Dr. Wijemanne hits out at state apathy towards ageing women
Vice Chair of the UN Monitoring Committee on the Rights of the Child Dr Hiranthi Wijemanne this week blamed the State authorities for not producing any worthwhile policies to address the issue of ageing women which has got aggravated by migration and the decline of the extended families of the past.
Speaking as the chief guest of the Mallika Nivasa Samithiya AGM last Thursday, Dr. Wijemanne said the State has been wanting in this support while civil society organisations were still filling this gap.
She said that most elderly women have incomes below the poverty line and less women receive pensions. The risk factor to health and well-being increase with age outlining a string of illnesses they can confront. Outreach services are necessary, she said and pointed out that the founder of the society, Mallika Hewavitarne, mother of the patriot and national leader Anagarika Dharmapala was able to foresee this issue long before the introduction of international Human Rights treaties like the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and Children and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Referring to children, Dr Wijemanne said that with increasing incidents of domestic violence and continued migration for employment, children experienced greater abandonment. Infanticide is becoming more common and that institutionalizing was occurring not because of lack of parents but the single-mother situation. She said that more and more Sri Lankans overseas want to adopt Sri Lankan babies but complicated adoption laws and lengthy administrative procedures was frustrating this process.
Dr. Wijemanne referred to a grand-nephew of the Anagarika, former Cabinet Minister Gamani Jayasuriya whom she had worked with in the 1980s helping families that were facing the front of terrorism in the villages off Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa and
A group of 12 Muslim organisations have issued a joint declaration on the ‘Issues of IS (ISIS) and Extremism’ in which they condemned all forms of violence and extremism.
“We strongly and unequivocally condemn any person associated with the ISIS or any other extremist organisation operating under the guise of Islam. We do not condone Trincomalee. "He was indeed a true patriot and loved our country beyond measure,” she said.
Founded by late Mallika Hewavitarne, the mother of Anagarika Dharmapala, the Mallika Home has now become a haven for the poor destitute women who need care. It is now home to 80 elders in residence and they receive total care and protection. The Parakrama child Development Center, also a part of the bigger Mallika society, homes 26 boys between the ages of 5 to 17 and the Sneha Child Development Center accommo- any person or organisation that engages in extremism in any form, the declaration said.
The Group called on the government to take action against any individual involved in any form of extremism. “We also wholeheartedly offer our fullest support and cooperation to all government agencies to identify such anti- social and criminal elements in order to eliminate this menace from our dates and cares for 18 infant children.
"As I examined the focus of the work of the Samithiya, there are significant social dimensions, not adequately dealt with by the state authorities, but which deserve greater priority," Dr. Wijemanne who has over four decades of service in Health, Justice and Child Development and Women's Affaires ministries and also at the National Child Protection Authority and also the Department of Probation and Child Care said.
She explained that these include in Motherland”.
They added the IS (ISIS) is a violent extremist organisation which acts against the fundamental teachings of Islam and is a deviant organization which operates against all the principles and tenets of Islam.
The group of Muslim organisations that have issued the declaration are All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama (ACJU), Muslim Council improvement of Sri Lanka's growing numbers of elderly women and abandoned children, both groups that are vulnerable and at great risk of neglect and exploitation, lacking the care, attention and protection they require. The doctor said that the priority placed by the Mallika Nivasa Samithiya and its members, through several decades has responded to their social exclusion, poverty, and injustice and risk of violence, abuse, neglect and abandonment.
Dr. Wijemanne said that the Declaration on Human Rights was adopted and pro- of Sri Lanka (MCSL), Sri Lanka Jamat e Islami (SLJI), Jama’athus Salama (MFCD), Jamiyyathus Shabab (AMYS), Al-Muslimath, International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO), World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), All Ceylon YMMA Conference (YMMA), Thableegh Jama’ath, All Ceylon Thowheedh Jama’ath (ACTJ) and Colombo District Masjid Federation (CDMF). claimed by the UN General Assembly in 1948 and that this was the first time that member states of the UN were required to accord to all persons, including children and old persons.
Commissioner of Probation and Child Care Chandima Dissanayake, who was the Guest of Honour at the AGM said the most number of abandoned children are reported from the Western Province with 4600 cases out of Sri Lanka's total number of 13,000. She said the disappointing news is that there are no houses for these children set up by the state and that if orphanages managed by private groups like the Mallika Nivasa closed down there is no place for these children to go.
The Commissioner added that though there are a large number of abandoned children in the country and an equally convincing number of parents who are willing to adopt these children, the waiting list as high as 2500, they are not moved from the homes or orphanages.
"Because there is at least one parent of the child living, this parent somehow blocks the child from being given for adoption. It is a very sad situation. These children have a promising life with people who are willing to adopt them but their 'birth certificate' mothers don't let them have it and does not even provide for the child themselves," she said.
The Annual General Meeting of the Mallika Nivasa Samithiya brought together at least 100 women who have joined to provide for the old and young who needed a helping hand. The Samithiya has a membership of over 700 life members.
During the meeting new office bearers were selected. Ms. Savitri Peiris was reelected as the President, Ms. Rohini Abeysekera was elected as the Deputy President, Vice Presidents elected were Ms. Sriyani Hewavasan and Ms. Prema Weerasighe. Ms. Priyadarshini Rajapakse was re-elected General Secretary and Ms. Chandra de Silva was elected the new Assistant Secretary.