NOCSL step forward to create a safe sporting environment for young athletes
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Asanga Senevirathna
The National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka (NOCSL) is the highest body for sport in Sri Lanka and governs 33 of the main sports played in this country. In a groundbreaking announcement, the NOCSL has just launched the Sexual Harassment and Abuse Policy (SHAP) and the ‘Harassment is No Game’ campaign to combat sexual harassment and other forms of abuse in Sri Lankan sport.
Sexual harassment is a serious issue in Sri Lanka and is the initial focal point of this national campaign. Asanga Seneviratne (Vice President NOCSL and Chairman Competitions and High Performance, Asia Rugby) doesn’t pull any punches when he said: “What is happening is that the leadership in our country has failed. It has failed to bring in these policies to ensure equality and ensure children are not abused.”
For Seneviratne, as it is for so many concerned parents, this is a personal issue. He added: “The first thing that I notice when my seven and eight-year-old girls went onto the tennis courts was how their male tennis coach would put his hand on their shoulder or the top part of their body when he spoke to them. I immediately stepped onto the court and told him that was not necessary. There is no need to touch children. He was taken aback but he never touched my child again, and I’m sure he was a lot more careful with other children as well.”
Niloo Jayathillake
Seneviratne also pointed out that parents can unknowingly encourage inappropriate behavior by being overly friendly with coaches or not setting boundaries at the outset. Whatever the approach, the most important thing is that nobody should take advantage of our children.
Raising awareness at every level is the first step to creating a safe community for our children. Everyone needs to be educated on this issue – from children to parents, to educators, to coaches, to anyone in a position of power.
“What we need is for this campaign to be adopted by every single association in this country. This has to be one of the criterias the Sports Ministry must enforce and ensure, that it is adopted by all federations if they are to be licensed under the Sports Ministry,” he explained.
Seneviratne has worked hard to spread this message within federations, and now, because of SHAP, there is a clear blueprint for all entities to follow.
Niloo Jayathilake, the Chairperson of the Women’s Committee, NOCSL, heads the Harassment is No Game Campaign. Jayathilake envisioned this project reaching the grassroots level and impacting generations to come.
“The ‘Harassment is No Game’ campaign is not for today, it’s for the decade and for the time to come. The foundation is the policy, the second step is public awareness,” she stated.
The next phase is to roll out the campaign to schools all over Sri Lanka and raise awareness to the point where this topic is part of a mainstream dialogue and is no longer considered taboo. “The thinking must change, any athlete must know, even at school level, that harassment is not acceptable in any game of sports,” she added.
Jayathilake was realistic but hopeful for the future.
“This is just the beginning; this is the tip of the iceberg. It will take a lot of talking, a lot of reinforcement to build up the campaign with different stakeholders. The journey is not going to be easy. We must take the message to all stakeholders and embrace a safe sporting culture to protect our athletes,” an optimistic Jayathilake stressed, while adding that all have a responsibility to promote the message and protect the children.
The web portal www.olympic.lk/harassmentisnogame, is now active in all three languages to report any incident of sexual harassment or abuse anonymously.