Media’s role important in combating child abuse - Minister Karaliyadda

By Ranil WIJAYAPALA

Abuse of women is becoming a hot topic in the media and also among the public as we hear about these incidents daily. Child Development and Women’s Affairs Minister Tissa Karaliyadda believes that though there is an increase in such cases, the blaring publicity given to these incidents have blown this issue beyond proportion.

In an interview with the Sunday Observer, Minister Karaliyadda said his Ministry is doing its utmost to control this situation after creating a better awareness among the people on these issues. However, the Minister also says that these innocent victims are being abused repeatedly due to the unethical reporting of these incidents by the media.

The Minister also emphasise that increased awareness is the key to success in combating child abuse cases and the speedy and strict punishment for abusers of women and children are the best ways to control the situation. Following is the excerpts of the interview the Sunday Observer had with Minister Tissa Karaliyadda:

Q: During the past few years we came across a lot of cases where children and women were being abused or harassed. We hear these cases on a daily basis at present. As the Minister in charge of Child Development and Women’s Affairs how do you see this situation and what kind of steps have you taken to control such incidents at the Ministry level?

A: I have to admit that there is an increase in the number of abuse cases of women and children. I am not attempting to the give excuses to this situation but I have to say that this is nothing new to us.

Those incidents were there within the society earlier also, but now, with the end of the war, media personnel who were focusing their attention on the warfront in the past are focusing more attention about these incidents. Therefore those incidents which were confined to the inside pages of newspapers during the war period have now become major headlines and page one stories in most of the media.

On the other hand in the past there were no large number of electronic and print media to give such wide publicity to such incidents. But today, the media in Sri Lanka has expanded and they have made giant leaps in the media field.

So, with the end of the war since they don’t have criticism about the war or the development drive in the country, they grab these incidents to attract more readers and audience by reporting them. When all the media institutions are repeating these incidents, they become major issues. Even in the conflict affected areas these incidents have happened.

Q: As you mentioned the media is playing a critical role in highlighting these incidents. As the Minister in charge of the subject are you happy with the way media reacts to such incidents?

A: Media has a vital role to play in controlling the incidents relating to abuse of women and children. But they have to publish the incidents relating to child abuse cases in a more responsible manner. Otherwise the victims of these incidents will be abused more times in public if the media does not stick to ethics and decorum.

We see that some media institutions are going beyond their limits when reporting these incidents. When such incidents happen they are reporting the way Police is recording statements. I think that is not ethical. Children tend to tell the truth.

When they are repeating these incidents to the media they are being repeatedly abused in public. We need the media. We need their support. They should reveal the truth to the world and report incidents. But when they are reporting things they should do that in a more ethical and responsible manner.

Q: Don’t you think you can work to control such reporting in the media?

A: When some incidents relating to the sexual harassment and abuse are reported in the media, some parents telephoned me and ask why I am allowing the media to act in such an irresponsible manner and why our Ministry is not taking action to prevent such incidents.

What I told them was that we could not do anything about it and the media institutions are not following what we say. There are no laws to control them. To control such things we have to create new laws.

Q: From time to time as the Minister in charge of Child Development and Women’s Affairs, you have mentioned that the laws regarding the abusers of women and children have to be changed. What is happening in this front?

A: I requested from the Attorney General’s Department to reintroduce gallows and the strict punishment for the abusers of women and children. They are considering the law with regard to gallows. They also informed that when the children get abused at their young age the Court cases are being heard for three or four years sometimes.

Under these circumstances the victimised child gets older and sometimes reluctant to appear before Courts. So we have to expedite the process of punishing the offenders. That system is now being implemented in many districts and complaints against child abuse cases are being investigated expeditiously to punish the offenders within the shortest possible time. We can see a light at the end of tunnel. So we can hope that process will come into effect very soon.

Q: What are the steps your Ministry is taking to control the abuse of women and children?

