Excluded and Invisible Sri Lankan childrenDr Hiranthi Wijemanne, Chairperson, National Child Protection Authority December 2005 Who is an excluded and invisible child? This year’s State of the World’s Children Report (SOWCR) defines them as all children denied the right to live in a protective environment, free of violence, abuse and exploitation and who are unable to access education, health and nutrition. The primary environment for a child is his or her family. Therefore, exclusion begins with problems and issues which occur within a family. However, the community, the government and private sector, civil society and the media, also form part of a child’s environment and can contribute to invisibility and exclusion. Exclusion can occur due to the larger dimensions of being deprived of economic, social, gender, cultural and political rights. Abuse and exploitation often accompany illiteracy and lack of education, poor health and malnutrition. It is clear that such children are often excluded from data-bases and therefore their needs tend to be largely unaddressed in policy formulation and programme development. Sri Lanka is often cited as unique in the developing world owing to its remarkable success in lowering infant and under five, as well as maternal mortality in spite of being a low per capita country. Sri Lanka is also considered one of the few developing countries which have achieved some measure of success in relation to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). These specifically connect with the goals of universal primary education, gender equality, child mortality and improved maternal health. However, there is still much more to be done to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, empower women and ensure environmental sustainability. Perhaps Sri Lanka’s successes in reducing child mortality have led to more surviving children who unfortunately due to poverty and other factors, are denied basic services and face abuse, exploitation, and violence. Therefore, achieving the MDGs is also very relevant and could be part of a process to build a protective environment for children. The National Child Protection Authority (NCPA), frequently receives telephone calls, letters, faxes, e-mails and visits by children and parents or other care givers, complaining about incidents of physical, emotional or sexual abuse of children. Many such complaints are anonymous, but nevertheless when follow up action is taken nearly all are found to be real. However, it is well known that for each one reported, there are thousands of others not reported and therefore not recorded and followed up. Such children suffer silently. This is because of the “wall of silence” which surrounds sexual abuse in particular. Shyness, stigmatization, fear and shame, lack of access to telephones and communication systems are all relevant. Younger children may not be even aware they are being abused. Some are afraid to deal with law enforcement authorities and an adversarial legal system. It is rare for children themselves to report abuse and it is usually done through a family member, neighbour or other adults. Similar complaints of abuse are also made to the Women and Children’s Police Desks, but again, only a few among the many report such abuse. Thus the known cases of child abuse and exploitation are only a small tip of the tip of the iceberg. Although those who report abuse are slowly increasing, with more awareness programmes and media focus, available statistics do not in any way reflect the true picture. It is well known that most of the violations of the protection rights of children occur in homes by close family members or so called “friends” of the family. Root causes include marital discord and separations, domestic violence, migrant and therefore absentee mothers, alcoholism and drug addiction, unemployment and poverty. However, abuse occurs at all levels of the social strata although less is reported from the higher levels of society. It crosses ethnic and religious boundaries. Thus many affected children suffer in silence in dysfunctional homes, invisible in their misery and deprivation and excluded from help. Abuse also occurs in schools to an extent not adequately recognized. It ranges from physical abuse related to corporal punishment to emotional and sexual abuse. The latter two are less reported. Reporting is done only by a few who have the courage to report. Hence it is by no means representative of the actual numbers affected. This silence makes such children invisible. One reason is that reporting of abuse in schools makes life unpleasant for children and their parents. A silent stance is often adopted as children and parents find it difficult to fight a rigid school system which protects the abuser, who is most often a teacher or principal, and not the victim. There is an urgent need to develop protective environments in all schools free of such abuse. Sexual abuse by foreign paedophiles is another category where only a few have the courage to report. Many are silent as they get bought off with ‘goodies’ and money or are reluctant to go through tedious law enforcement and judicial processes. Parents “paid” for the services of their children condone the abuse. Such paedophiles work through commercial sex networks which are difficult to penetrate. This also includes pornography in which children are involved as well as the soliciting of children through the Internet. It is mostly boys who are involved. Another group of children who are well known victims of abuse and exploitation are children in Remand Homes and Detention Centres who are supposedly put in there for care and protection. There are no systems in place for such incidents to be made visible. There is little recognition of children victimized through judicial processes. Such affected children are unknown as there are no independent monitoring systems through which they could be made ‘visible’. However, follow up action is important. The commonest form of Child Labour in Sri Lanka is domestic work which cloaks children in a mantle of invisibility. The few children who work in factories and other situations such as construction sites are more visible. The plight of only some child domestics is known to the NCPA, Labour Officers or the local police. Some children run away and end up in Child Care Institutions. However, the majority have no way of escape as they have lost contact with their families, lack birth registration and an identity, and are illegitimate. Their numbers are not fully represented in data-bases. Disabled children are another group who face exclusion and discrimination. It is commonest among those who are mentally retarded. Such children have very few options related to inclusive education and special education which could make a huge difference to their development. There is a lack of such schools and facilities, as well as trained teachers. Some children who attend such institutions tend to face discrimination and stigmatization and many report this to the NCPA. Actual numbers are not known and are not fully represented in national level statistics. Another important aspect in the case of disabled children is access for their parents to parenting skills programmes and community rehabilitation. Although Sri Lanka continues to be regarded as a low prevalence country for HIV/AIDS and the numbers of children infected are relatively small, nevertheless HIV can spread very rapidly and make children affected invisible. Children subjected to sexual abuse and exploitation are vulnerable to infection, particularly those caught in commercial sexual networks. Many such children may not even be aware they have HIV as they lack access to voluntary counselling and testing facilities. Disasters, both man-made and natural, are high risk situations which contribute to the invisibility of children. Armed conflict in Sri Lank over 2 decades has led to the displacement of thousands of children in welfare camps and in areas different to their original place of residence. Some of these children are at risk of abuse and exploitation and they face invisibility and exclusion as their families are subjected to stress and the disruptive forces of poverty, lack of proper homes and unemployment. In an armed conflict situation child combatants who lose contact with families and ‘disappear’ are among the most invisible and excluded. Some of these children appear in data-bases when parents report their recruitment as soldiers, but a climate of fear surrounds reporting and there is no guarantee that the data-bases reflect the actual situation. The recent tsunami is another situation in which widespread displacement occurred, as well as the loss of parents, heightened vulnerability to abuse, exploitation and trafficking. Recommended Action:
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