Milani Salpitikorala on the commercialisation of Children’s Day, and what needs to change
With World Children’s Day just having passed us by, there was a major spotlight on children’s rights and issues. This is something we see each year, not just in the case of Children’s Day, but a lot of the other world days that have been set aside for us to celebrate – these annual days have also become an opportunity for the business and private sectors to commercialise and capitalise on pushing their personal promotion narratives.
The most notable examples of annual days that have been hijacked are Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Valentine’s Day (the most commercialised of them all in many aspects), and other days that have been highlighted to mark key world issues. Children’s Day is no exception to the rule, and while Children’s Day is not often commercialised in the sense of businesses saying “buy, buy, buy!”, it’s often commercialised in the context of those who work with children, using the day as something of a photo-op, while over the course of the rest of the year, children’s rights and issues slip down a few places in their list of priorities.
This Children’s Day, 1 October, the social media of children’s justice organisation Child Protection Force shared not a message of hope and happiness, but one of frustration – for on Children’s Day itself, they had visited a large police station to make a complaint on behalf of one their clients and been turned away because the station didn’t have the resources to take their statement and file their complaint. Ironically, because they were preparing to host a major event in honour of Children’s Day.
The Child Protection Force (CPF) team is a group of members and employees who have a passion for Child Rights Law and work towards a change to the legal system with regard to children. Since 2017, the CPF team has worked tirelessly to represent and assist those who would otherwise not have any help in the legal system, assist people in the police and legal systems to better understand how to deal with cases of abuse, and build awareness on these issues. Sharing their Children’s Day experience on Facebook, the CPF asked: “Why does Children’s Day have to be a celebration of one day? Why is it commercialised this much?” noting that incidents like this demotivate not only the members of the CPF but the victims of child abuse as well.
[caption id="attachment_166954" align="alignright" width="328"]
Child Protection Force Founder Milani Salpitikorala[/caption]
Exploring just why Children’s Day, which by all accounts, should be used as an opportunity to reflect on where we as humanity stand when it comes to how we treat our children, has become the commercialised event it is, Brunch reached out to Child Protection Force Founder Milani Salpitikorala for her perspective.
Following are excerpts of the interview:
Could you please give us a little bit more background on the complaint CPF attempted to report on Children’s Day, and on what happened when trying to report it?
It was a case of the mother of one of my existing clients. A young boy, aged 15 now, was subject to grave sexual abuse a few years ago by a man from the neighbouring area. There is an ongoing case where the mother of this boy was also subject to domestic violence by the father of the child. This violence has been going on for a while.
On 1 October, we had sent a lawyer from our office with the mother to file her complaint so that her case could be filed in court under the Prevention of Domestic Violence Act. Our teammate was told that there was an event celebrating Children’s Day and therefore they are unable to take any complaints. She was also told that she cannot come in from near the gate as many high-level officers and their vehicles were coming in.
I don’t blame the officers who informed this to my teammate, as they work under direct orders. However, I feel there would have been better co-ordination to resource a different team for the event and the others for the usual operations.
From a legal perspective, is there a precedent for police not to be able to take complaints because of something else happening within the station? Are there any situations where police can't take complaints from people?
Not because something else is happening in the police station, unless possibly a State of Emergency within the station, but yes, under Section 70 of the Police Ordinance which reads as follows:
“No police officer shall receive any complaint of any petty offence, or take into his custody any person brought to him accused of such petty offence as trespass, assault, quarrelling, or the like; and it shall be lawful for any police officer to refuse to receive and act upon any charge of an offence of a grave character, if he shall, on inquiry made of the complaint alone, see good grounds for doubting its truth...Provided always that if the charge be not of such a nature as under ordinary circumstance would justify the police officer in refusing to receive it, the particular reasons for refusing it are to be recorded by such officer at the time.”
What happened in the end regarding the complaint?
I personally went back on Monday (4) with our clients, and the lawyer who went on the previous day. We were welcomed with a lot of kindness and our complaint was taken down. We received extremely efficient service and I was even able to meet the Officer-in-Charge (OIC) of the station who extended his best services to the victims.
I also had a long chat with the OIC of the Women and Children’s Desk, who is herself the mother of a young child. Her desk receives a massive number of cases per day, and every one of those complaints must be subject to inquiry. The OIC herself has to sit on each inquiry. I understand that this is a lengthy and time-consuming process. She also only has one extra officer for her division and has to physically write down all these complaints.
I was told that this is a police station that would ideally need at least 300 officers to properly work on the load of complaints they receive. However, they are currently working with only 60 officers. Unfortunately, this is the sad truth about our government sector workers.
