The Deputy Minister of Marginalised Communities in the Ministry of Gender Equality, Poverty Eradication, and Social Welfare has revealed that 1,173 cases of child neglect have been reported since last year.

An eye-brow-raising 928 of these cases are of sexual abuse, while cases of physical abuse stand at 526.

The statistics were revealed by the Deputy Minister of Marginalised Communities, Royal Ui|o||oo.

He was responding to PDM MP Mike Venaani, who asked about challenges that marginalised communities such as the San, Ovatue, and Ovatjimba face.

The challenges include child marriages, child labour, sexual abuse, and illegal adoption.

The |Khomas Region reported the highest number of physical abuse cases at 119, while sexual abuse cases stood at 260.

The Oshikoto Region also reported a high number of neglected children, with 300 cases, followed by the ||Kharas Region with 161 cases and the Hardap Region with 159.

"Social workers from all 14 regions have attended to cases of violence against children equally; the data collected on responses to cases of violence against children is not disaggregated based on tribes or vicinity, thus the ministry does not have specific data for the children from the marginalised communities."

Venaani also questioned the minister about efforts being made to address a lack of national documents among marginalised communities.

"The ministry has communicated to the Ministry of Home Affairs, Immigration, Safety, and Security to undertake targeted outreaches in areas inhabited by the members of these communities for the issuance of national documents. Additionally, the ministry has provided transportation to the members of marginalised communities without national documents to various registration points during the mass registration for national documents and facilitated that these members are also linked to registrations for OVC and old age grants by the ministry."