Prevalence,
Abuse & Exploitation of Street Children In the first decade of the 21st Century gvnet.com/streetchildren/SriLanka.htm
|
|||||||||||
|
CAUTION: The following links
and accompanying text have been culled from the web to illuminate the
situation in HOW TO USE THIS WEBPAGE Students If you are looking for
material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on this
page and others to see which aspect(s) of street life are of particular
interest to you. You might be
interested in exploring how children got there, how they survive, and how
some manage to leave the street.
Perhaps your paper could focus on how some street children abuse the
public and how they are abused by the public … and how they abuse each
other. Would you like to write about
market children? homeless children? Sexual and labor exploitation? begging? violence? addiction? hunger? neglect? etc. There is a lot to the subject of Street
Children. Scan other countries as well
as this one. Draw comparisons between
activity in adjacent countries and/or regions. Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper resources
that are available on-line. Teachers Check out some of
the Resources
for Teachers attached to this website. ***
FEATURED ARTICLE *** Colombo street
children left in the lurch Ananda Kannangara, Sunday Observer Magazine, 18 July 2004 www.sundayobserver.lk/2004/07/18/new28.html [accessed 25 July
2011] streetchildrennews.wordpress.com/2004/07/18/colombo-street-children-left-in-the-lurch/ [accessed 7 January
2017] Statistics reveal
that only a handful of street children are attending schools and a majority
of them are in need of a permanent shelter and a stable income to continue
their education. According to a recent research conducted by the National
Child Protection Authority (NCPA), a majority of street children living in ***
ARCHIVES *** The Department of Labor’s 2004 Findings on
the Worst Forms of Child Labor www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/sri-lanka.htm [accessed 24
December 2010] INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - Education facilities in the northeast of The December 26
tsunami left thousands of children in Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61676.htm [accessed 11
February 2020] CHILDREN
- The
law requires children between the ages of 5 and 14 to attend school, and the
government demonstrated its commitment to children through extensive systems
of public education and medical care. Approximately 85 percent of children
under the age of 16 attended school. Education was free through the
university level. Health care, including immunization, was also free. Many NGOs
attributed the problem of exploitation of children to the lack of law
enforcement rather than inadequate legislation. Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) UN Convention on the
Rights of the Child, 6 June 2003 www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/srilanka2003.html [accessed 24
December 2010] [49] The Committee
welcomes the State party’s ratification of ILO Conventions Nos. 138
and 182 in 2000 and 2001, respectively.
Nevertheless, it remains concerned at the high proportion of children,
including very young children, working as domestic servants, in the
plantation sector, on the street and in other parts of the informal sector. School for street
children opens in Gothamipura Rafik Jalaldeen,
Daily News, 10 June 2009 www.lankamission.org/content/view/2292/1/ [accessed 11
Aug 2013] archives.dailynews.lk/2001/pix/PrintPage.asp?REF=/2009/06/10/news35.asp [accessed 7 January
2017] Ven. Gunawansa Thera noted that a hostel for street children
will be set up in the “We are planning to
build a hostel for the street children to keep them monitored. Therefore, we
will need more funds to continue this process,” he added. Schools for street
children will also be started in the outstation towns of the country in near
future. He requested
parents who did not want their children to bring them to this school before
the child got dumped in garbage or get killed. IGP Jayantha Wickramaratne observed that most of the top criminals and
underworld gangsters have been street children. Gym team training
to help Tsunami victims Phil Hill, www.somersetcountygazette.co.uk/news/1573634.gym_team_training_to_help_tsunami_victims/ [accessed 25 July
2011] He said: "We
want to raise awareness of the children in "Only a
handful attend school and most are in need or permanent shelter and a stable
income to continue their education."