A: We observe very clearly that incidents are happening in a more unusual manner. Children are being abused by their fathers; sisters are being abused by their brothers. This has become a very serious issue in the country. To control such situation we have to conduct more and more awareness programs to educate the public. My Ministry is doing its best to tackle this situation launching our programs at the grass-roots level.

During the conflict period our Ministry officials could not carry out our programs in the North and East. But now we are expanding our activities in the North and East also. We must be thankful to the President because we have been able to fill all the vacancies in our Ministry with the recruitment of new graduates.

We have provided them training and deployed them at regional level as Child Rights Development Officers, Women Development Officers. We have instructed these officers to start their activities at the grass-roots level and collect the data regarding the women and children on their own as we are not ready to accept the data given by the volunteer organisations operating in those areas.

Therefore we have given the responsibility to these newly recruited officers to find the truth and report to us. We have also instructed them to educate the people using simple language that can be understood by the ordinary people. Therefore the officers in the North and the East will educate the people there. But people may not understand these things at once.

Q: Are you in a position to put an immediate stop to such incidents?

A: What we all have forgotten is that we are suffering from the trauma of war that existed in this country for nearly three decades. That is applicable to all three communities in the country, Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims. They lost their balance in the society and they need time to return to normality.

The Government is facilitating them to return to the normal situation by providing them the required infrastructure and other facilities. We are now completing that process while the other processes are going on. Some people are expecting us to solve all these issues instantly.

That cannot be done. We could end the war making use of weaponry but it is not that easy to correct the minds of the people which have gone on the wrong path for quite a long period. We have to educate the youth generation at village level. That journey we have already initiated and we are carrying out that process.

Q: The abuse of women and children has become a slogan for politicians also. How do you think about this situation?

A: Some bankrupt politicians are making noises about these cases to attack the government. They are using these innocent children and women for their political gains. They should think intelligently and talk about these incidents responsibly.

The people get shocked with these incidents but they will not blame the government for these incidents.

Q: Recently we observed situations where the children were being subjected to cruelty and being subjected to abuses at the hands of their parents. How do you see this situation and what factors do you think are contributing to this situation?

A: There are many factors for this situations. One vital reason is the migration of mothers for foreign employment when their children are very young. When I suggested that we should bring laws to prevent mothers of children younger than 18 years from sending for foreign employment, many people blamed me for making such a proposal. Looking at the situation today that is the very reason for children to get abused by their fathers. When the fathers are getting money from the mother employed in the Middle East they tend to consume alcohol and sometime abuse his child.

On the other hand, lack of parents’ attention towards the children is also a factor contributing to this situation. Sometime parents are so busy that they don’t have time to pay attention towards their children. Then the children also work on their own without any regard for their parents.

On the contrary the complexity of today’s society is also a factor for this situation. The use of television, Internet and mobile phones has corrupted the minds of the society. In addition people have accustomed to many activities that are not suitable to our culture. There may be something wrong with our food consuming pattern also.

Q: Rizana Nafeeq who was mercilessly executed in Saudi Arabia became the central topic among the people last week. She was compelled to go for a foreign employment at the age of 17 by having forged documents. What kind of action can the Government take to prevent such children being sent for foreign jobs in the future?

A: It is not suitable to send young people for foreign employment if they are not mature enough to do such jobs. We should make age limit of the females at least 20 to 25 years to consider them for foreign employment. When we consider Rizana’s case her parents are also responsible for the fate of her child. I accept that they are poor. But there are so many other people living in poverty.

How can they send a child like her to a foreign country where they do not have anyone to help her? Therefore the way they decided to send her abroad as a housemaid is also questionable because there were other options available. The parents should be made responsible. The job agents also should be responsible for making forged documents and sending her. The punishment given to the job agent is not enough. Such job agents should be banned.

To avoid the situation like Rizana Nafeeq, we can send more and more males for foreign jobs instead of sending females. The President and the Government was shocked after hearing about the fate of Rizana Nafeeq.

