20 November 2023 11:53 am Views - 1374
BY AJITH SIRIWARDANA AND YOHAN PERERA
She told Parliament that several factors such as migrating mothers, the collapse of the family unit, lack of sex education, drug addiction among parents, both parents being employed and an increase in the use of smartphones among children have led to the increase in the number of teenaged mothers.
While responding to a question by MP Jagath Kumara, she said there were some 89,164 single-parent families in Sri Lanka which include 124,482 children.
Ms. Kumarasinghe said the government has launched several programmes to address the issue including awareness programmes and offering legal assistance to victimized children.