Saving poor children

Saturday 31st July, 2021

The police have had to go into overdrive to investigate Ishalini’s tragic end. The victim’s body was exhumed yesterday for a second postmortem by a team of forensic medical experts, and the public is eagerly awaiting their report. Investigators must pull out all the stops and get to the bottom of what actually happened to the girl.

A separate investigation is called for to find out why the police did not launch a thorough investigation immediately after Ishalini’s admission to hospital. They dragged their feet until the media reported her death, triggering public outrage. Stern action should be taken against the police personnel responsible for this serious lapse. It must also be ascertained whether there was a political hand behind the initial delay in investigations. Although MP Rishad Bathiudeen, at whose residence Ishalini suffered serious burn injuries, is in the Opposition, some of his MPs are supporting the government.

It has been revealed that as many as 17,500 videos of Sri Lankan children being sexually abused are found on the Internet. This shows how established and widespread the child abuse racket in this country is. There is reason to believe that the police are scratching the surface of the problem in that the Internet is not the only medium through which children are exploited sexually or otherwise. But for the use of a website to attract sickos as clients, the predicament of an underage girl from Mount Lavinia sold into prostitution would not have come to light. There must be hundreds of such underage children forced to work as sex slaves. They must be liberated from the clutches of organised procurers.

The question is what the National Child Protection Authority (NCPA) and other state institutions responsible for protecting children have been doing about the videos at issue. These video clips would not have gone unnoticed if the state outfits concerned had carried out their duties and functions properly. They must be made to explain their lapse.

Perhaps, the plight of poor children reduced to semi-slavery as domestic workers would not have shaken the nation’s conscience to the extent of people taking to the streets, demanding justice, unless Ishalini had come to harm at an Opposition MP’s residence. Had her employer been a ruling party MP, the incident would probably have been covered up; the police would have concocted a story to mislead the public, the way they did following Thajudeen’s killing.

The police are shown on television visiting houses and asking whether there are underage domestic workers. Their naivety beggars belief, and their modus operandi reminds us of the visa applications that ask the applicants whether they have been involved in any criminal activities!

The best way to trace child workers is to enlist the help of the Grama Niladaris, and encourage the public to provide information about the underage workers in their neighbourhoods to the police or the NCPA so that raids could be conducted. Given Sri Lankans’ penchant for sneaking on their neighbours, this method is sure to work.

While everything possible is done to trace child workers and ensure their freedom, the factors that have led to the estate sector being the main source of child labour have to be obviated if the problem is to be tackled effectively. Yesterday, this newspaper revealed the appalling conditions in which plantation workers are living. A family has to shoehorn all its members into a small house with a floor area of less than 180 sq. ft. They also have to skip meals due to poverty. No wonder the children who grow up amidst such deprivations drop out of school and opt for work at tender ages. Our report also pointed out that some housing units constructed for the plantation workers cannot be handed over to the beneficiaries as there are no funds for water and electricity connections.

If the scourge of child labour is to be removed from our midst, poverty in the rural and estate sectors has to be reduced significantly as a national priority while steps are taken to ensure that the police and the child protection authorities enforce the law strictly and bring the culprits to justice.