by Nadira Gunatilleke

Children and women are the two groups in any country who do not have a voice for themselves. They do not have power to fight against discrimination. It is the responsibility of the State to ensure their safety.

President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga has done a significant service towards the well-being of women and children in Sri Lanka during the past ten years.

Establishing the `National Child Protection Authority' and the Women's Affairs Ministry are two major tasks among several steps taken by her to protect children and women in Sri Lanka.

The National Child Protection Authority Act, No.50 of 1998 established the NCPA which was passed by Parliament on September 8 in 1998.

The NCPA, appointed by the President has wide powers to act as coordinating mechanism between the many government and non-governmental agencies concerned with the prevention of child abuse and the protection and rehabilitation of victims of such abuse.

The report on Good Practices in Combating Sexual Abuse and Sexual Exploitation of Children and Youth in Asia published by Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific has especially admired Sri Lanka's National Child Protection Authority's (NCPA) performance towards the protection of children. The report has also named the NCPA as a model for "Child Protection" in the region.

The fifth report on the Implementation of the Agenda for Action Adopted at the First World Congress Against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in Stockholm, Sweden in August 1996 has also stated that Sri Lanka is among the group of 20 countries where serious attempts are being made to combat commercial sexual exploitation of children.

The officials of National Hi-tech-Crime Unit of the United Kingdom toured in Sri Lanka recently commended the service rendered by the NCPA. According to them the NCPA is doing one of the best services when comparing with the other institutions engaged in child protection in the third world countries.

The officials expressed those views during a workshop held in the NCPA in connection with identifying persons engaged in child exploitation through Internet.

Children are like flowers. They are like butterflies, so soft and tender. They are the future of any nation. It is the responsibility of the State to ensure their well-being and safety. The NCPA is there today to ensure their rights. Children and their guardians should be encouraged more and more to seek the service of the NCPA whenever there is a violation of child rights.

Women's Affairs Ministry has progressed in many directions since President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga established the Ministry as a separate institution in 1997.

At present the Ministry has combined with the Social Welfare Ministry and operates under Women's Empowerment and Social Welfare Minister Sumedha G. Jayasena with the vision of empowering women and working towards gender equality.

The mission of the ministry consists of three main subjects. They are initiating, formulating and monitoring policies, projects and programmes to facilitate mainstreaming of gender, ensuring human and fundamental rights, gender equality and advancement of women and coordinating with public and private sector, international agencies and NGOs to work for the mission.

There are five main objectives of the ministry which have already been realised. They are improving the socio economic status of women, enhancing knowledge and awareness on women's concerns, strengthening the capacity of women, guaranteeing equality for women and combating violence against women.

Several activities were conducted including combining government and NGOs in mainstreaming gender, networking with government, NGOs, media and donor agencies on empowerment and on activities connected with violence against women and functioning as the National Focal Point on Women.

The main thrust areas of the Ministry were the enterprise development, social mobilisation, violence against women, gender sensitisation and early childhood development.

While the Ministry's role was to initiate, plan and monitor the activities on women and early childhood development, the activities were implemented by the three divisions of the Ministry, i.e., Women's Bureau, National Committee on Women and the Children's Secretariat.

Women affected by the conflict situation, legal and social discrimination against women, sexual harassment and rampant poverty are the most significant among present condition.

The work of the Ministry during past years was mainly concentrated on mainstreaming gender and minimising all kinds of harassment of women. The Ministry has initiated gender-training programmes for the focal points in line Ministries to facilitate their gender mainstreaming role.

Law enforcement authorities were sensitised to act against violence on women. Most of the programmes undertaken in order to empower and improve the conditions of poor rural women.

Children are the future of any nation and it is women who give birth to them and bring them up as good citizens. Therefore they should be given a voice and should be consulted when making important decisions.

It is the sole responsibility of the State to look after both parties. The perpetrators who make them suffer should be severely punished and should be given the maximum penalty.

Everyone who have children, daughters, mothers, sisters and wives should extend their fullest support to this great leader to block the few remaining loop-holes in the law and administration which are used by the perpetrators to escape.