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Updated Sunday, June 7, 2009 9:39 am TWN, By Flor Wang, CNA

A social worker reads a story to a child victim of domestic violence. With a rise in domestic violence cases, many people are questioning what has gone wrong in the society and ...

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Taiwan sees rise in domestic violence

One of the challenges Taiwan faces in fighting domestic violence is that compared to the world's major developed nations, the number of frontline social workers in Taiwan is severely low compared to its population of 23 million people, experts said.

Only about 2,400 social workers were employed by public agencies or welfare groups to assist women or children who were suffering from or faced risks of domestic violence in Taiwan last year, according to MOI statistics.

In terms of the overall population, in Taiwan, one social worker has to serve 3,000 citizens on average; this figure reveals a drastic scarcity of frontline social workers in Taiwan — compared to one social worker serving 450 citizens in the United States, one to 650 in Germany, one to 900 in Hong Kong, and one to 1,000 in France, according to Kang's foundation.

On average, every Taiwanese social worker has to handle more than 70 cases — triple the workload of between 15-25 cases in the United States, according to Li.

Although domestic violence incidents always stir heated debate and attract a high degree of public attention, at least briefly, experts remain highly skeptical about whether the government “has really readied itself” to prevent family violence and rescue victims.

“What the government can do after receiving reports of such cases is very important,” Li contended. “How it can effectively provide rescue and safely prevent the informants and social workers from being harassed or threatened is a critical issue.”

To strengthen the reporting system, law revisions requiring neighborhood chiefs and township officials to report domestic violence cases to the authorities need to be quickly approved by the legislature, experts said.

Chang Shui-yuan, senior secretary at the MOI's Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Prevention Committee, said Taiwan's legal protection for victims is basically adequate.

But she admitted: “Taiwan needs to provide better and more diverse shelters for victims, particularly housing and jobs for abused women.”

Following the deaths of the two abused girls, the MOI has been increasing surveillance on high risk families to prevent further tragedies.

To cope with a manpower shortage and prevent more child abuse cases, the ministry plans to recruit 1,427 more social workers over the next four years.

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