Spotlight on alternative care for vulnerable children; Govt. plans national policy
Sri Lanka has enacted several laws to eliminate child abuse, but much needs to be done to protect vulnerable children such as juvenile offenders.
To overcome the shortcoming, the Ministry of Women and Child Affairs has prepared a draft national policy on Alternative Care for Children with a range of alternative care options. The new policy seeks to strengthen formal and informal community structures to protect children who lack parental care.
The Department of Probation and Child Care Services ( DPCCS) which comes under the ministry last week gathered stakeholders in the child care field for a discussion on the draft policy. The participants included representatives from non- governmental organisations, international non- governmental organisations, orphanages, institutions that care for children, lawyers and child rights groups. They were asked to put forward suggestions that could improve the draft bill so that it could be presentied to the Cabinet for approval.According to the 2012 national census, the population of children in Sri Lanka stood at 6,060,000. A substantial number of these children came from households ridden with poverty. The Household Income and Expenditure Survey 2012/ 13 showed that 6.7 per cent of the households live below the poverty line.
Most of these families look to child care institutions to feed their children. A survey done by the National Institute of Social Development has revealed that institutional care had prevented these children from going hungry.
The alternative care available includes after school programmes, kinship care, subsidised daycares, safe houses, respite care, counselling centers, certified schools and boarding houses. The need to have more alternative care options for special needs children and those children subjected to trauma and vulnerabilities has also been considered.
The children needing help include those abused and neglected in their home environment, those driven to work for a living, coming from poverty stricken homes, those into substance abuse, those inprisoned and victims of human trafficking.
Also identified in the policy as children needing special care are those with mental and physical disabilities, HIV/ AIDS, those subject to domestic violence, orphaned, abandoned and asylum seekers.
The new policy on alternative care for children is being prepared in keeping with guidelines based on a UN General Assembly Resolution.
The policy is being formulated after determining the ‘suitability’ and ‘necessity’ principles for alternative care while giving due attention to the country’s constitution and the international conventions the country has ratified.
The ‘necessity’ principle prevents children from entering alternative care system unless it is necessary. A gatekeeping mechanism is to be established to keep children with parents/ guardian before any referrals are made for alternative care providers. Family-based care is emphasised giving priority to the biological family.
The policy defines alternative care as a family-like care in a small sized residential care facility including group homes, respite care, safe houses and counseling centres where children stay for short periods with the ultimate goal of reunification.
Children in vulnerable environments will be permanently removed from families for their protection and well being, following which suitable and permanent options will be explored for the child, the draft policy says. Some children will stay in their homes until they are ready to be placed in family based care.
It was pointed out that Sri Lankan family values and social protection systems were eroding due to economic and social changes.
Financial hardship has pushed many Sri Lankan parents to institutionalise their children to provide the them necessary education. Parents of children with disabilities, in domestic violence settings, or children with physical or mental illness; Parents in second marriages and those in pursuit of overseas jobs seek out for institutionalised care.
According to the DPCCS, 15 percent of children were brought under institutionalised care following a court order.
Sri Lanka does not have an alternative care system, and the need for one is is emphasised. The policy is aimed at strengthening the family-based care and develop workable alternative care options for children.
In 2014, Sri Lanka had 14,179 children in 414 government registered Child care institutions. However a DPCCS study showed that most institutions were deficient in providing a nurturing environment for children.
The Child Development and Women’s Empower ment Ministry said around 2,000 instituionalised children do not attend school regularly and some 9,000 children do not get medical attention. The problem is aggravated by a scarcity of resources, limited training for staff and overcrowding of children in these institutions.
It was pointed out at the discussion that in specialised homes, including certified schools and remand homes, victims of abuse and neglect are mixed with delinquents of petty offences or institutionalised with convicted murderers.
In other cases, both victims and perpetrators are chained and kept like adult prisoners in the same premises making them vulnerable to further abuse.
In other instances, they are kept in police stations overnight or during the weekends until they are brought in the same vehicle, handcuffed to the courts.
It was also suggested that there should be a monitoring mechanism to check corporal abuse by care givers.
Provisions have also been made in the new national policy to update information on biological families, retain contact with parents and give the children the right to continue with their religion.
The national policy will also cover Sri Lankan children living overseas, including those who have entered those countries illegally. Special protection will be given to child victims of trafficking. (CC)