International Days: Who benefits?

We in Sri Lanka, probably in common with countries around the world, tend to go overboard in celebrating/commemorating or otherwise focusing on a plethora of ‘Days’ such as Universal Children’s Day, Elders’ Day, Visually Handicapped Day, Differently Abled Day and so on.

While not decrying that it is a great idea to focus on these special categories, at least once a year, albeit with plenty of hype, publicity and platitudes, it seems pertinent to questionwhat benefits accrue to the individuals, most in need under these diverse categories.

How many street children benefited from the events surrounding Universal Children’s Day?

For instance, on Universal Children’s Day, how many of the 4000 street children (according to the latest statistics), who have little option but to roam our streets, without basic food, clothes or shelter benefited even by an iota, from all the razzamatazz that surrounded its celebration? This is quite apart from those children existing in some of our less than comfortable children’s institutions as well as in refugee camps.

A positive start, it is hoped has been made after the recent International Day of the Disabled, to help those with disabilities, reach their full potential by providing them with jobs, access to public places and other facilities. However, there isn’t even a mention made or any practical help offered to those who languish, virtually immobile suffering from conditions such as cerebral palsy. Many others are crippled and confined to one place suffering from a variety of deformities. Their care is left to their long suffering families or to institutions where they have been dumped, who have neither the financial resources nor the necessary staff and expertise to handle them adequately.

If there is an in-depth awareness directed towards these and all the other segments that have such ‘Days’ set aside for them, it will serve a useful purpose. Isn’t confining it to tamashas etc., that merely provide another platform for publicity seeking big-wigs to air their platitudes, only an expensive but futile exercise?

By Rita Perera, Kelaniya