Letters to the editor

It is hoped that The Sunday Times article on the caged children (Plus Section of November 19) will shock our society into action. Isn’t turning a blind eye to such conditions, while priding ourselves on high religious and moral values, akin to being mere whited sepulchres?

The documentary made by Kamal Sooriyarachchi should be shown by our TV channels, so that the public are made aware of the plight of these children and the authorities pushed into action.

There are two main issues involved, as has been rightly pointed out by those knowledgeable about the predicament of these hapless children.

1. A speedy hearing of the cases by the juvenile courts so that the children are released to their families/guardians as soon as possible or if necessary to certified institutions.

2. Incarcerating children who are victims of abuse in the very high security institutions, however convenient it may be for the admitting officers (usually the Police) to dump them there!

It is not that the Department of Probation and Child Care, which is ultimately responsible for the welfare of these children is totally impervious to their plight. It’s just that the system of administration doesn’t seem to be geared to giving top priority to such issues.

The following saga is an illustration of this malaise. In December 2003, we (the President and Secretary) of FONCA, an NGO dealing with children got an appointment with the Secretary to the Ministry of Social Welfare to discuss matters connected with children in the homes we help.

Since she knew us from previous encounters, she said we had come at an opportune time. She urgently needed to get a report compiled in English to be submitted to various local and foreign agencies, which were showing an interest in a bid to promote Corporate Social Responsibility — a concept that was only beginning (to our knowledge) to gain currency as a buzz word! We agreed, since it seemed a worthwhile project. She wanted us to attend a meeting to which all the provincial probation and child care commissioners were summoned. The meeting also included an advertising agency executive, who had promised to make a film on the subject, which would be of interest to likely donors.

The focus was to be on detention centres and remand homes, details of which were given to us by the commissioners present. The assistance criteria related to specifics such as food, clothing and footwear, recreation and sport facilities, bedding, medical and first aid counselling, transport etc. The aim was to find out how they could be improved and the financial implications involved.

We concentrated on six certified/remand homes and two receiving homes and compiled our report within a month.

The heartrending tales of why these children were brought to these homes in the first instance and continued to stagnate there with little or no reprieve were as, if not more, horrendous as those described by Salma Yusuf.

One boy, scarcely 13, was accused of murder! Apparently, his mother was in the Middle East and his ageing grandfather looked after him giving him the only love and affection he knew. His father came home one night, dead drunk and started assaulting the old man unmercifully. Unable to witness the scene the boy used the only sharp implement available and kept hacking his father till he bled to death. The police took him to the remand home where he awaits the law, known for its habitual delay, to take its course.

In all these institutions, these young children languish and waste their youth away, some accused of ‘crimes’ both grave and trivial, others victims of physical and sexual abuse.

We found that they had all been brought to these institutions by orders from courts of law or via the police. While all the institutions are confined to either boys or girls, there was one institution in Galle District, Halpatota Niwarthana Niwasa, where both sexes resided in the same compound. This aggravated the problems they and the staff who cared for them faced.

A disquieting factor was that victims of crimes such as domestic violence, sexual abuse, incest and parental abandonment were housed in the same institution as those who were remanded there, accused of juvenile delinquency of varying degrees of law-breaking, ranging from theft to causing bodily harm. These institutions seemed convenient dumping grounds. As was rightly pointed out in Salma Yusuf’s article, juvenile victims of crime should be housed separately from those remanded because they are accused to breaking the law.

Counselling on a regular basis should form an important part of the rehabilitation process and systematic follow-up, after they leave the institution should be mandatory for all these juveniles, whether they happen to be offenders or victims.

The State, though it has provided the necessary infrastructure, seems unable to meet their basic needs. Hence some of the most vulnerable sections in our society may be deprived of ever playing a significant role in it, unless drastic action is taken to relieve the unfortunate circumstances in which they are placed, more often than not, through forces beyond their control. If the children in these institutions are not to form part of a future criminal under-class such methods should be adopted to help lift them out of the predicament they are now in.

To get back to the report which, (if implemented would at least have brought a modicum of relief to these children), we found that it was not deemed of any importance, any longer. It was beyond belief that in spite of the urgency displayed earlier, there was no one left to submit it to! The Secretary to the Ministry of Social Welfare had been transferred to another Ministry. The Senior Assistant Secretary with whom we had liaised with went on retirement. The incoming secretary obviously had other important priorities to be bothered with trivia concerning errant children. Ministers changed, the allocation of departments/subjects altered and the report, like so many others, we suppose, gathers dust.

Hence, we are glad that the travails of these ‘Caged Children’ were highlighted and hope the documentary on them will bring a renewed focus to the plight of these children, who have the same right to our concern as child soldiers!