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Quality of Life of Sri Lankan Children: Participatory Action Research to Address the Governance Issues of Voluntary Children’s Homes

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Abstract

This paper addresses the issue of human rights of vulnerable children in Sri Lanka in the wake of the civil war, global climatic change and economic recession. The research is based on participatory action research and includes a survey on the policy environments and governance practices guiding the delivery of services in children’s homes. It makes a case in a two part paper that the rights of children have not, as yet, been implemented.

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Notes

  1. Voluntary Children’s Homes (VCHs): “Voluntary institutions run by private organizations or individuals through management committees, some of which receive sponsorship monies from outside Sri Lanka and which include homes for children with disabilities. All voluntary institutions, except institutions for children with disabilities, come under the Department of Probation and Child Care. Institutions for children with disabilities come under the Department of Social Services. Both these departments come under the Ministry of Social Welfare” (Save the Children 2005, p. 6).

  2. Participatory Action Research (PAR): “In participatory action research, some of the people in the organization or community under study participate actively with the professional researcher throughout the research process from the initial design to the final presentation of results and discussion of their action implications. PAR thus contrasts sharply with the conventional model of pure research, in which members of organizations and communities are related as passive subjects, with some of them participating only to the extent of authorizing the project, being its subjects, and receiving the results” (Whyte et al. 1989).

  3. First author: Eshantha Ariyadasa is the first author of this article and the principal researcher of this PAR.

  4. “Critical Systemic Praxis reflects in iterative cycles on the implications of divided thinking and action. Are the three worlds (the subjective–objective and intersubjective) adequate? Context and issue shapes the process as do power and emotions, so anti foundationalist approaches discussed by Derrida and Foucault also need to be taken into account when striving to appreciate complexity. Romm (2001) talks of accountability in terms of creating links across foundationalist, non foundationalist and anti-foundationalist approaches through dialogue” (McIntyre-Mills 2006a, b, p. 384).

  5. Nine Provinces in Sri Lanka: Central, Eastern, North Central, Northern, North Western, Sabaragamuwa, Southern, Uva & Western.

  6. “General standards’ clause 7.9 states that When children’s homes are badly managed and functioning in a manner detrimental to the children, the department is compelled to take stern corrective actions. If no steps are taken by such a home to improve the conditions, the department will have to take legal steps under the Orphanage Ordinance to close down such homes and transfer the children to other homes” (Roccella 2007).

  7. UN Guidelines paragraph 3 (UN 2010).

  8. UN Guidelines paragraph 49 (UN 2010, p. 10).

  9. Placement: “Placement means to review the position of children in the home from time to time and to plan activities oriented toward their future well-being” (Roccella 2007, p. 63).

  10. The first author established a children’s home for girls named ‘Sputnik Girls’ Home’ (SGH) and have been serving as the service provider since 2006. Furthermore, he was the manager of SGH from year 2007 to 2012 and it won the best children’s home award in the North Western Province in 2010.

  11. Grading criteria for the standardisation of children’s homes (grading criteria): This contains twelve criteria mainly adapted from the General Standards for the promotion of quality of services in voluntary children’s homes.

  12. “Life chances refer to opportunities in life experienced by people as a result of a host of demographic, socio-cultural, political and economic factors” (McIntyre-Mills 2006a, b, p. 389).

  13. Policy makers: Commissioners of provincial departments of probation and child care services (DPCCS).

  14. Policy officers: probation officers (POs) and child rights promotion officers (CRPOs).

  15. Service providers: Heads of NGOs, mainly the managers of voluntary children’s homes.

  16. Caretakers: Matrons and wardens of voluntary children’s homes.

  17. Level 1: Best standard home (‘A’ graded), Level 2: Medium standard home (‘B’ or ‘C’ graded), Level 3: Weak standard home (‘D’ graded).

  18. “Children’s voices confirm the findings of international research which shows that, for many children, placement in institutional care has a serious negative impact on development, well-being and basic rights” (Save the Children 2005).

  19. UN Guidelines paragraph 15: “Financial and material poverty, or conditions directly and uniquely imputable to such poverty, should never be the only justification for the removal of a child from parental care, for receiving a child into alternative care, or for preventing his/her reintegration, but should be seen as a signal for the need to provide appropriate support to the family” (UN 2010, p. 4).

  20. Five out of nine commissioners confirm that over 70 % of the children in their provinces have been institutionalized due to deprivation of maternal care.

