Today the nation starts marking Family Week. The annual event, now on its sixth year, aims to foster public awareness of the social ills that threaten families. One of the biggest problems is violence against family members, especially women and children. While the problem is prevalent in depressed communities with low literacy, it is by no means unique to the poor and uneducated.
Last year, the Philippine National Police received 5,668 complaints of wife battery nationwide. The Department of Social Welfare and Development, meanwhile, provided assistance to 5,504 women in especially difficult circumstances, with 37 percent victims of physical abuse, 15 percent of sexual abuse and 12.6 percent of trafficking for various illegal purposes. Of the sexually abused women, 70.4 percent had been raped, 28.2 percent were victims of incest while 1.5 percent complained of acts of lasciviousness by family members. Children are just as vulnerable to physical, sexual and verbal abuse. Many child sex workers roaming city streets were forced into prostitution by their own parents.
Few people are willing to intervene in family relationships. Neighbors are reluctant to help even when they hear a woman or child screaming in pain next door, victims of an abusive family member. Most people who see children getting cheap thrills from sniffing rugby simply shrug, believing parents should discipline their own children.
If you poke your nose into such problems, you risk being told that it’s none of your business. Yet some government agencies and concerned non-government organizations are doing just that, intervening where possible, providing counseling to those interested, and even calling in the police where needed. It’s a difficult, sometimes thankless job, but it has to be done if we want every citizen to live a decent life and contribute to nation-building. Strong families make for a strong nation.