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Family disputes leave more and more kids in the lurch, says NCPA
View(s):Steps to be taken to reintegrate children in foster homes with their families
By Nadia Fazlulhaq
With parents abandoning children violating the child’s rights and the growing number of such cases due to family disputes and domestic violence, authorities are under pressure to reintegrate families, National Child Protection Authority (NCPA) Chairman Anoma Dissanayake said.
She said during the three-decade conflict, Sri Lanka saw many orphans, but today, the country is seeing more abandoned children due to family disputes, domestic violence and when the mother leaves for overseas employment.
The four siblings abandoned at an estate in Hali Ela in the Badulla District. Pic by Palitha Ariyawansa
Ms. Dissanayake said most of the children were not babies, but children between the age of two and 14. In a recent incident reported in Peradeniya, a 64-year-old grandmother handed over her four grandchildren to the police, saying she could not take care of the children after the parents left them with her.
According to Peradeniya Police Women’s and Children’s Bureau Officer-in-Charge Sandya Godakanda, the four children, all boys, were handed over to the police on January 6. Dinuranga (11), Rashmika (6), Rashmitha (4) and Rashmintha (2) were sent to their grandmother’s home, while the parents kept their 10-day-old baby girl with them.
Ms. Godkanda said the younger children addressed the eldest boy as ‘mother’, as he prepared food for them, but they were not sent to school. She said the grandmother did not know the whereabouts of her daughter, as the children were sent to her in a three-wheeler.
The children were produced before the Kandy Magistrate and ordered to be kept under probation in a foster home until January 18.
In another incident reported last week from Puttalam, two children abandoned by their parents, were handed over to the police. The children, Madusha (12) and Kaveesha (4) had initially been abandoned by their mother, a victim of domestic violence.
The father, after liquor, frequently beat the children too, who ran away to live with an aunt, who chased them away because she could not afford to take care of them.
Police are yet to arrest the father.
In another case reported from Pitigala, Kalutara, a young father handed over his one-year-old son to the police, complaining that he could not take care of the child, following the mother’s departure to the Middle-east as a maid.
The two children from Puttalam: First abandoned by their mother, a victim of domestic violence and then by their alcoholic father. Pic by Hiran Priyankara
In October last year, at Udawara Estate in Hali Ela, in the Badulla District, four children were found abandoned. First their mother had left them, while the alcoholic father left them soon after.
Anandaraj Washikumar (9), Anandaraj Arul (7), Anandaraj Kaushalya (3) and 10-month-old Anandaraj Vinod were found in a house malnourished for days and neglected by their father, who was a labourer.
According to the NCPA, there are about 17,000 children whose parents are living but their children are in foster homes,
“It is easy for the parents to send the children to foster homes and abdicate their duties as parents. Hence, we will charge a maintenance fee from parents who leave their children in foster homes, and above all, get organisations to help us reintegrate families separated mostly due to personal reasons,” she said.
She said a number of programmes will take place this year, where children in foster homes will be integrated into their families, with counselling and financial support from donors.
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