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| Sunday, 18 July 2004 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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Colombo street children left in the lurch by Ananda Kannangara "Both my mother and I were abandoned by my father when I was only 12-years-old and since then I have been doing odd jobs at the Pettah Manning Market," this was a part of a pathetic story related by Ranwalage Aruna Kumara, a 12 year-old boy living by the road close to the Technical College, Maradana. When the Sunday Observer visited them at their makeshift hut, they welcomed us on the belief that we had come from a social service organisation to help them financially or by other means. He said that more than two hundred families were living in the city of Colombo without a permanent shelter or a stable income. He recalled his schooling days at Dematagoda and lamented that all his hopes for a better future were shattered at that time. "Thousands of children living in streets, like us, today are quite sure that none would come to their aid and their lives would finally end up on the streets," he said. Statistics reveal that only a handful of street children are attending schools and a majority of them are in need of a permanent shelter and a stable income to continue their education. According to a recent research conducted by the National Child Protection Authority (NCPA), a majority of street children living in Colombo are under the age group of 13 years, without a fixed abode and stable income for their parents to nurture them. It is also revealed that most of these children lived on pavements, bus-stands or under the shade of huge trees. Despite living in abject misery, only a few of them receive benefits from the Child and Youth Centre, managed by the NCPA and located at No 9, Saunders Place, Pettah. It is open only for street children who wish to undergo vocational training in various technical work such as handicraft, fabric painting, printing etc. Fourteen-year-old Gunasiri Samarasinghe who lives on the pavement near the Borella Auyrveda Hospital junction, said he was a lottery ticket seller and his daily income was not sufficient even to meet the requirements of his mother and two younger sisters. "My two sisters are attending school under difficult circumstances. Recently some officials from the Colombo Municipal Council came and removed our school books and ordered us to find shelter somewhere else," he said. A. R. Munaweera, a senior official at the Social Services Department, said although problems related to street children were discussed at seminars and workshops, no one took any interest to visit them and listen to their grievances. He said that seminars on "Street Children" were normally conducted by NGOs with the intention of obtaining more funds from foreign countries, but thereafter no action was taken. |
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