Children and Women Development Units at Divisional Secretariat Level:

A better future for children and women

By Ranil Wijayapala

When the government of Sri Lanka adopted the National Action Plan for the Protection of Human Rights from 2011- 2016 it envisaged a series of action plans for the protection and promotion of children and women's rights dedicating more than 25 pages to detail the required action for the protection of child rights and nine pages for women's rights.

The Action Plan for the protection of children's rights also calls for the implementation of programs such as strengthening and expanding Child Protection Committees to cover all schools, establish quality counselling services in schools on a phased basis, conduct studies to determine the quality of counselling services provided in schools and establish vigilance committees at community level covering all districts.

As the Mahinda Chinthana - Vision for the Future has envisaged developing a safe and conducive environment for women and children a major responsibility has been entrusted with the Ministry of Child Development and Women's Affairs in implementing the government's action plan for the protection of children and women's rights.

"To make the programs a reality at the grass roots level, the Ministry has embarked on a program to conduct its activities in a coordinated manner at the Divisional Secretariat and national level", commenting on the new initiatives of the Ministry of Child Development and Women's Affairs Minister Tissa Karaliyadda said.

"To achieve this task the Ministry has decided to establish a data base on children and women in the country at every Divisional Secretariat level and establish Children and Women Development Units at the Divisional Secretariat level to improve the coordination between the Ministry officials when serving the women and children at grass roots level", he said.

The Ministry has taken this initiative as over 750 officials of the Ministry of Child Development and Women's Affairs handling subjects relating to women and children are working attached to the District and Divisional Secretariat Division level at present.

District Level Counsellors at District Secretariats, Women Development Officers, Child Rights Promotion Officers, Early Childhood Development Assistants, Relief Sisters operating at Divisional Secretariat Divisions and the establishment of Child and Women Development units at the Divisional Secretariat level will help to implement the programs effectively.

Women and children

"We are planning to operate Child and Women Development Units at the Divisional Secretariat level under the supervision of the Divisional Secretary. Women Development Officers, Relief Sisters, Early Childhood Development Assistants, Child Rights Promotion Officers, Counselling Assistants and Assistant Child Protection Officers of the National Child Protection Authority in each Divisional Secretariat will function as members of this unit", Minister Karaliyadda said.

"With the establishment of these units we expect the officers to work under the supervision of the Divisional Secretary while performing the duties entrusted under the respective institutions of the Child Development and Women's Affairs Ministry", he said.

The unit will help to work in collaboration with all state institutions, line Ministries, Provincial Ministries and Non Government Organisations (NGO) working for the welfare and development of women and children at Divisional Secretariat level.

"Through these Child and Women Development Units we are focusing on activities relating to vulnerable women and children, all male and female children within the Divisional Secretariat Division, widows and women headed families and women and children with special needs", Minister Karaliyadda said.

"Once these units are established they can work with the District level Children and Women Development Units to be established in the near future", he said.

The units will be able to develop an important data base on children and women in their Divisions as all the officers are working together under one unit. To facilitate the creating of the data base the Ministry has initiated a program to provide free training on Information Technology for all field officers in the Ministry who will be the members of the Children and Women Development Units, he said.

The first batch of 51 field officers from the Mannar, Kilinochchi and Vavuniya districts underwent training at the Sri Lanka Institute of Development Administration recently.

The training helps them to gather, store and create data base on women and children in the country and will enable the Ministry to get accurate information about women and children in each Divisional Secretariat without depending on the information of other organisations, the Minister said.

"In the past many NGOs took undue advantage of the situation that prevailed in the country by giving wrong impressions about war widows and the children in the North East. With the improvement of this network we can get accurate information without enabling any other organisation to take mileage from them by giving wrong statistics to the world", the Minister said.

"The units will also be tasked to develop mechanisms to directly intervene in activities of NGOs, Youth Organisations, Women Organisations, Farmer Organisations and other community based organisations operating within the Divisional Secretariat Division. "After the gathering of information on targeted groups , the units can easily direct them to obtain required legal assistance, counselling services, health and education service depending on their requirements and follow up on them, he said.

"We are directing them to submit project reports to the Ministry identifying the requirements of the targeted groups based on the information they gather,", the Minister said.

The units can also conduct awareness, skills development and vocational training programs for targeted women and children groups in collaboration with the agencies and institutions working in association with the Divisional Coordination Committees.

"We expect them to identify their problems and make an attempt to provide them solutions with the support of the Divisional Coordinating Officers", the Minister said.

"The units are also entrusted to initiate programs to avoid gender based and domestic violence and abuse of children at community level", the Minister said.

The provision of legal assistance for widows and women headed families after identifying their problems; providing protection for abused children and educating parents on these issues; ensuring that the children of migrated women have protection and security; redirecting drop-outs from schools; providing protection for children vulnerable to abuse; counselling; acting on complaints by women and creating awareness on domestic violence are among the sub activities entrusted to the units, the Minister said.

"We need to have strong feedback on the progress of activities under these units to be implemented under the direct supervision of the Divisional Secretary or an authorised officer", the Minister said.

"What we need to achieve through these activities is to ensure a better future for the children and women in the country and we as a Government and the Ministry is committed to this task", Minister Karaliyadda said.