News
Ratnapura pilots Child Labour Free Zone in Sri Lanka
The District Secretary (DS) Ratnapura, Sunil Kannangara said the District Secretariat in Ratnapura had launched a special vocational training programme for potential school dropouts in the district.He added that to identify potential dropouts in the district, a vulnerability study had been undertaken. This vulnerability index is based on factors such as economic background, social status, and health.
The DS said this was one of the initiatives in the district to combat child labour. He added that an awareness campaign was also carried out simultaneously among officials of the district, school authorities, political leaders, religious dignitaries, trade union leaders as well as among the children themselves.
Families who are found likely to send their children to work, would be aided by various social protection schemes to improve their standard of living” he said.
Mr. Kannangara stated the Child Labour Free Zone initiative in the Ratnapura district, was initially commenced by the District Secretariat with assistance from the Ministry of Labour and Labour Relations and technical and financial support from the International Labour Organisation (ILO)”.
Since the conclusion of the awareness programmes the secretariat had been monitoring the progress of the campaign to make Ratnapura a Child Labour Free Zone.
The vulnerability survey of 2009 revealed that nearly 300 children were engaged in various forms of labour. Children are also employed in gem mines and in the rural agricultural sector.
The DS said the cases identified were handled in a positive manner by secretariat officials.
The District Secretariat officials, the Women and Child Protection Authority, police officials, education authorities, health authorities and even civil servants devised 15 mechanisms to complete the programme, he said.
The DS emphasized that the district had recognised the need to eliminate child labour as part of a larger development plan for the district”.
An official of Ministry of Labour added the district had piloted the project for the country in an effort to ptomote Sri Lanka as a Child Labour Free Zone and would in the years to come serve as a model to be replicated in the other 25 districts of the country.
Mr. Herath Yapa Secretary to the Ministry of Labour said the 2009 Child Activity Survey carried out by the Department of Census and Statistics showed 107,000 children were engaged in different forms of employment. Children included in this group ranged from the ages of five to 17 plus, ie below 18 years.
Mr. Yapa added around 755 Child Protection Committees in schools country-wide were engaged in the effort to prevent trafficking in children.
He said the Kegalle District would be declared a “Child Labour Free Zone” by 2016 to mark World Against Child Labour day.
Sri Lanka has made a moderate advancement in efforts to eliminate the worst form of child labour, he said.
Meanwhile, The United States Department of Labour annually publishes its findings on the worst forms of child labour in Sri lanka and recently reported that “Children, predominately boys, are trafficked internally for commercial sexual exploitation in coastal areas as a part of the sex tourism industry”.
Moreover, according to the ILO, regional plantation companies ensure zero tolerance for child labour on the plantations under their purview.