Opening the door for displaced children to move out

Dr. Mathu H. Liyanage

Children are the building blocks of any nation and the backbone of any country. It is of paramount importance that they should, therefore, be removed or separated from any unfriendly environment or forces that may have an indelible impact on their growth and development. Children displaced by the insidious 30-year old civil war from their parents and relatives and now living in welfare centres under pressing hardships is no exception.

There is no doubt that the government with the assistance of welfare agencies has taken timely action to cater for these children and to resettle and rehabilitate them, although it is saddled with the lengthy process of sorting out their identification, the genuine biological parents, guardians or relatives under whose care they were living before and now living in the welfare centres.

Thirty years of a treacherous civil war is a long time - a period when an infant could grow into man or womanhood to become a useful and productive citizen of the country in which the person was born.

But the grave and the most arduous problems are to collect statistics of children in welfare centres and classify them into groups to take appropriate action for their resettlement and rehabilitation. It is a massive and delicate task in addition to the resettlement of over 200,000 IDPs the government is now handling.

It is said that there are about 30,000 children under the age of 18 in welfare villages and transit centres living with either their parents or relatives and that those without parents or relatives are under the care of the State. About 850 of them have lost either one parent or both parents. However, these figures are subject to revision as the numbers might swell when investigations are completed.

The Probation and Child Care Department has planned to set up a Children's Home in Vavuniya to accommodate about 350 children rescued from two children's homes in Kilinochchi and Vavuniya.

At present there are 22 children's homes run by the State and about 400 by NGOs, totalling about 20,000 children resident in those homes islandwide. It appears that the current policy is not to allow any more private children's homes in view of the proven fact that they are not conducive to the optimum growth and development of a child physically, mentally and socially - a decision in keeping with the general trend in the field of child welfare - which is highly commendable. The government has to reunite the children in the welfare centres with either their parents, guardians or relatives after careful investigation to avoid any trafficking in children by unscrupulous persons as happened in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami.

If one parent is living, it has to be ascertained that that person cannot take care of the child and consents to the proposed adoption on his/her own free will.

It is also equally important to ensure that the other abandoned or neglected children have no parents or relatives who are willing to bring them up and that they are genuinely released for adoption in accordance with the normal procedures.

In the case of older children or children with any disability - physical or mental - the prospective adoptive parents should be assessed by a professional social worker as to their suitability to adopt that particular child. In the case of overseas adoptive parents, it is equally essential to obtain a similar assessment report from an approved agency or institution of the country from which the applicants come. This is vital because such a child will leave for a country with a different culture and at least the initial adjustment may not be that easy.

Adoption of children by overseas adoptive parents, whether young or old, should only be considered after all the avenues for placement of a child locally have been explored, including foster care arrangements, as it would certainly be in the best interests of the child.

Till such time the children in the welfare centres are moved out, it is undoubtedly the primary duty of the government to provide facilities and resources to continue their education and recreational activities besides creating a healthy and satisfying environment to live in.

The Probation Department has already provided schoolbooks, educational equipment and play materials to these children while the teachers in the centres have been enlisted to conduct classes for them.

Though there is despair, there is future hope for these children to become a part of the children population in other parts of the country, as children, on the whole, are an invaluable asset to a country if treaded on a productive and righteous path to become the future leaders to guide the destiny of the country as a contented and united nation.

(The writer is a professional social worker, freelance journalist and author.)