The National Child Protection Authority has received 7,647 complaints relating to child abuse so far this year, NewsFirst reported.
Attorney-at-Law Sajeewani Abeykoon, the authority’s Director of Law Enforcement, said the complaints cover cases involving vulnerability, physical and psychological abuse, and child abuse.
Abeykoon said complaints can be made to the NCPA hotline, 1929.
How the figure fits the year
The number is the latest in a running series the authority and the government have released through 2026, and it is consistent with the earlier counts rather than in conflict with them:
| Period | Complaints | Source |
|---|---|---|
| January–June 2026 | 5,523 | Minister Saroja Savithri Paulraj, to Parliament |
| To July 2026 | 5,687 | Abeykoon, August |
| So far this year | 7,647 | Abeykoon, September |
The increase from 5,523 at the end of June to 7,647 now works out at roughly 700 complaints a month across July, August and September — within the 600-to-800 monthly range Abeykoon described as normal in August, and below the surge past 1,000 a month she reported for June and July, which she attributed mainly to child abandonment cases.
The two earlier figures sit less comfortably with each other: 5,523 for the first six months and 5,687 “up to July” imply only 164 complaints in a month that was separately described as exceeding 1,000, which suggests the two counts are measured on different bases.
Not reported
NewsFirst’s report does not give a category breakdown for the 7,647, a cut-off date for the count, or a comparison with the same point last year. It does not say whether corporal punishment complaints — tracked separately by the authority, and numbering in the thousands earlier in the year — are included in the total. No other verified newsroom had carried the figure at the time of writing.