I listened to the story of the officer, of how her own child is left with her family members, of how her child’s online classes are neglected, and of how her child complains that her mother is never at home. I know there is a massive issue with our law enforcement systems. However, I think we now have to move away from the blame game, especially with the grassroots level officers. We tend to forget that they too are human and live a life like you and I.
Commercialising Children’s Day – as someone who works with child abuse, why and how do you think this day has become commercialised?
My question is why does it need to be commercialised? I believe it’s a “feel-good” factor for a lot of people, kind of like: “Let’s be nice to children on Children’s Day.”
For example, I was listening to a teacher on an online class wishing the kids Happy Children’s Day and asking: “Did your mommies and daddies give you extra cuddles and hugs and kisses today? Were they extra loving today? They should be, because it’s Children’s Day.”
I also immediately heard one child saying: “Every day is Children’s Day in my home, teacher.”
Do you see the negligence on the part of the teacher here? She completely forgot about the children who live with grandparents or in hostels, she completely forgot about the children whose parents are separated, and she completely forgot about the children who actually don’t receive that love at home on a daily basis. This is how commercialised it has become. The events, the art competitions, the discount sales at children’s clothes, and toy shops...It makes me wonder whether people even know why and when a day was allocated for children. It is the sad sad truth.
How can incidents like this be avoided?
By educating the masses on child protection, creating a safety network for children around the island, and allocating more resources to all grassroots level child actors like the Police Women and Children’s Bureau officers and probation officers.
The officers that come under the Ministry of Woman and Children’s Affairs (The Child Rights Promotion Officer, The Early Childhood Development Officer, the National Child Protection Officer, etc.) need more resources by way of finances, vehicles for transportation, more administrative help, and more space.
The solution is to start bottom-up with the allocation of resources, from both human resources to other resources. A Women and Children’s Police Desk needs at least five to six officers, one vehicle, and many more office administrational resources to function efficiently, taking into regard the load of daily complaints they receive. Women and Children’s Officers also need a lot of mental health assistance and self empowerment guidance for themselves. They listen to and see extremely traumatic cases on a daily basis. Yet again, we tend to forget that they too are human.
What is your advice on celebrating Children’s Day responsibly without commercialising it?
To have programmes to educate people on “Child Protection” and create safety networks within the community so that we don’t always have to depend on civil society organisations and the state actors.
Empower the child by moving away from this parroted exam-based education system towards a more holistic system that is used in other countries, thereby producing more empowered and empathetic children.
I believe this is in great need now, not only in Sri Lanka, but all over the world. If you study some of the countries with the best child policies in the world, you will see that they have long ago moved towards a more holistic system of child development.
The most notable examples of annual days that have been hijacked are Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Valentine’s Day (the most commercialised of them all in many aspects), and other days that have been highlighted to mark key world issues. Children’s Day is no exception to the rule, and while Children’s Day is not often commercialised in the sense of businesses saying “buy, buy, buy!”, it’s often commercialised in the context of those who work with children, using the day as something of a photo-op, while over the course of the rest of the year, children’s rights and issues slip down a few places in their list of priorities.
This Children’s Day, 1 October, the social media of children’s justice organisation Child Protection Force shared not a message of hope and happiness, but one of frustration – for on Children’s Day itself, they had visited a large police station to make a complaint on behalf of one their clients and been turned away because the station didn’t have the resources to take their statement and file their complaint. Ironically, because they were preparing to host a major event in honour of Children’s Day.
The Child Protection Force (CPF) team is a group of members and employees who have a passion for Child Rights Law and work towards a change to the legal system with regard to children. Since 2017, the CPF team has worked tirelessly to represent and assist those who would otherwise not have any help in the legal system, assist people in the police and legal systems to better understand how to deal with cases of abuse, and build awareness on these issues. Sharing their Children’s Day experience on Facebook, the CPF asked: “Why does Children’s Day have to be a celebration of one day? Why is it commercialised this much?” noting that incidents like this demotivate not only the members of the CPF but the victims of child abuse as well.
[caption id="attachment_166954" align="alignright" width="328"] Child Protection Force Founder Milani Salpitikorala[/caption]
Exploring just why Children’s Day, which by all accounts, should be used as an opportunity to reflect on where we as humanity stand when it comes to how we treat our children, has become the commercialised event it is, Brunch reached out to Child Protection Force Founder Milani Salpitikorala for her perspective.
Following are excerpts of the interview:
Could you please give us a little bit more background on the complaint CPF attempted to report on Children’s Day, and on what happened when trying to report it?
It was a case of the mother of one of my existing clients. A young boy, aged 15 now, was subject to grave sexual abuse a few years ago by a man from the neighbouring area. There is an ongoing case where the mother of this boy was also subject to domestic violence by the father of the child. This violence has been going on for a while.