  21. The number of women departed to the Middle Eastern countries seeking to be employed as housemaids in 2012 increased by 10,735 to 118,235 in 2012, the latest Central Bank Annual Report showed.

  22. UN Guidelines paragraph 71: “Special attention should be paid to the quality of alternative care provision; both in residential and family-based care, in particular with regard to the professional skills, selection, training and supervision of carers…” (UN 2010, p. 12).

  23. Remand Homes, Certified Schools, Receiving Homes, Detention Home, Approved School, National Training and Counselling Centres listed in Table 2 are managed by the public sector.

  24. UN Guidelines paragraph 23 (UN 2010, p. 5).

  25. Child soldiers: ILO (2014) Convention No. 182 defines forced or compulsory recruitment of children for use in armed conflict as a worst form of child labour. The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict prohibits all recruitment—voluntary or compulsory—of children under 18 by armed forces and groups. The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court makes it a war crime, leading to individual prosecution, to conscript or enlist children under the age of 15 years or use them to participate actively in hostilities.

  26. LTTE: Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (Source: http://www.abbreviations.com/term/376479, viewed 20 May 2014).

  27. ILO (International Labour Organization): According to ILO (2010) the use of children in armed conflict is a worst form of child labour, a violation of human rights and a war crime.

  28. Posttraumatic stress disorder: PTSD is a condition that engenders both symptomatic distress and severe disruption in interpersonal and social functioning (Robertson et al. 2004). Numerous researches have shown that child soldiers are at high risk of developing PTSD. Okello, Onen, and Musisiv (2007) found that 27 %– 34.9 % 0f Ugandan child soldiers suffered PTSD. Kohrtet el. (2011) found that 75 of the Nepali child soldiers (52.3 %) met the symptom cut-off score for depression, 65 (46.1 %) met the score for anxiety 78 (55.3 %) met the criteria for PTSD, 55 (39 %) met the criteria for general psychological difficulties, and 88 (62.4 %) were functionally impaired. A study conducted in Sri Lanka by de Silva, et al. (2001) indicates that children conscripted into the military suffer from higher rates of PTSD than adults who are conscripted.

  29. UNICEF: United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund, Source: http://www.abbreviations.com/UNICEF.

  30. “During the post war period interpersonal violence, child abuse, rape, alcohol and drug abuse, social violence have been increased in significant numbers. Many of these social maladies have direct or indirect connections with war trauma. Deplorably psychological wounds of the Eelam war were not adequately addressed and the deleterious effect of combat trauma impacts the post war Sri Lankan society. Over 7,000 children were forcibly recruited and sent to war by the LTTE during 1983–2009 (Human Rights Watch 2004). Children were abducted and forced into weapon training and they were subjected to torture, indoctrination, sleep deprivation and often forced to commit atrocities” (Jayatunge 2014).

  31. UN Guidelines paragraph 6: “… Every effort should be made to enable such consultation and information provision to be carried out in the child’s preferred language” (UN 2010, p. 3). UN Guidelines paragraph 88: “Children should be allowed to satisfy the needs of their religious and spiritual life, including by receiving visits from a qualified representative of their religion, and to freely decide whether or not to practice in religious services, religious education or counselling. The child’s own religious background should be respected, and no child should be encouraged or persuaded to change his/her religion or belief during a care placement” (UN 2010, p. 14).

  32. United Nations, Resolution 217 A (III).

  33. United Nations, Treaty Series, Vol. 1577, No. 27531.

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Acknowledgments

This research is funded by the Australian Government’s Endeavour Scholarships and Fellowships. The structure, ideas and philosophies presented in this paper draw on research under the supervision of Assoc. Prof. Janet McIntyre, Dr Helen McLaren and Dr Leonie Solomons. Insights and feedback offered by Dr Gregory Collings were invaluable. The authors would like to acknowledge the contributions of the other members of the supervisory panel.

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  1. School of Social and Policy Studies, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia

    Eshantha Ariyadasa & Janet McIntyre-Mills

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  1. Eshantha Ariyadasa
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  2. Janet McIntyre-Mills
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Correspondence to Janet McIntyre-Mills.

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Ariyadasa, E., McIntyre-Mills, J. Quality of Life of Sri Lankan Children: Participatory Action Research to Address the Governance Issues of Voluntary Children’s Homes. Syst Pract Action Res 28, 453–478 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11213-014-9339-7

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