Story of Manoj: Let’s not allow this happen to another innocent child*

11 year old Manoj is sitting on the bed of the Trincomalee General Hospital with tearful eyes. He looked at Uncle Kannan standing next to his bed with sympathy. After father died and mother left to Middle-East, Uncle Kanan is the Guardian of Little Manoj. He is suffering from the pain of the scars in the thighs, from tiredness of having to walk for miles for his own escape, and more than that from the fear of incidents happened during past few days.

Little Manoj is been abused by some unknown persons who pretended to take him to a Scout Camp in Colombo.

Manoj is a Scout at his school. The day before the incident happened, he, together with ten more scout friends, were taken to a “Scout Camp” in Vellaimmanel by a foreigner and some unknown persons. After that, they were asked to come to Third Milepost Junction at 9.00am the next day.

Manoj, as asked, waited at the place at the said time. An unknown person arrived from a Van, took Manoj and flew in a second. The person seemed so kind that Manoj was offered a packet of Milk to drink. What is there to suspect about a drink? Little Manoj sipped with happiness. After that, he cannot remember anything happened.

When he woke up suddenly he struggled to identify his where about.  The Person next him injected something again, that Manoj fell asleep. He didn’t know how long it took him to wake up again. But, then he was inside a jungle with these unknown persons. He felt the pain in his thighs from a deep scar.

He realized that he has to escape somehow if he wants to life. What will happen if he weakens himself? How can he see his mother who will come from few years to see him? He started running…… He ran until he come out of the jungle and found way back home. After coming home only he realized he is been missing for two days.

Surely, uncle would not have suspected at all as he was about to go for a Scout Camp in Colombo. That’s what the foreigner told them which in return was informed to Uncle Kanna. So, he had to tell his story……. He couldn’t understand how to explain what happened. But he showed the scars and managed to babble the story.

As a result, today, Little Manoj is in the hospital……

This incident was reported from a village in Trincomalee. Is it another impact of post conflict situation? Or is it a common issue in any rural village in Sri Lana? It is something we need to think of.

Mothers leaving their children for foreign employment are common in the country. Yet whether the children are at safe hands is a question. A child does not receive more strong protection from anyone than from his/her mother. It is because of this reason that we hear many stories where children are been abused or exploited even by the guardians.

If a child is left alone without parents, then he/she is a responsibility of the guardian. In the above case, it is to be noted that the child’s uncle would have been more responsible towards protection of the child that he would have inquired more about said “Scout Camp” from respective persons at his school. If the guardian thought of accompanying the child to where the vehicle would come, sometimes, this chaos would have been prevented.

There may be similar incidents happening all over the country, yet the reported cases are just the iceberg of the actual scenario. Due to lack of awareness, traditional thinking and many more reasons people either fail or ignore to inform such incidents to respective authorities.

National Child Protection Authority, Child Rights Promotion Officers at District Secretariat, Probation Officers and members of District Child Development Committees hold primary responsibility of protection and development of children. At the meantime, they have the legal authority to take actions against the abuser. Yet, the society is very less aware of the role of such institutions. It is important to take necessary steps to educate the public to consult respective authorities at abusive incidents.

If you have a similar stories, and if you have heard of good practices taken to prevent such incidents please make this forum an opportunity to discuss them with us. 

*All the names of persons are imaginary