Are children victims of a violent culture?

by Carol Aloysius

Children's Day exploded amid the thunderous sound of bombs, gun fire and violence, as millions of children woke up for perhaps the last day of their young lives in the war torn Middle East. As they battled vainly against hunger, thirst, and inclement weather the fiery speeches of activists and self image pushing politicians fell on this most vulnerable segment of society like shifting sand in the blowing winds across the desert.

For many, no matter where they lived, especially, those trapped by poverty , ignorance , and growing up in violent environments where sexual abuse, rape, drug abuse, kidnappings and even murder were no longer confined to the murky depths of the underground world, the celebrations of another Children's Day had no significance.

It was simply another day of rough , tough living , of having to beg on the street for food, peddle drugs in return for a few coins from drug hawkers who employed them , or sell their bodies to men who found joy in underaged sex.

Children's Day , in the war torn nations of the Middle East, saw thousands of children displaced from their familiar environments shattered by bombs, as television screens flashed tear jerking images of toddlers stretching out empty plates while a long line of men and women stood in queues for the meagre provisions brought to them by various non governmental organisations including the Red Cross. Clad only in the clothes they wore while fleeing from their shattered homes, their flimsy makeshift shelters are anything but a shield to protect their tender bodies from scorching heat at day, and icy temperatures at night. The estimated number of children living in these camps is said to be nearly three million. Deprived of their basic rights, such as, food, water, clothes, shelter and education, it is likely that unless the war that rages around them ceases, the chances for survival reduces every day, every hour a bomb drops.

For most children growing up amid the violence and breakdown of human values , and caught up in the dizzying speed of life where the fine line between the real and the unreal world into which they want to escape with hard drugs, time is a proverbial trap. It means everything and nothing. Take the case of the millions of children engaged in manual backbreaking labour . For children in the carpet making industry which reportedly hires children as young as five years to weave their exquisite products now found in almost every international up market, time means nothing, as the day drags on into night with only a few hours of sleep before their next day's labour begins.

Laws

Despite laws, sanctions and the International Labour Organisation ( ILO) insisting that all children attend school till the age of 14, child labour continues to engulf the world. The Indian National Census reportedly estimated an average of 12.5 million children between the ages of 5 and 14 to be engaged in labour in the informal sector.

While there is no such national survey in our country, the fact remains that in certain areas where gem mining and stone cutting are traditional occupations , there is strong evidence that young children are still being used to break stones and cut gems for a paltry take home pay.

Hi-tech jobs

It is not just the informal sector that is caught up in this speed trap. For professionally qualified young people in hi tech jobs, hunched before computer machines in banks, hotels, industries, time is the only thing that matters. Their maxim; The faster you deliver, the better your chances of surviving the rat race. This affects young professionals in Sri Lanka as well where there is now an increasing computer literate public , with some 47 percent of young persons ( children ,) said to be computer literate. While the sky is the limit if they deliver in time, there are dangers of over using this facility, research has now revealed. According to them, chances are these young persons could end up brain fagged, burned out or become addicted to the extent they have no time for sports or extracurricular activities.

Computer literacy rate at present in Sri lanka is 39.2%. Age-wise the highest computer literate is in the f age group 15-19 years( 58%) English language computer literate rate is the highest in the country at 69.5%.

In the case of growing children the negative health impacts are more complex , with more children ending up overweight or obese and becoming early victims of non communicable diseases that normally affect older persons, such as, diabetes and cardiac diseases. The current trend of obesity among primary schoolchildren especially has zoomed to such an extent that it has prompted concerned local health officials to warn parents and teachers to insist that children take part in more sports and regulate their time spent on sedentary activities including accessing the internet, or watching television..

Violent culture

Growing up amid violence , broken homes , and communication problems with their parents , children today have also become the victims of a violent culture.

Sri Lanka is no exception

The loss of extended families, the tendency for smaller family units and single family housing , along with internal migration from villages to towns and cities has negatively impacted on the Sri Lankan child. With no grandparent or aunt to look after them in the absence of their working parents , many children are now spending more time alone in the house with the television as their babysitter. Others are deposited at a nearby day care centre till the arrival of their parents, at late evening, exposing them to institutional sexual abuse , which, judging by recent news reports, is clearly on a roll.

Little wonder that these 'latch key children' to coin a phrase from the west where it is a common trend, soon become addicted to the violence they watch on the screen , some trying to imitate super heroes by jumping off balconies , while others charged by the violence they have witnessed, simply take out their frustrations on their peers during a cricket match such as, what happened a few days ago . Breakdown of communications between parent and child has further spiked the inner demons of uncertainty and fears that are part of the growing up process. Take the issue of Reproductive Health , a subject assiduously avoided by both teachers and parents if forced into the open. With no response from the adults most children who are still ignorant of basic facts about sex according to surveys by the Sri Lanka Family Planning Association , turn to peer counselling . The result is, wrong information which could be both misleading and dangerous, says a spokesperson for the Association. In this respect the recent suggestion by the Health Ministry special task force to introduce Reproductive Health as a subject in the curriculum vitae for more senior schoolchildren is welcome.

Future

The hotline for children set up by the National Child Protection Authority has been reported to have received several calls since its inception in .... , the most number being allegedly reported in the Nuwara Eliya district..

The good news is that this service which now works day and night and where officers trained in child psychology man the network of different child friendly police stations set up islandwide, is to be expanded to meet the growing demand.

But many questions remain to be properly wrinkled out.

Question 1-Once the entry has been made by a child who has been sexually abused, what guarantee is there that the accused will not retaliate and wreck vengeance on the child or her family members, as has happened in recent cases.?

Question 2- If the child has to remain in police custody if there is no one to take her home, where will he/ she be kept? Behind bars? Inside a room full of hardened criminals?

Question 3- How will the child be transported to the prison cell? In a prison van where he/she can be identified by a friend and thereafter be judged even though innocent?

Question 4.- what happens to pregnant girl children ? Can they keep their babies and still lead normal lives? According to reports girls as young as 11 have given birth out of wedlock. Will they be able to go back to school? Will their schools be ready to accept them? Or reject them as being a' bad influence ' on the rest of the children?

Conclusion

Whatever way you look at the complex problems that children in our modern society face the one thing that is clear is that there is no simple solution. To remove the prejudice, stigma, apathy , and complacency that underline practically all these problems including the little researched mental and psychological problems that impact them , calls for collective action by all stakeholders - including representatives from youth parliaments and other child organisations.

Only then will the dream of every child for a better world, a cleaner world , a world without violence and prejudice become a reality.