Nghe An: Drowning and child abuse remain alarming realities

The conference was chaired by comrades: Bui Dinh Long - Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee; Doan Hong Vu - Director of the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, together with representatives of relevant departments, branches and sectors and leaders of localities at the 21 district, city and town bridge points.

Many risks of unsafety for children

According to the report ofDepartment of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, from 2019 to April 30, 2021, the whole province had 119 cases of children drowning. Of which, 130 children died from drowning (in 2019: 51 cases, 58 children died; in 2020: 52 cases, 56 children died; 4 months of 2021: 16 cases, 16 children died).

Comrade Bui Dinh Long - Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee chaired and spoke at the conference. Photo: MH

Also according to the report of the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, in the past 2 years, the number of casesviolence, child abuse detected and handled in the province has decreased but the rate of decrease is not much. From 2019 to April 30, 2021, the whole province had 81 cases/93 defendants/85 children abused. In 2019, it decreased by 4.4% compared to 2018, in 2020, it decreased by 18% compared to 2019, in the first 4 months of 2021, there were 6 cases/6 defendants/6 children abused.

It is worth mentioning that child abuse cases are increasingly dangerous, with some cases of children being abused at a very young age. Most of the perpetrators of child abuse have a certain relationship with relatives or the abused children, such as: father, mother, friends, neighbors, teachers, people responsible for taking care of, or acquaintances of the children.

Methods and tricks of abuse are very diverse, but mainly subjects take advantage of relationships with children or children's relatives to find ways to approach and commit acts of abuse against children, especially cases of sexual abuse and child trafficking.

With the above worrying situation, at the conference, the delegates also analyzed the objective and subjective causes andre-evaluate the implementation solutions. For example, with the issue of teaching swimming, currently, the whole province only has over 150 swimming pools (of which about 50% are businesses).

This number does not meet actual needs and during the management process, there is still a situation of neglect in supervision, leading to drowning while learning to swim, said Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh Huong - Deputy Director of the Department of Culture and Sports.

The leaders of Yen Thanh district said that one of the risks of drowning in the area is from construction works or irrigation works that have not been completed or some works with unreasonable designs (in the case along the Dao canal). Therefore, the province is requested to pay attention to this issue during the appraisal of works to avoid unfortunate accidents.

Deputy Director of the Department of Education and Training Nguyen Van Khoa spoke at the conference. Photo: MH

The summary report also pointed out some shortcomings such as some localities still have not directed strongly and regularly the implementation of policies and laws on preventing drowning and child abuse, with limited effectiveness in some places. Propaganda work in some places and at some times is lacking regularly and continuously, especially in localities in difficult, remote and isolated areas.

Colonel Cao Minh Huyen - Deputy Director of Nghe An Provincial Police Department gave his opinion on the issue of child sexual abuse. Photo: MH

Most schools have implemented teaching swimming skills and first aid for drowning victims, but it is basically theoretical, lacking practice due to the limited number of swimming pools in the localities. In some places, the living environment around children is unsafe, many areas of ponds, lakes, rivers, streams, irrigation dams, construction pits, etc. have many potential risks leading to drowning accidents for children.

In particular, investment funding for the prevention of drowning and child abuse is very limited, not meeting the requirements of the assigned tasks, and there is no policy mechanism to support remote, isolated, and disadvantaged areas.

Local leaders must take responsibility if drowning or child injuries occur.

Speaking at the conclusion of the conference, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Bui Dinh Long said: The problem of drowning and child sexual abuse is currently happening more and more frequently and is very alarming.

Comrade Bui Dinh Long concluded the conference. Photo: MH

From this reality, comrade Bui Dinh Long affirmed that to prevent drowning, there must be swimming pools and swimming instructors. Therefore, the Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee requested the Department of Culture and Sports to develop a project on implementing swimming lessons in the whole province this year and propose policy mechanisms - not to let the situation happen where the whole province has more than 1,000 schools but only 25 swimming pools.

The Department of Education, in coordination with the Department of Culture and Sports, continues to survey the current situation of students who know how to swim in schools. At the same time, it is necessary to research and integrate swimming teaching into the educational program, so that schools can build swimming lessons in the program, which can be extracurricular or formal.

Receiving the direction of the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Bui Dinh Long also requested that the Party Committee and authorities also need to enhance their responsibility for drowning work and be responsible to the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee for the problem of drowning accidents and injuries. At the same time, review dangerous spots to have specific solutions. Depending on their functions and tasks, sectors integrate drowning prevention contents into activities.

Regarding the issue of child sexual abuse, comrade Bui Dinh Long suggested that it is necessary to continue propaganda work to raise awareness of prevention, change behavior, and when an incident occurs, it must be promptly investigated and strictly handled in accordance with legal regulations.

Teaching swimming to students at Phung Chi Kien High School - Dien Chau. Currently, the whole province has only 25 swimming pools in schools. Photo: Duc Anh

At this time, in the transition period to summer vacation, the risk of drowning and injury accidents is high. Given the above reality, the Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee requested Nghe An Provincial Youth Union to develop summer activity programs to attract students to participate in healthy and safe activities, avoiding dangerous places to play. The implementation must be done early to have real and effective solutions.