SEXUAL ABUSE AND EXPLOITATION OF BOYS IN SOUTH ASIA A ...

8.0 COUNTRY PROFILE: SRI LANKA 377
8.1 Research Findings
8.1.1 Country background
Over the last 25 years, the economy of Sri Lanka has been damaged by civil conflict and the
erosion of its traditional agricultural base. Scarcity of land and irrigated water, increasing
production costs and loss of markets have reduced the growth of agriculture, the economic
foundation for three-quarters of the country’s population. Yet rural-to-urban migration is
relatively slow, unlike other South Asian countries. Coupled with increasing rural poverty,
the country’s strategies for economic development in the last two decades – particularly the
migration of women for overseas employment and the development of tourism – have
resulted in a significant loss in protection of children from sexual abuse and exploitation.
Sri Lanka has had a strong social safety net for more than 50 years and has succeeded in
providing adequate services to its people. It has sufficient health care services, informative
media coverage and one of the best educational systems in South Asia. With a long tradition
of government priority for education, children have easy, free access to school, and enrolment
is high. In 2000, children under 19 comprised about 46 per cent of the population of 19.3
million people. 378
The civil conflict with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has had a powerful
impact on the country’s social foundations, affecting an estimated 1.7 million people over the
last 20 years. 379 As of 2002, an estimated 800,000 people had been displaced, many into
refugee camps and temporary shelters. 380 In the war-affected zones in the north and east, basic
services such as health, education, transportation, electricity, water and sanitation have
deteriorated. The war has eroded children’s safety nets, and sexual abuse and exploitation
have increased. 381 The tsunami of December 2004 added to the burden on the lives of the
poor. A 2006 study found increased vulnerability to physical and sexual abuse among
children housed in ‘tsunami camps’, but no clear links could be established between the
tsunami and child trafficking. 382
In addition to rural poverty and war, protection of Sri Lankan children from sexual abuse and
exploitation has been further eroded by national economic strategies. Sri Lanka has the
highest proportion in South Asia of women migrating overseas for employment. As of 1996,
377 As mentioned in the section on Scope and Limitations, most of the research for this report was gathered in
2008. It therefore does not take into consideration the changes that have occurred since that time, and that have
impacted all aspects of children’s rights, including the right to be protected from sexual abuse and exploitation.
378 International Labour Organization (Amarasinghe, S.), 2002, ‘Sri Lanka: The commercial sexual exploitation
of children: A rapid assessment’.
379 Consortium of Humanitarian Agencies, 2006, ‘Sri Lanka country profile’. Colombo: CHA.
380 United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 2007,
381 International Labour Organization (Coomaraswamy, R. and Satkunanathan, A.), 2006, ‘Anti-child trafficking
legislation in Asia: A six-country review’.
382 Terre des hommes (Lausanne), 2006, ‘Sri Lanka research report: Child trafficking and links with child sex
tourism and the commercial sexual exploitation of children’ (draft).
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