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Call for Consolidated Policy on Child Abuse

The call becomes significant in the wake of the recent case where a nine-year-old Emirati girl was subjected to intentional life-threatening injury by her parents.

Though there could be other similar cases, experts feel they do not get reported and highlighted due to the lack of a consolidated system.

An independent random survey done in Al Ain in 2007 quizzed 581 female 10^th graders from high schools so as to assess prevalence and risk factors for child abuse. Even in the small sample group, the prevalence of child abuse was found to be 62 per cent. This included emotional abuse (53%), physical (27%) and sexual (11%).

The most frequent emotional abusers were mothers and physical abusers were fathers. Child abuse was more prevalent among families with low income and with a history of spousal abuse between parents.

The Ministry of Health (MoH) also reported 13 deaths of 0-14-year-olds from maltreatment and violence (homicide) and 6 from suicide
during 2000-06.

As in many countries, optimal data for injury prevention and reporting are scarce in the UAE, says Dr Michal Grivna, Assistant Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at the UAE University in Al Ain who conducted a study titled ‘Epidemiology and Prevention of Child Injuries in the UAE’
last year.

However, the study itself revealed that injuries (intentional and unintentional), mainly related to traffic accidents, drowning and burns, caused 746 deaths among children aged 0-14 years in the UAE during 2000-2006, coming to an annual average of 107. Main external causes for the deaths were traffic (68%), drowning (10%) and falls (10%).

“Injuries are like any other health conditions and that is why there is a need to develop policies to manage them effectively,” said Dr Syed Jaffar Hussain, Regional Advisor, Health Promotion/Injury Prevention WHO Regional Office, Cairo.

“However, for policy makers to take stock of the situation, evidence has to be presented. For this, we need to have a unified data collection system that can be developed into a single policy framework or we could even have a stand alone policy,” he added.

“The UAE wants to act as a role model for the region and, in this case, since it is a developed country, the average number of injuries is reduced but nevertheless significant,” added Dr Hussain.

Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein, wife of His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai who is also the patron of the Arab Children Health Congress (ACHC), has also shown personal interest in the issue and thus the focus of the upcoming congress will be ‘Accidents, Injuries and Trauma.’

As a prelude to the congress, WHO was called upon to highlight the importance of developing a reliable reporting system and identifying injuries among children in the UAE. Currently, the country has different levels of data collection and reporting systems involving institution such as Ministry of Health, Police, Roads and Transport Authority etc.

Dubai, however, is in the process of developing a trauma registry system, said Dr Moin Fikree, Consultant Emergency Physician, Clinical Director Accident and Emergency Trauma Centre.

“The WHO has brought inter-sectoral groups together to discuss this important issue and this itself is the beginning,” said Dr Grivna, adding that action is needed now to avert as many preventable deaths as possible. He suggests ensuring privacy and setting up effectively managed hotlines to report abuse cases.


asmaalizain@khaleejtimes.com

• UAE