Print
this page
Email
this page Newsletters - Children and Work
Sri Lanka
The ugly reality that characterises Sri Lanka over the last twenty years is the most terrible ethnic conflict between the Sinhala people of the south of the island and the Tamil people in the north. There are Christians in both communities, even though we constitute only about seven percent of the population. Of that number about eighty percent are Roman Catholics.
Our conflict has caused great hardship to both communities and to the country as a whole. The worst sufferers have been women and children. There are a large number of war widows and orphans in both communities and the Church has tried to help them mainly through relief work. Proper rehabilitation will be possible only with the dawn of peace. Children, both boys and girls – sometimes no more than 12 years old – are serving as armed cadres with the Tamil Tigers. They have been well taught who the enemy is and they have been programmed to kill. It is most distressing to see children engaged in armed conflict, in some instances perhaps taken away from their parents without their consent. They carry guns and rifles taller than themselves. This problem has been addressed repeatedly by friendly foreign countries and by UNICEF. The Tigers have promised to stop recruiting children and to release those who are still among their cadres. But we still have not seen a significant change.
Poverty, both in the war-torn areas and among the community of tea estate workers, forces parents to send their children for domestic service in Colombo and the big cities. Living conditions among tea estate workers, first brought to our country as indented labour by British planters, still remain very poor. Parents send their children to work as domestic servants in the homes of the rich, expecting that they will have a better life at least for a short time. Very rarely are such children sent to school, though they often accompany their employers’ children, often older than themselves, to the school gates. We often hear of violence against these children and their abuse. Sometimes cases are filed against the offenders but since their employers are very powerful they are seldom punished under the law.
The employment of children as sex slaves is becoming increasingly common. In addition to the paedophiles in our own country we attract paedophiles from many countries and Sri Lanka has become notorious for the sexual abuse of children, both boys and girls. It is very difficult to bring foreign paedophiles to book without the co-operation of the law enforcement authorities in their own countries. A concerted international effort is required to deal adequately with this vice.
We are happy that we now have a well established National Child Protection Authority that actively seeks to deal with cases of child abuse in schools and homes. Their message is slowly getting across and people now know what child abuse means and that children in their care must be treated with love and understanding. However even this National Child Protection Authority has been powerless to prevent the recruitment of child soldiers by the Tigers.
Peace talks are now underway and we are all hopeful that soon peace will come, bringing with it better times for our children and the whole country.
Top
