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ECONOMYNEXT reported on an event in Colombo where Boomi Harendra warned that an abused child in Sri Lanka gets raped again and again in front of the media and the law. She said the country still fails to protect the privacy and dignity of abused children, and that suffering is too often reduced to a public spectacle.
Harendra said abuse is not only physical. Many children do not even know they are being abused because they have not been educated about what abuse looks like. She criticized the trend-driven response where people post about children on social media when tragedy strikes, but then quickly forget. She also questioned the hypocrisy of adults who speak proudly about the country while failing to protect the child next door.
Stop Child Cruelty Sri Lanka chairperson Dr. Tushara Wickramanayake said that a child is being sexually harassed in Sri Lanka every two hours. She added that the country is sinking toward the bottom tier of nations in child protection. Attorney-at-law Achala Seneviratne said the judiciary is the highest custodian of children and pointed to the Supreme Court ruling against corporal punishment in schools as evidence that the country's child abuse laws are outdated.
The Supreme Court ruling of 12 February 2021 found the teacher-in-charge of discipline at Puhulwella Central College guilty of violating the fundamental rights of a student who suffered a ruptured eardrum after being beaten. The court ordered compensation to the victim and held that corporal punishment is ineffective, normalizes violence, and traumatizes children.
Justice Thurairaja said corporal punishment teaches children to fear violence instead of understanding the wrong committed, and that children who are hit or traumatized in the name of discipline must not be left defenseless and unheard. The verdict makes clear that the normalization of violence is unacceptable and that institutions of justice must not permit it.
Reported by Imesh Ranasinghe in Colombo on 5 March 2021.