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Ministry Programmes
| 01. | Development Division |
| 02. | Planning Division |
Development Division
Objectives and Functions
Formulating policies related to development programs carried out by the all institutions and divisions of the Ministry, coordination of those programs, implementation of national level development drives concerning children and women's development, implementation of special projects not undertaken by other sections and institutes and implementation of projects jointly with subsidiary organizations of the United Nations are the functions of the Development Division. Also it undertakes the responsibility to commemorate International Women’s day, International Children’s day and International Girl Child Day.
Main Development Programs – 2012
01. National Child Development Fund
The National Child Development Fund is established with the aim of providing financial assistance to skillful, clever children but debarred by financial constraints. Here, special attention is drawn towards children affected with poverty, destitute/helpless as well as natural disasters and assistance is thus extended to those children, qualified by the scrutiny of information gathered at the Divisional Secretariat (DS) level to further their educational pursuits. The ministry is at work to form a national fund amalgamating the National Child Development Fund with the Early Childhood Development Fund.
Funded by donors and flag sales, this Fund is totally spent in meeting the aforesaid educational requirements of children.
02. Implementation of District Child Development Committees
With the District Child Development Committee program commissioned its missions with the intention of protecting the rights of children – the heirs of the future, maintaining physical and mental integrity, taking steps to promote welfare and development of children, future plans are formulated by collectively discussing with officers and institutions dedicated to child development at the district level.
Operated under the “UNICEF”, committee meetings and decisions are evaluated, collecting and maintaining data at the district level of the country related to child abuse and protection, educating officers and general public and coordinating Divisional Child Development Committees at the district level are undertaken by this program.
03.National Programs
I.“Deyata Kirula” National Development Program in Anuradhapura
A number of programs were implemented in line with the “DeyataKirula” national development program held in 2012 in Anuradhapura. Under this, distribution of school items to children who sat for the year 05 scholarship exam from less income and widowed families to further their educational needs was undertaken. With this program, a set of school items each valued Rs. 1500 had been distributed among 600 children covering all DS divisions.
Empowering of women as well as children is the mission of this Ministry. Accordingly, self employment assistance given to widows in all DS divisions in the Anuradhapura district with the purpose of empowering widows economically mingling this ministry with the Women’s Bureau. The number of beneficiary families under this move was 407.
In line with the “DeyataKirula” national program, computers had been distributed among the District Co-coordinating officers attached to the National Child Protection Authority with the view of expediting Child Development Committees operated within the Anuradhapura district. In addition to the major programs of the national program, a handbook mainly themed on eradication of rape, early childhood development, “My Daughter “and “Child” had published and sold at a minimum price to raise the National Child Development Fund at the “DeyataKirula” exhibition premises. As well, in line with the “DeyataKirula” national development program to be held in the Eastern province in 2013, a Day Care Center and a pre-school are to be established in Ampara District Secretariat premises and in the “Samavihara” in Udayapura, Ampara respectively.
II. World Children’s Day- 2012
Under the theme of “ The world of children is for them” World Children’s day 2012 was commemorated and a commemorative stamp and a first day cover issued at the Temple trees on 01st October. In parallel with this event, allocations were sent to all Divisional Secretaries in the island to carry out various programs on child protection and care at divisional level. Accordingly, this year’s celebration of the World Children’s day took a new shape at Provincial level.
III.International Women’s Day-2012
International Women’s day 2012 function was held in the “Temple Trees” with the auspices of HE the President, Hon. Mahinda Rajapaksa.
In line with the International Women’s day, national program on, “Stop Rape Now” was launched by the First Lady, Hon. ShiranthiRajapaksa. A National Action Committee comprising with various ministries was set up for this national program and the National Action Committee was set up with the aim of creating a friendly environment for women and girls. A short drama launched at the same day by the Ministry themed “Nawa Man Pethakata” with the aim of preventing violence agains women. The copies of this short drama were given to the all Ministries, District Secretariats and Divisional Secretariat Divisions.
A survey on seeking public view of Abortion Act was conducted on the same day among the participants of the event and 96% voted for the amendments of the Abortion Act and 4% voted noncompliance.“Strong Women” a book themed on women who had excelled in various fields in Sri Lanka was launched and a periodical magazine called “Dhara” too published in line with this Women’s day. By evaluating activities of courageous women, eight women in the field of governmental and private sectors were appreciated on this day.
