President Anura Kumara Dissanayake and Prime Minister Dr. Harini Amarasuriya both issued messages on Thursday to mark World Children’s Day, which Sri Lanka observes on 1 October alongside the International Day of Older Persons.
This year’s Children’s Day theme is “Strong Minds – Enriched Children”, set by the Ministry of Women and Child Affairs, which also declared a National Children’s Day Week. The concurrent Elders’ Day theme addresses rethinking systems for longer lives. World Children’s Day has been observed since 1954 under a United Nations resolution; under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, everyone under 18 is a child.
The President’s message
“Children are the nation’s most valuable resource. Therefore, protecting their lives is a government’s primary responsibility,” the President said, in a message carried by Hiru News.
He argued the country being built for children “should not simply be a country prepared to be handed over to them tomorrow,” but one that “from today itself, creates an environment where their dreams are given space, their voices are heard, and their abilities are given every opportunity to flourish.”
Dissanayake committed the government to equal access to education, guidance, social protection, nutrition and healthcare, and to protecting children from abuse, violence and discrimination. “No child’s ethnicity, religion, economic status or geographical background should become a barrier to education,” he said, pointing to education reforms intended to build a skills-based system that “does not place a burden on parents or cause distress to children.”
He linked the message to two ongoing programmes: expanded educational scholarships and provision for children in child development centres, and the national anti-drugs operation ‘Ratama Ekata’ (The Whole Country Together), which he described as intended to free the younger generation from illicit drugs.
The Prime Minister on digital harm
Amarasuriya’s message went further into the online dimension. Digital technology and artificial intelligence are “completely changing” how children learn, communicate and experience the world, she said, and that demands more attention than before. Technology opens unlimited opportunities, but also exposes children to harassment, violence and exploitation in cyberspace.
The government is working, taking international experience into account, on appropriate safeguards for children’s use of social media and digital devices — a theme the Ministry of Women and Child Affairs raised in September when it warned parents about posting children’s photographs online, and which also surfaced this week when the Education Ministry said it would formulate policies for student safety in the digital space.
She was explicit that the duty does not stop there. Violence against children “causes more than physical injury,” she said: abuse, humiliation and violent disciplinary methods can do long-term damage to a child’s self-confidence, emotional development and sense of security. She tied that to government work to strengthen the legal framework against corporal punishment and promote disciplinary methods that protect children’s dignity.
“When children feel that they are safe, that they are valued and that adults listen to them,” the Prime Minister said, they have more space to learn, build good relationships, face challenges and contribute positively to society.
Update: the Prime Minister’s speech at the ceremony
Added 1 October. Amarasuriya also spoke in person at the National Children’s Day celebration, held in the Faculty of Engineering auditorium at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura and organised by the Department of Probation and Child Care Services under the Ministry of Women and Child Affairs. The speech went further than her written message, setting out four specific areas of legal and regulatory work. It was reported by the Daily Mirror and Newswire, whose accounts agree closely.
Preschool regulation. The government is working to bring preschool education under a single national standard, to create provisions for the registration and regulation of preschools, and to make professional qualifications and training mandatory for preschool teachers. The Prime Minister argued that in the preschool years it matters more to develop children’s social skills and personalities through sports “than to force them to write letters and numbers.”
Child labour penalties. She said steps had been taken under the Women, Young Persons and Children’s Employment Act to raise the fine for employing children in hazardous work from Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 100,000.
This is a reference to a measure already on the books, not a new announcement. Parliament passed the Employment of Women, Young Persons and Children (Amendment) Bill without a vote on 20 August, lifting the fines under the 1956 Act tenfold — penalties that had been unchanged for seventy years. Newswire’s headline presents the increase as news of the day; the Prime Minister was restating a change made six weeks earlier.
Digital harm and corporal punishment. She repeated the themes of her written message: strengthening legal and protective frameworks so children can benefit from digital technology and artificial intelligence while being protected from cyberbullying and misleading content, and reforms to prevent physical punishment and psychological abuse in favour of disciplinary methods that protect a child’s dignity.
“Every child has the right to live safely and with self-confidence, irrespective of language, religion or geographical differences,” she said, calling it a shared responsibility of government, parents, teachers and society rather than something the government can achieve alone.
The Minister’s remarks
Minister of Women and Child Affairs Saroja Savithri Paulraj told the event that adults “must not only advise children but also act as role models for them,” and said the government had taken responsibility for the areas where it had fallen short of its obligations to children.
She urged parents to give children attention and listen to them, and not to allow them to become unsafe “even within their own homes” — and urged teachers to go beyond academic instruction and prepare children for life, including teaching them that employment carries responsibilities and is not merely a means of earning an income. Breaking the cycle of violence and abuse in society, she said, would require greater awareness, concern and collective responsibility.
Deputy Minister of Women and Child Affairs Dr. Namal Sudarshana, MP Aruna Panagoda, Homagama Pradeshiya Sabha Chairman Kasun Ratnayake, Ministry Secretary Tharangani Wickramasinghe, ambassadors and foreign representatives, officials, teachers and children attended.
A note on the theme
The two accounts of the ceremony render this year’s theme as “Mentally Strong, Children Empowered”, while Hiru’s reporting of the ministry’s announcement gives it as “Strong Minds – Enriched Children”. These are competing English translations of the same Sinhala theme, not two different themes.
