National Child Protection Authority

Q. The NCPA has for sometime now been afloat without direction. How do you intend to extract it from the quagmire it is in at present?

A. The golden period of the Authority was during that of Professor Harendra De Silva who had a vision and direction. The President also directly observes and monitors the Authority but unfortunately before the President’s period there was a slight lapse and the Authority needed more attention paid to it. President Rajapakse has to develop a special project for children. He has developed a separate ministry for children and appointed a cabinet minister. However in my view the NCPA should be directly handled by the President who can easily monitor and observe, but this is not happening. During the last year the Authority faced many problems relating to administration, funding and the media criticised its work. The President then finally decided to change the top management. He invited me to take on this responsibility and clear everything. My first duty is to protect the Authority before the protection of the children. There are not enough funds allocated, there is not enough staff, the Authority has only two vehicles. I need to develop an Action Plan for the next six months. At the moment we have a one year Action Plan but it has not yet been implemented. After a discussion with my senior officers we decided to change the Action Plan and accelerate it over the next six months. The Authority does not have a Corporate Plan and I want to prepare one immediately for the next five years. I had discussions with the World Bank who promised help with Social Development. I also plan to meet with UNICEF and Save the Children. I have worked closely with IOM and ILO to develop a programme with the Foreign Employment Bureau for the children of migrant workers. I also want to have discussions with INGO’s and local NGO’s. I think the Authority must cooperate with them because without their support we cannot do anything. There are many areas to focus on such as street children and children in war affected and tourist areas, state sector children and the urban peripheries school children, especially the safety of children being transported by school vans, which is a critical issue. I also want to identify the number of children of school going age who are going to school and why they are not continuing their education to university level and not joining the main workforce. After the next 20 to 30 years, they could be a separate group and we need to develop an integration programme. The picture which is being painted of children in the war affected areas, especially in the North East, that they are going to school everyday, that they are

continuing their normal programmes, I cannot believe. I think it’s a myth. I have an idea to start an
education programme. If the media can be used, then there will be a chance to educate the
parents and children. It is just an idea at present but I want to discuss it with the Education
Ministry and other specialists. The other in my view, which is based on experience, is that migrant
workers’ children will face a big problem in another 10 or 20 years. Normally our society is a
mother centric system and after the mother goes abroad the family is not managed properly.
What the children miss most at this point is love because fathers are not that demonstrative of
their love. That, I feel is the nature of our society. But children have a need for love. This is
needed to develop a child’s personality and if a child is not given this it could lead to problems
many years later and manifest itself in the form of various types of abuse such as sex , drugs,
under aged marriages. Last month a Cabinet paper was passed preventing mothers of children
who are under five years of age from going abroad but this is not the correct solution because
women have a right to go for a job, here or abroad. I don’t want there to be a problem between
the Child Development and Women’s Affairs Ministry and the Foreign Employment Bureau. I am
trying to build a bridge between these two organisations. I will be discussing with the relevant
ministers to develop a joint programme.

Q. There was a recent case where an attempt was made to send children abroad with forged documents to work as domestics but the plan was aborted when the children were discovered. Will the Authority be working with the Foreign Employment Bureau to prevent such occurrences?

A. Yes, there was a recent case and I think the Bureau officers supported it. I informed the Immigration Controller and now an investigation is pending into the matter. We must take action against such officers. We must definitely stop such incidents from taking place as well. I want to create a joint programme with the Foreign Employment Bureau and Minister Keheliya Rambukwella has good ideas about these areas and I am sure we can co-operate with him. We will have to work with relevant parties such as Immigration and the Police and also have awareness programmes.

Q. Sri Lankan is in the international spotlight because of the issue of child soldiers. One would expect the NCPA to be at the forefront in a matter like this but it does not seem to be doing much?

A. We must pay attention to this area but the problem is the NCPA and Government cannot go to LTTE areas and monitor. But we can lobby the international community about this issue.

Q. There is a facility in the Gampaha district where ex child soldiers are being kept. They have been there for more than six months, but the Government does not appear to have a rehabilitation or reintegration plan for them. Will you be looking at this issue as well?

A. I plan to develop a programme for them, especially something like a vocational training programme, after which they can go abroad and work when they have reached 18 years of age.

Q. What do you intend doing about juvenile delinquents having to be spend time with adult prisoners in the same cell? As you are aware this practice leads to other issues such as drug and sex abuse.

A. Yes, definitely, this is something I will be looking into. I have worked in the prisons before and
seen many children in prison. Children in this situation do not know what society is, they cannot
socialise with greater society. This practice creates a sub culture which is a big problem.
Parliament can pass an Act to stop such occurrences. We can also develop an alternative
programme.

Q. Sri Lanka does not have child friendly systems and procedures in place be it when a child is the victim of an offence such as trafficking where the child is incarcerated and the perpetrator set free or when a child has to face the legal system, like when giving evidence. In a majority of situations, the child who has been the victim is victimised further. What is your opinion?

A. I discussed and requested from the Probation Commissioner that the Authority be assigned two or three homes which it can monitor and develop as a centre with facilities. This will be a good alternative. I have to monitor our children’s homes because there are many NGO’s involved who do not respect child rights.

Q. It is alleged that there is abuse taking place in children’s homes. Are you aware of this?

A. I have to develop and design a programme in the next six months under the Corporate Plan. But my main challenge is finding some funds. The funds approved by the Central Government is not enough. I can prepare good proposals and negotiate with INGO’s. They can give us the funds and they can monitor our activities. There will be transparency. I also want to develop the infrastructure here with human resources and restructure the administration. The staff need knowledge about administration and there has to be a Human Resource Development programme. There has to be training for staff and attitudes have to be changed which is not easy because child protection is not an issue in Sri Lanka.