By Hans Billimoria
The continued fallout over the exploited fifteen-year-old girl in Mount Lavinia is an insight into the shame-fueled constructs around sex and sexuality in Sri Lanka. This is arguably another all too short period in our recent history that will lead to momentary shock and horror, impassioned calls for justice and retribution, and other superficial laments that will lead to no real change for other children in similar circumstances, and those at threat of falling prey; both girls and boys, and also those who identify as Trans.
The tapestry of sexual exploitation of minors in our country is a vivid reminder of our generational failure to protect our children and young people. In the 1980s I recall a conversation my parents had with their friends about how Sri Lanka was advertised in a German sex magazine as a “Paedophiles’ Paradise.” Armed with this memory of what surely must have been apocryphal data, I stumbled on a fact sheet Sex Trafficking of Children in Germany, uploaded in 2016, produced by ECPAT – End Child Prostitution in Asian Tourism. The fact sheet includes this reference to Sri Lanka:
German men also sexually exploit children abroad, traveling to destinations such as Cambodia, Thailand, Brazil, Kenya, Sri Lanka and the Czech-German border region.
Foreign Devil hysteria has long underpinned our response to sex and sexuality in Sri Lanka. In addition to paedophiles being foreigners, homosexuality is regularly described as a foreign construct, public health efforts around condom distribution in the past have been portrayed as foreign NGO efforts to somehow stunt population growth, and attempts to introduce any form of sexuality education are also evil diabolical machinations of foreign agencies set on undermining [read DESTROYNG] our most ancient and virtuous culture.
My urban, westernized, liberal, Burgher-Parsi parents while bemoaning the dubious reputation Sri Lanka enjoyed as a sex hub for paedophiles, also, it must be said, appeared accepting of the paedophiles among us; the family friend company director, the chicken farmer, the posh relative and others who had been caught with their trousers around the ankles with a naked child for company. The lurid details of these incidents were discussed incessantly with occasional instruction to us to never be in the company of said uncle, alone. A different time? Yes. But the fear of their child being buggered was real.
Today, with social media, the opportunities to hide in plain sight like my abhorrent uncles did in the 80s and 90s have dramatically diminished – but first you need to be outed before keyboard warriors begin to flay you alive. That said, the dark corners of the world wide web allow for despicable manifestations of child sexual exploitation. In 2018 when we were approached by the former President’s office to help with protecting women and girls online, we learnt of a thriving trade on the dark web of child pornography in Sri Lanka [dark web and/or deep web refer to the portion of the internet that does not operate using conventional web browsers like Google and Firefox etc]. The cyber technician that met with us spoke of the constant everyday struggle to deactivate mushrooming child porn sites, that most probably still proliferate. Closed groups on social media platforms and messaging services such as WhatsApp also act with impunity, and that is why the continued prosecution around the fifteen-year-old from Mount Lavinia is heartening. It is an indicator of the success of the current strategy of the Women and Children’s Bureau of the Sri Lanka Police, now headed by a former CID Cyber Crime sleuth, SSP Dharshika Ranasinghe.
Yet, responding to violations must be matched with sensible prevention initiatives. It is disconcerting that the Ministry of Education and the National Institute of Education [NIE] – responsible for drafting syllabi – have not been able to successfully translate Child Protection pilot projects into a sustainable long-term programme. In April 2020 we wrote about a notable attempt at Child Protection led by the Canadian Red Cross.
One of the most significant child protection interventions in recent times was led by non-government actor Canadian Red Cross in partnership with National Child Protection Authority [NCPA], Ministry of Education, PLAN Sri Lanka and local NGOs including Sarvodaya. This consortium introduced child protection approaches to all 25 districts in Sri Lanka, training over 5000 teachers, that during the project period reached over125,000 Children, and over 220,000 adults, including parents according to their 2017 project report.
Despite the strength of this National consortium, which included key players, both state and non-state actors, this attempt at sensible Child Protection programme failed. The 2017 project report stated the following challenges for the longevity of the initiative.
Many teachers reported teaching the program as an extracurricular activity, as opposed to during class time. When asked if there was anything that would motivate them to continue the program, the general response from teachers was that they would continue teaching the project messages if there was support/ follow-up from their superiors, and resource support from an outside source (i.e. the government or an NGO).
Without comprehensive approaches such as the one designed and implemented successfully as a pilot by the Canadian Red Cross and Plan International, the victims and survivors of child sexual abuse are ill prepared to respond. The success of standard NO GO TELL methodologies [Say NO, GO away and TELL a trusted adult] only work if we foster a culture of communication, where children and young people are equipped with the necessary tools to communicate with adults comprehensibly. This is what the Canadian Red Cross led consortium successfully did, and children who are taught to raise these red flags must necessarily be in the vicinity of adults who are taught to respond. This is why parents and teachers are key stakeholders in any attempt at comprehensive child protection. We need to help them overcome the societal constructs of shame and embarrassment related to discussing sex, sexuality and sexual violence. Given that schools are micro-communities of students, parents and teachers, what better ecosystem do we have to develop this culture of reflection and communication.
Currently, the role of the National Child Protection Authority, which has the skills to conduct comprehensive child protection programmes, is dependent on the initiative of individual officers sitting within a District Secretariat and willing school principals in the region. It is tantamount to criminal negligence that our education system continues to fail in putting in place a standard age-appropriate approach to child protection that empowers our children and young people, encouraging them to seek support.
How many more fifteen-year-old survivors of child rape will it take before the powers that be deem it time to challenge the shame-fueled misconceptions that oppose sensible education reform so that our children and young people are no longer prey.
Convincing our legislative body to take action beyond knee-jerk reactions such as the Hathe Ape Potha means that parents must form the vanguard. We need to be less accepting of the status quo, and if this means that we break ties with the sexually abusive uncle or aunt, so be it. Yet, even more pertinently, are we willing, as parents, to challenge our schools to put in place a comprehensive child protection programme that will ensure our children remain safe. Remember, for this to work, we must be ensure a shame-free space for our children to speak with us about sex and sexuality. Also, those reading this in English, stop pointing fingers at rural and provincial communities. Begin where you are – you’d be surprised [or perhaps not] at how stilted or non-existent these conversations are among the supposed Westernized, liberal, elite of this insular outcrop of rocks we call Sri Lanka.