A 2-year-old girl has been in a coma for nearly a month since her adoptive father abused her to the point she fell unconscious with bleeding in her brain.

Doctors say she is unlikely to wake up given the extent of the trauma she suffered when her father, 36, allegedly slapped her face and knocked her down a total of four times at their home in Hwaseong, about 40 kilometers south of Seoul, on May 8.

An investigation revealed that the adoptive father had abused the girl multiple times prior to May 8, using his hands, a wooden back scratcher and a wooden shoehorn.

The abuse finally came to light on May 8 when the man took the unconscious girl to a hospital and doctors discovered bruises in different stages of healing all over her body.

On Thursday, the Suwon District Prosecutors Office indicted the man on charges of child abuse leading to grievous bodily harm and child abandonment and neglect. His 35-year-old wife, the girl's adoptive mother, was charged with child abandonment and neglect for allegedly being aware of her husband's actions but doing nothing to stop them.

Child abuse has received widespread national attention in recent months, after a 16-month-old girl, known by her first name Jung-in, died in October from severe injuries caused by repeated assaults by her adoptive mother.

According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, 30,045 cases of child abuse were reported in 2019, up around 22 percent from 24,604 in 2018. The 2019 figure translates to more than 80 cases a day.

Cases have increased at an accelerating rate, going from around 6,000 in 2011 to over 10,000 in 2014 and to over 30,000 in 2019.

The ministry's data was based only on reports filed with child protection services, meaning the actual figures are likely much higher after accounting for cases reported to the police and other agencies.

Many cases involved two or more types of abuse, with the combination of physical and emotional abuse accounting for 38.6 percent of the total in 2019.

The number of child deaths resulting from abuse reached a record high of 42 that year, climbing from 14 in 2014, 16 in 2015, 36 in 2016, 38 in 2017 and 28 in 2018.

Nearly half, or 19, of the children who died in 2019 were under a year old, while five were 1 year old and another five were 5 years old.

Experts voiced concern that the COVID-19 pandemic has put more children at risk of abuse in their homes.

"Ever since the pandemic hit, people have been working from home and children have been learning remotely, which means families have been spending more time together at home," said Lee Bae-geun, head of the Korea Association for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect. "I believe this has led to more cases of child abuse."

Lee said it is especially problematic that with the closure of schools, children have nowhere to go to report abuses.

"We urgently need to find alternative channels or spaces where they can safely escape," he said.

Many in the field lamented the lack of funding, personnel and facilities required to tackle child abuse.

According to Rep. Choi Hye-young of the ruling Democratic Party, the health ministry, which is the main government agency tasked with handling child abuse, allocated 4.2 billion won ($3.76 million) of its 2021 budget to the job, equivalent to 0.005 percent of its total budget of nearly 89 trillion won.

The justice and finance ministries have also earmarked around 29 billion won and 8.7 billion won, respectively, for the cause.

Following criticism about the inefficiency of having multiple accounts, the government decided Wednesday to merge them into one under the health ministry.

Still, the number of child counselors falls far behind that in the United States, according to the Seoul-based National Center for the Rights of the Child (NCRC).

In the US, the average number of cases handled by one counselor is 15, while in South Korea it is 76, the center said.

The number of child protection services has also increased slowly, from 56 in 2015 to 67 in 2019, resulting in many cities and provinces having one service for every 100,000 or more children.

"(Workers) are under pressure to respond 24 hours a day and suffer from high levels of stress, including from perpetrators of abuse who make threats," an NCRC official said. "We need more people in the field and better working conditions, especially as children who have been seriously abused require careful psychological counseling." (Yonhap)