He said hundreds of thousands of Sri Lankan children are at risk',
with around 4,500 street children in and around Colombo. Dons turn masters
of humanity for street children Dhananjani Silva, The Sunday
Times, June 03, 2007 -- Vol. 42 - No 01, ISSN: 1391 - 0531 www.sundaytimes.lk/070603/Plus/pls23.html [accessed 25 July
2011] When the children
were first brought in, they had many illnesses and deficiencies due to the
lack of proper nutrition, but with the assistance of the Serendib
organization, they are now being provided with well-balanced meals. Apart
from the formal education given in schools, instructors come in to teach the
children English, mathematics, and science as well as dancing, music, arts,
sports and scouting after school. Most of the
children are orphans. The parents of the others are allowed to come and stay
at the home with their child on one day of the month as a guest if they wish,
but are not allowed to take their child away even for a short while. “After
they reach the age of 18, we find them employment and a place to live because
by that time we consider the individual a grown-up,” he said. Rehabilitation
project for street dwellers Nadira Gunatilleke,
Daily News, www.dailynews.lk/2007/04/21/news25.asp [accessed 25 July
2011] archives.dailynews.lk/2007/04/21/news25.asp [accessed 7 January
2017] The National
Institute of Social Development (NISD) under the Social Services and Social
Welfare Ministry has conducted a survey on street dwellers in Colombo Fort
and the Pettah.
The survey revealed there are nearly 1,500 persons who use the street
as a place of shelter and as their 'home'. There were 29
children in the group (17 males and 12 females) and 17 children out of this
number had never attended school while five of them were attending school.
Most of the children were living with their parents in the street. Information about
Street Children - Sri Lanka [DOC] This report is taken
from “A Civil Society Forum for South Asia on Promoting and Protecting the
Rights of Street Children”, 12- 14 December 2001, At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 25 July
2011] Street children
NGOs estimate 2000 street-living and street-working children in Response to Asian
Tsunami - Summary of issues affecting street children [DOC] Consortium for
Street Children CSC Meeting, Monday 10 January 2005, –– CSC office At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 25 July
2011] In Sri Lanka,
likely to be more existing street children affected, especially those
involved in the tourist sex trade along the coast … Anticipated that it will
be several months before the extent of impact in creation of new street
children will be felt and that the effects will last over several years … 1 out
of 2 HfC projects specifically working with street
children has had to close down Title: The Majority
of the Children in Asian Human Rights
Commission, October 16, 2001 www.humanrights.asia/news/urgent-appeals/UP-41-2001 [accessed 25 July
2011] [scroll down] 500,000 children
are oppressed by the war. 1.8 million
children are malnourished. - 200,000 children are disabled. - 60,000 children
do not go to school. - 15,000 street children exist. Scholarships for
street children Current Affairs www.priu.gov.lk/news_update/Current_Affairs/ca200409/20040909scholarships_street_children.htm [accessed 25 July
2011] 162 street children
were given Presidential Scholarships to mark the International Literacy
Day. The children, who were selected
from the plantation sector, coastal areas and Kataragama,
Ratnapura and UNICEF Call To
Increased Action For United Nations
Children's Fund UNICEF Press centre, Columbo, 22 January 2004 www.unicef.org/media/media_19036.html [accessed 25 July
2011] The Action Plan is
a combined agency effort that links Government, LTTE, donors, Non
Governmental Organizations and UN agencies in a united approach to address the
health, education, and protection needs of children affected by war. It is
estimated that 50,000 children in the affected region are out of school,
around 140,000 have been displaced from their homes SOS Children in SOS Children’s
Villages www.soschildrensvillages.org.uk/sponsor-a-child/asia/sri-lanka [accessed 25 July
2011] www.sos-childrensvillages.org/where-we-help/asia/sri-lanka [accessed 7 January
2017] A peace agreement
was reached in 2002 and this raised hopes for a lasting settlement. However,
peace talks between the two sides broke down in 2003. Approximately 800,000 people, one-third of
whom are children, have been displaced, sometimes several times. Of the 2.5
million people living in the areas directly affected by conflict,
approximately one million are children under the age of 18. All
material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107
for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT
ARTICLES. Cite this webpage as: Patt,
Prof. Martin, "Street Children – |
