A breeding ground for social unrest

Children in hunger in Sri Lanka :

by Indeewara Thilakarathne

The eradication of extreme poverty is one of the principle goals under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Sri Lanka. According to the Millennium Declaration, currently more than billion women and children are subjected to extreme poverty.

Poverty is defined as a condition which deprives persons of essential goods and services; adequate nutrition, access to safe drinking water, shelter, clothing, healthcare and education.

Since the Tsunami, the number of children orphaned had dramatically risen and most of orphaned children are in different refugee camps. Although there are no statistics available on children in hunger in Sri Lanka, it is believed that large number of street children, children in armed conflicts such as child soldiers as well as those children in different orphanages are suffering from malnutrition and subjected to inhuman treatment at the hands of their care-givers and so-called custodians.

Extreme poverty is another reason that led children to skip their meals and the nutrition value of the meals given was often not up to standard. A person is considered poor in Sri Lanka when he or she earns less than a sum of Rs. 1,423 for a month (2002 national poverty line) and Rs. 47 per day.

Accordingly the criteria, in 2002, person in every four was considered poor. The figure, undoubtedly, would have risen given the deteriorating economic conditions with a relatively slow growth rate.

Protracted conflict and the unprecedented natural calamities such as Tsunami which wiped out entire coastal communities rendering thousands Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and earth slips have substantially contributed to the increasing number of refugees.

Among the refugees, children and women are the most vulnerable groups who have been subjected to deprivations. Hunger among children in refugee camps though not evaluated, has been prevalent to a certain degree. The problem would have been compounded since some of the NGOs working in conflict areas have been withdrawn due to threats posed to them by terrorists.

Children in armed conflicts

Children in armed conflicts have been a major contributory factor to the spread of hunger among children. The situation is worse in Sri Lanka as the LTTE has recruited large number of children to supplement their depleting cadres who have been deserting the organisation especially in the face of recent scores of defeats suffered at the hand of the army.

Although hunger among the children in armed conflicts has not been documented, it is a home truth that those child soldiers were trained to endure hard conditions without having meals for days.

In brazen violation of all international norms, the LTTE has continued to recruit and train refugee children as child soldiers. Front organizations of the LTTE run orphanages for children often facilitating the terrorists to raise funds for a seemingly humanitarian cause. Children's homes run by front organisations of the LTTE would have been used as recruiting bases.

For those children, their staple is conflict rather than rice or bread. Under the trying circumstances, child soldiers had to fight among adult cadres for days foregoing meals and spending sleepless nights.

In order to stop using children in armed conflicts, especially by terrorists, it is imperative that meaningful measures should be taken by the Government as well as the international community. Here the responsibility lies on the International Community to adopt tough measures against fund raising activities of the front organisations of the terrorists on foreign soil.

As the children are the future citisens, it becomes the responsibility of all concerned citisens to eradicate extreme poverty and allied hunger, especially among children lest the repercussions will be devastating and far reaching, threatening the very existence of a peaceful society. Children in hunger would not only grow to be adults with imbalance personalities but also have the potential of being exploited by anti-social elements such as drug-peddlers, criminal syndicates etc.

Eradication of extreme poverty as stipulated by MDGs, addressing the issues concerning the refugees and improving the physical and institutional care-giving mechanism for children such as home for children and orphanages would help tackle the issue of children in hunger in Sri Lanka.

Rehabilitation of street children, banning children used in armed conflicts and as domestic aides will also in the long run reduce the negative effect of children in hunger on society at large.

Overall development of the society is a mirage unless and until the authorities tackle this issue which has far-reaching consequences and it is also the responsibility of the Government that it will not be possible to achieve Millennium Development Goals unless it adopts measures to eradicate extreme poverty and the resultant hunger from which large number of children suffer.

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