receiving treatment at the National Hospital of Kandy.
Police have said information has emerged indicating that the suspects assaulted the child.
Two in custody
The child’s 37-year-old mother and her 28-year-old partner were arrested in Hali-Ela on Friday, a day after the girl was found on a by-road in the area. Officers stopped the pair as they travelled to a relative’s home along Kithalella Road, and the case is being led by the Wattegama Police.
The girl was unable to give police any information about her family or where she had been living. Investigators had been examining CCTV footage of a three-wheeler believed to have brought her to the spot before the arrests were made.
Rising caseload
The case falls against a documented increase in reported child neglect. The NCPA said this week that complaints of neglect and abandonment, along with physical and psychological abuse, are all rising, and that the authority receives between 600 and 1,000 complaints each month.
The Department of Probation and Child Care Services is the agency responsible for placement decisions where a child cannot safely return to a parent or guardian.