On 1 October, we had sent a lawyer from our office with the mother to file her complaint so that her case could be filed in court under the Prevention of Domestic Violence Act. Our teammate was told that there was an event celebrating Children’s Day and therefore they are unable to take any complaints. She was also told that she cannot come in from near the gate as many high-level officers and their vehicles were coming in.
I don’t blame the officers who informed this to my teammate, as they work under direct orders. However, I feel there would have been better co-ordination to resource a different team for the event and the others for the usual operations.
From a legal perspective, is there a precedent for police not to be able to take complaints because of something else happening within the station? Are there any situations where police can't take complaints from people?
Not because something else is happening in the police station, unless possibly a State of Emergency within the station, but yes, under Section 70 of the Police Ordinance which reads as follows:
“No police officer shall receive any complaint of any petty offence, or take into his custody any person brought to him accused of such petty offence as trespass, assault, quarrelling, or the like; and it shall be lawful for any police officer to refuse to receive and act upon any charge of an offence of a grave character, if he shall, on inquiry made of the complaint alone, see good grounds for doubting its truth...Provided always that if the charge be not of such a nature as under ordinary circumstance would justify the police officer in refusing to receive it, the particular reasons for refusing it are to be recorded by such officer at the time.”
What happened in the end regarding the complaint?
I personally went back on Monday (4) with our clients, and the lawyer who went on the previous day. We were welcomed with a lot of kindness and our complaint was taken down. We received extremely efficient service and I was even able to meet the Officer-in-Charge (OIC) of the station who extended his best services to the victims.
I also had a long chat with the OIC of the Women and Children’s Desk, who is herself the mother of a young child. Her desk receives a massive number of cases per day, and every one of those complaints must be subject to inquiry. The OIC herself has to sit on each inquiry. I understand that this is a lengthy and time-consuming process. She also only has one extra officer for her division and has to physically write down all these complaints.
I was told that this is a police station that would ideally need at least 300 officers to properly work on the load of complaints they receive. However, they are currently working with only 60 officers. Unfortunately, this is the sad truth about our government sector workers.
I listened to the story of the officer, of how her own child is left with her family members, of how her child’s online classes are neglected, and of how her child complains that her mother is never at home. I know there is a massive issue with our law enforcement systems. However, I think we now have to move away from the blame game, especially with the grassroots level officers. We tend to forget that they too are human and live a life like you and I.
Commercialising Children’s Day – as someone who works with child abuse, why and how do you think this day has become commercialised?
My question is why does it need to be commercialised? I believe it’s a “feel-good” factor for a lot of people, kind of like: “Let’s be nice to children on Children’s Day.”
For example, I was listening to a teacher on an online class wishing the kids Happy Children’s Day and asking: “Did your mommies and daddies give you extra cuddles and hugs and kisses today? Were they extra loving today? They should be, because it’s Children’s Day.”
I also immediately heard one child saying: “Every day is Children’s Day in my home, teacher.”
Do you see the negligence on the part of the teacher here? She completely forgot about the children who live with grandparents or in hostels, she completely forgot about the children whose parents are separated, and she completely forgot about the children who actually don’t receive that love at home on a daily basis. This is how commercialised it has become. The events, the art competitions, the discount sales at children’s clothes, and toy shops...It makes me wonder whether people even know why and when a day was allocated for children. It is the sad sad truth.
How can incidents like this be avoided?
By educating the masses on child protection, creating a safety network for children around the island, and allocating more resources to all grassroots level child actors like the Police Women and Children’s Bureau officers and probation officers.
The officers that come under the Ministry of Woman and Children’s Affairs (The Child Rights Promotion Officer, The Early Childhood Development Officer, the National Child Protection Officer, etc.) need more resources by way of finances, vehicles for transportation, more administrative help, and more space.
The solution is to start bottom-up with the allocation of resources, from both human resources to other resources. A Women and Children’s Police Desk needs at least five to six officers, one vehicle, and many more office administrational resources to function efficiently, taking into regard the load of daily complaints they receive. Women and Children’s Officers also need a lot of mental health assistance and self empowerment guidance for themselves. They listen to and see extremely traumatic cases on a daily basis. Yet again, we tend to forget that they too are human.
What is your advice on celebrating Children’s Day responsibly without commercialising it?
To have programmes to educate people on “Child Protection” and create safety networks within the community so that we don’t always have to depend on civil society organisations and the state actors.
Empower the child by moving away from this parroted exam-based education system towards a more holistic system that is used in other countries, thereby producing more empowered and empathetic children.
I believe this is in great need now, not only in Sri Lanka, but all over the world. If you study some of the countries with the best child policies in the world, you will see that they have long ago moved towards a more holistic system of child development.