FIJI Police Force statistics show that the highest number of recorded cases of child abuse and domestic violence are from the Western Division, says Women, Children and Social Protection Minister Sashi Kiran.
Ms Kiran was officiating at the reopening of the Salvation Army Family Care Centre in Lautoka yesterday.
“The Western Division led the statistics, accounting for 37 per cent to 40 per cent of all reported cases of domestic violence against women as well as 35 per cent of cases of violence against children in the past five years,” she said.
“To put this data in numbers, 1103 out of 2692 victims were from the West in 2020. That’s 40 per cent of all cases reported and 970 out of 2617 cases in 2024 at 37 per cent.”
Ms Kiran said the Eastern Division had around 17 to 18 percent, the Northern Division around 11 per cent and the Central Division recorded 3.3 per cent of all cases reported in 2024.
“We need to ask ourselves why the Western Division has recorded the highest number of family violence in the past five years.
“Our elders, community leaders and family members need to analyse our situation and see how we can turn these numbers around and protect our women and children.
“These are not just numbers. Cumulatively, these numbers reflect more than 5000 families in the Western Division, and there may be so many unreported cases.
She said the number of women and children who had been scarred for life by violence could have been avoided. This data underscored the need for the Lautoka Family Care Centre. “The work of such centres is particularly difficult because you are dealing with trauma and wounds that have been inflicted by the loved ones of the victims.
“How do you give comfort to them and get them to trust their loved ones again?
“The ones most impacted and who receive least attention are the children caught up in family violence.”
