'Protecting children from violence, the need of the hour'

by L.S. Ananda WEDAARACHCHI

Children would become easy victims of all forms of violence, neglect, indifference, lack of parental care and social aloofness which would take a heavy toll on them, said Child Development and Women's Affairs Minister Tissa Karalliayadde.

He was addressing a meeting of the South Asia Fellowship Regional Consultation on the UN Study on Violence Against Children (SAIEVAC) in Colombo last week.

Violence against children continues to be a global scourge that needs urgent action, the Minister told the forum.

Despite meetings and conferences being organised around the world on the subject, millions of children fall victim to different forms of violence on a regular basis at home, in the community and at workplaces.

He said austerity measures adopted by many countries to counteract the global economic difficulties have resulted in less attention being given to children, less social spending and less effective protection against violence. Despite a strong human rights consensus against violence, it still remains a formidable threat to children.

The low status of children in some countries continues to make them extremely vulnerable to violence, while they rarely have recourse to effective remedies or redress, he said.

Awareness of the levels and consequences of violence on children's lives and healthy development is still inadequate from a social standpoint, he said.

The Minister said the strategies adopted to create such awareness among communities have not been as effective as they should be.

Vast amounts of resources are being spent by the Government and NGOs in conducting seminars, conferences and awareness campaigns which are mostly confined to cities, involving only people from high society and also issuing various publications and propaganda material pertaining to combating violence against children, such measures have yielded only limited results.

"The need is to reach out to the communities and work with them at grass-roots level",the Minister said.