Protecting our children

The National Child Protection Authority (NCPA)Bill, which is being debated in Parliament has rightly been lauded by all sections of society. The purpose of this bill, we are told, is to formulate a national policy on the prevention of child abuse and the protection and treatment of children who are victims of such abuse for the co-ordination and monitoring of action against all forms of child abuse etc.

Of the plethora of progressive legislation that Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Prof. G. L. Peiris has taken pains to introduce to help the socially disadvantaged, this bill certainly stands out as the most crucially important. For it is aimed at alleviating the suffering of children unable to air their grievances - a lot that suffers silently.

This bill, no doubt, will be ratified with or without amendments and signed into law and the much awaited NCPA will come to be much to the relief of those millions who care for children in this country.

The active role that the country's law makers can play is likely to end with the establishment of the Authority. Like an infant that first crawls and then toddles before standing firmly on its feet, the NCPA too will undergo a similar process before it gathers its own momentum and evolves into a viable institution.

The daunting task before the Authority will be to heighten awareness of the people in respect of children's rights and the scourge of child abuse such as molestation and child labour.

For example, Justice Asoka de Z. Gunawardana in one of his thought provoking articles way back in 1995 to the press on the subject of the spread of child abuse and danger to children's rights and health observed: "The ignorance of the dangers involved in engaging in such activities, on the part of both the parents as well as the children concerned, is the other major cause, for the successful thriving, of this shameful business[child sex]. For example, in Sri Lanka when a father was asked why he let his son into prostitution, surprisingly, his answer was, "What did it matter, my son won't get pregnant!"

The learned judge knows better and such responses cannot be uncommon in those coastal areas where tourism is a thriving industry. And this kind of attitude on the part of parents themselves and elders is sure to constitute an impediment to the NCPA.

The vast majority of people here live in abject poverty and evidently parents often willingly let their children into the labour market as domestic servants or labourers. It is the consent of parents for child labour that makes it difficult to snuff it out on a large scale. Of starvation and child labour, the poor have to opt for the lesser evil, which in their eyes is employment of children at a tender age.

Therefore, paradoxically, attempts by the Authority to liberate children from the clutches of forced labour are likely to be frowned upon by their parents or elders who eke out a living through such practices.

Then there is the rural sector where it is customary for children to augment family labour by helping their parents with their work. As a result, a child whose father is crushing stones for a living will have no option but to give his father a helping hand at his work. The same is happening in the field or on the shore in the littoral areas.

In spite of its good intentions, the Authority is likely to be sailed into by those parents who benefit from labour of their children if an attempt is made to wean them away from these established practices.

Thus, where to draw the line as regards voluntary child labour and forced labour will pose a problem for the Authority.

Children's rights are also an area that has been breeding ground for a surfeit of organisations with dubious background and hidden agenda. Those bent on converting the poor into their religious faith are already masquerading as crusaders for children's rights while there are quite a number of other organisations that are fattening on overseas funds claiming to champion the cause of children.

How the NCPA will steer clear of these organisations is yet to be seen. For, the bill (15.c) says that the Authority shall have the power inter alia to "accept gifts, grants or donations whether in cash or otherwise, and to apply them for discharging its functions."

Poverty, as has been argued has had a direct bearing on the wide spread of child abuse in Sri Lanka. And therefore, it is to labour the obvious to argue that it is essential that meaningful steps should be taken to alleviate poverty of the people if the Authority is to be helped to accomplish its uphill task.

These are some of the aspects of the burning problem of child abuse that should also be given serious thought to by policy makers.

These difficulties apart, the proposed bill must be welcome by all and the Authority when formed must be given every encouragement to achieve its noble ends.