Sri Lanka Children Deprived, Exploited

Fatima, 8, begs for money and food at a bus stop while her crippled father sits on the ground mending shoes and umbrellas.

Chaminda, a 12-year-old orphan who dropped out of school four years ago, sells betel leaves nearby to feed himself and his younger sister. He begs and digs through garbage to supplement the dollar or so he earns on a good day.

One-fifth of the children in this nation of high literacy, free education and universal basic health care work at menial jobs, beg, sell their bodies or have no homes, according to a government study.

More than 1 million Sri Lankans under age 18 are growing up without “happiness, love and understanding,” the study concluded.

It found that 500,000 children are employed in manual labor ranging from kitchen work to gem mining, 10,000 are beggars and 30,000 boys work as prostitutes, hired primarily by foreign tourists.

The report said 487,000 children have been displaced, maimed or traumatized by eight years of ethnic war on this lovely tropical island, whose ancient name of Serendib is synonymous with good fortune.

In many ways, Sri Lanka is the envy of other developing nations. Its diversified economy includes tea and gem exports, tourism, agriculture and fishing, and the literacy rate has crept steadily upward to 87%.

The per capita annual income is $420, highest in the Asian subcontinent, but many parents still send their children out to work. Exploited and traumatized children can be found throughout the island.

“Legal provision for the protection of children is available, but it is ineffective due to weak enforcement,” said Padma Ranasinghe, commissioner of the probation and child care.

Hiranthi Wijemanne of UNICEF, the United Nations children’s fund, put it this way:

“If you don’t pay your income tax, your property is seized. If you park your car in the wrong area, it gets towed away. That same enthusiasm for the enforcement of the law does not exist when rights of children are violated.”

Children are allowed to work as domestics or in agricultural jobs at age 12, and shops, offices and industries at 14. For underground construction work and gem mining, the minimum age is 16.

Laws that say children may not be employed in ways that obstruct their schooling are routinely ignored. Although school attendance is mandatory, the statutes do not specify an age for beginning or for dropping out.

Of the 487,000 children listed as traumatized or displaced by war, the study said, most are in refugee camps in the north and east, where separatist guerrillas of the Tamil minority have been fighting since 1983.

Another problem is the absence of 100,000 women who have gone to the Middle East to work as domestics. Many are mothers who leave their children with relatives.

“Recently I visited a village in southern Sri Lanka and found an astonishing case where the father would tie his 2-year-old son to a table and leave home for work,” said Wijemanne of UNICEF. “His wife was in the Middle East and he could not find anyone to look after the child.

“We are trying to tell parents that children are more important than the little money they go to such extremes to earn.”