Panca Nugraha, Mataram – Cases of sexual violence against children in West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) province have been increasing year after year.

The latest case was revealed only this week when the Central Lombok Police arrested a 47-year-old informal Islamic religion teacher, identified by the initials AQ, of Sepakat subdistrict, for allegedly sexually assaulting nine of his pupils aged between 9 and 12 years old.

At almost the same time, the principal of the Senior Vocational High School (SMK), Central Lombok, identified as MJ, 40, and the school's Islamic religion teacher, called AW, 35, were reported to the local police for allegedly assaulting seven first-grade students of the school.

Head of the NTB Child Protection Agency's (LPA) law and advocacy division, Joko Jumadi, said that in the first 20 days of this year alone his agency had handled 19 cases of sexual violence against children. The figure for the whole of 2014 was 147 cases.

"Yes, there is a tendency toward increasing cases of violence against children that are dominated by sexual violence," Joko told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

Joko said the police's arrest of AQ for sexually assaulting his nine pupils was made possible after the parent of one of the victims reported the case to his agency. This later led to the other eight victims in the case being revealed.

The assaults were committed when AQ asked his students to massage his body and feet after teaching them. Then they were told to touch his genitals and commit oral sex.

In the case at the SMK, the seven victims reported that the principal and the religion teacher told them to show their breasts, reportedly for medical checkups.

Both the principal and the teacher argued to the police that as stewardess candidates the students had to have certain breast sizes and health conditions to meet the required standards.

For victims categorized as children, the LPA provides legal assistance and helps rehabilitate their psychological conditions.

Together with AQ's nine victims, four of the SMK Nusa Dirgantara students have been placed in the victim shelter of the Paramitha Mataram rehabilitation center under the supervision of the NTB Social Agency.

"Two other SMK victims are still under the supervision of their respective parents, as their parents were not willing to have their daughters rehabilitated at the center.

Meanwhile, the head of LPA's network and organization development, Warniati, said that the increasing numbers of cases of sexual violence against children in NTB, some of which were committed by educators, showed that there has been extraordinary moral degradation. "This needs serious attention from all parties," she said.

Warniati blamed the situation on a lack of familiarization and the limited knowledge of people regarding the matter. Based on the LPA's field experience in NTB, she said, in many cases many of the victims did not even know that touching a child's genitals was a violation of the law and could be reported to the police.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/01/22/sexual-violence-against-children-increasing-ntb.html