Over 30 schoolgirls pregnant in Badulla

Nadira GUNATILLEKE

Over 30 schoolgirls have become pregnant in the Badulla district. There are several well organised groups in the Badulla district who track down innocent poor school girls coming to Badulla town for tuition classes and abuse them, a reliable high ranking health official said.

He said the 30 cases are the only reported cases to the State hospitals and other State health institutions of the Badulla district and there may be several more similar cases which did not report. There are over 200 `guest houses' in the Badulla district.

The organised gangs consist of three-wheel drivers, lottery sellers, private bus drivers and private bus conductors. About 200 `couples' visit one guest house per day and people can see that some couples wait in queues to get a room.

There are a large number of innocent poor school girls visit Badulla town from rural areas to attend tuition classes and they have no idea about the possible dangers from these gangs.

The gangs and individuals get friendly with these girls and take them to guest houses and use them.

The official expressed his surprise the way all relevant provincial authorities ignore this grave danger posed to schoolchildren in the Badulla district while it destroys the lives of innocent poor schoolchildren and the hardly earned money of poor parents.