Cambodia loses multimillion USD every year as result of violence against children: report

A new study released on Wednesday by the Cambodian government showed that the country lost at least 168 million U.S. dollars in 2013, or 1.1 percent of its GDP, as a result of the negative impact of some of the health consequences caused by violence against children.

The study titled "The Economic Burden of Health Consequences of Violence Against Children" also showed that loss of productivity attributed to childhood violence in 2013 totalled 83.3 million U.S. dollars, accounting for 0.55 percent of the country's GDP.

Additionally, girls who have experienced physical violence suffer a decrease in their chances of obtaining post-secondary education by 6 percent, it said.

"The new research tells us that the economic burden of violence against children in our country is critical and requires immediate action by everyone, in close cooperation with the Cambodian National Council for Children"Ing Kantha Phavi, minister of woman's affairs, said at the launching ceremony of the report.

Childhood violence can have life-long negative health, social and economic consequences for survivors, including adverse impact on brain development, behavioral problems, mental and health conditions, lower levels of education and reduced future income.

"This is just the tip of the iceberg since the research was able to look into only a select number of health consequences of violence against children, meaning the cost of violence incurred by society every year is actually much higher,"said Debora Comini, representative of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) to Cambodia.

"Violence against children, no matter where and how it happens, is fundamentally wrong and is a violation of the child's basic rights,"she said.

The research, the first of its kind in Cambodia, was conducted by Xiangming Fang, a global expert in the field, with support from UNICEF.

The health consequences and risk behaviors included in the analysis of the economic burden were: mental distress, sexually transmitted infections, self-harm, smoking, problem drinking and violence-related deaths among children.

According to a survey on violence against children released last year, one in every two children have experienced physical violence by a parent or adult relative, teacher, friend, or community member and about one in four children have experienced emotional abuse. Endit