We cannot change the laws in other countries. Therefore, we must consider whether it is suitable to send our workers to countries like that.

Many countries are not sending females to countries like that. In the past year more males were employed in foreign jobs than the women. That is not all. We are sending our women as housemaids. But there are a large number of women employed in top positions in other countries. They are employed as lecturers, doctors etc. But they are not being highlighted in the media. We must tell the people that a housemaid’s job is not the only opportunity they have.

They can go for many respectable jobs not only in Middle East but also in European and Western countries. We should target good jobs rather than sending them as housemaids. We must talk about the women who had brought reputation to our country. I also like to remind about Minister Dilan Perera who is also making an effort to keep a balance between the foreign exchange and the kind of the jobs we are targeting in other countries. He is taking steps to avoid such cases.

Q: As you mentioned, the children whose mothers are engaged in foreign employment and some children affected due to the disharmony of their parents, are being subjected to various harassment. Does the Ministry have any program to ensure a better future for these children and settle the disputes relating to these incidents?

A: Not many children are subjected to such situations. Demanding an immediate divorce will not be a solution for these situations. To resolve such situation we should have a separate mechanism to address these issues legally as well as socially. For this I requested a separate unit.

At present at every Police station we have a Women’s Bureau. There are two female Police officers attached to the police stations to hear complaints from children and women.

The police officers are deployed for other duties when there is not enough strength at the police stations. Therefore two female officers should be available at each police station permanently.

We are recruiting graduates for this purpose so that we can deploy them in each police station to work with the police when hearing such cases. Apart from that we should educate the people.

Q: There are so many local and international organisations working towards ensuring the rights of women and children. How do you think about these organisations and do you think that these organisations are contributing enough to ensure the rights of women and children?

A: There are so many NGOs and organisation to ensure the rights of the children and women. I don’t see any of these organisations are having lectures at village level to educate the women to protect from unwanted incidents.

There are some volunteer organisations which are doing a good job at village level by extending their hands to the women. We respect them. But many of the NGOs are engaged in activities with hidden agendas.

What they are doing is to get the women in our society to talk what they wanted to tell the international community to tarnish the reputation of our country. I also should mention that many international organisations who are advising us on these issues are having more cases of children and women abuses.

These incidents are common even in other developed countries also. That is not an excuse. To tackle these incidents we need tough laws, awareness programs, we have to maintain discipline in schools.

As a responsible Government and as a Ministry we have also launched a program to educate people. That is not enough.

Q: What are the steps the Ministry is taking at present to control the websites and other pornography videos being circulated among children?

A: We have to bring in strict laws as we always do. We should remove what is not complying with our culture and society. If the Arabic countries could control these things under their laws why can’t we do it here in Sri Lanka? We also should explore what suits us. The Human Rights people may protest but if those websites and porn sites and films are corrupting the minds of the children we should take action to control them.

Q: Is there any program to introduce new laws regarding these websites and porn movies and websites?

A: There is no such move at the moment. But we are requesting to have strict laws to ban those websites. Those laws have to be true laws.

Q: Sri Lanka has signed many international agreements and conventions to safeguard child rights and women’s rights. How is Sri Lanka adopting these conventions and agreements?

A: We are in the process of adopting the mechanism suggested in these charters and conventions. But there are some laws that do not suit our country. We need some time to adopt these conventions carefully into our laws.

We have taken initiatives to implement many of these international standards to safeguard the rights of the women and children in our country. We introduce the hotline 1929 to complain about child abuse and harassment cases.

Q: The Ministry earlier made an attempt to bring laws to legalise the abortions. What has happened to that matter?

A: I made an attempt to legalise abortions for certain situations. But the media reported that matter wrongly and disrupted the process giving only one side of the story. We did not attempt to legalise abortions totally. We attempted to legalise abortions only on restricted situations depending on the recommendations of the Judicial Medical Officer.

But it was opposed by many quarters of the society. But I personally believe that it should be legalised even to cover extreme cases since these things are happening illegally.