IV. International Girl Child Day- 2012
A special day for girls has been declared by the United Nations Organization. The first commemoration of the International Girl Child Day was celebrated in Sri Lanka on 11th October 2012. According to the Sri Lankan theme “You are our daughter”, this day was commemorated in the Bandaranayake Memorial International Conference Hall in Colombo with the participation of a large number of students under the auspices of the First Lady, Hon. ShiranthiRajapaksa. There, awarding the prizes and certificates for winners of arts and poster competition held island wide, giving insurance and educational material for 02 children who scored the highest marks at year 5 scholarship exam and issuing of a commemorative magazine were taken place. In addition, allocation was sent to all District Secretariats in the island for implementing various programs at the district level in line with this occasion. Ministries, All Departments, Provincial Councils were directed by way of a circular to commemorate this day.
We have to dedicate ourselves for creating a better world for girls. This day was marked as a day for returning a pledge for performing our obligations on girls. As the main theme of the day it was declared our national responsibility as a society enriched with education, health, nutrition, affection and care fortified with an active institutional framework.
04) Five Year National Plan of Action for Women
The National Plan of Action for Women comprising with ten chapters has been approved by the National Planning Department. In the formulation of this plan, Ministries, Departments, Public Institutes, Local, Foreign and Non- governmental organizations related to the women’s activities were called in and held number of discussions to get their comments. Special attention was paid to take comments from the active women in governmental and nongovernmental organizations in North and East.Five areas have been identified as highlighted in the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 to be incorporated in the national action plan for women. They are internally displaced women, violence against women and women trafficking, peace building and resettlement, women headed households, poverty and income generation. As per the things highlighted by UNSCR 1325, special programs to be implemented with utmost attention for women affected by armed conflict has been included in the National Action Plan for Women of which implementation is supervised by a Committee. A specialized plan for UNSCR 1325 in various countries of the world is adopted out of the National Action Plan. Nevertheless programs to be implemented by including matters in this UNSCR 1325 into the five year plan for Sri Lankan women.
05) Amendments to Code of Criminal Procedure
The Ministry has submitted a concept paper to the Ministry of Justice underlining the need to amend the Code of Criminal Procedure by including life with rigorous imprisonment in cases related to child abuse.
06) Media and Publicity
This program is introduced to aware about programs implemented through the Ministry and the function of the Ministry through media and popularizing development activities among the general public. Under this program, 15 billboards fixed at 15 locations throughout the country to aware public on policy decisions. Two seminars were held to educate media personnel for taking action against improper use of women in media.
07) Establishment of a Data Base on Widows and Women Headed Families
The social, economic issues and challenges faced by the women is complexing within the scenario of changing social, economic, political, environmental and global context. In this background, specific attention has to be drawn at her survival, development and protection. The number of widows and women headed households is immensely grown with the fact of armed conflict prevailed in the North and East that had been prevailed for nearly 3 decades and natural disasters like Tsunami, flood etc. This has become a burning social issue even in Sri Lanka. This Ministry has taken steps to establish a database on this which had been in absence to date. The data are being computerized by field officers.
The purpose and intention of this program is to identify widows who carry out their obligation in their numbers, selection of women interested in entrepreneurships, providing training needed and motivating to start self employments.
08) Preparation of SAARC Gender Information Base
The sixth evaluation meeting of working out the SAARC regional data base was held on 16th - 17th February2012 in Colombo with the auspices of Hon.TissaKaralliyadda, Minister of Child Development and Women’s affairs and Hon. M.L.A.M. Hizbullah, the Deputy Minister.Collection of data at regional level on Gender, maintaining and evaluating them, working out local and international development plans using these data are the functions of this database formulation.This program would be implemented with the UNIFEM after educating SAARC countries on this program by the SAARC Secretariat.
09) Women’s Hostel in Biyagama
A women’s hostel had been operated up to 31/03/2012 by the Ministry as a pilot project with the notion of improving labor productivity of women employees at Free Trade Zones by providing them with highly secured and facilitated hostel facilities. The administration of this hostel located in the Biyagama Free Trade Zone has been given to its Welfare Society.
10) United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)
This project is underway targeting at acting on Gender, minimizing harassments on women and mitigating resultant right violations and reaching them benefits of development. For this move, three project officers have been recruited to the Ministry. National, Provincial and Regional Level Programs are specially implemented with the aim of creating a harassment free society for women in line with the policies of the Ministry.
Through this Fund, conducting of awareness programs for Women Development Officers in Southern, Central and Sabaragamuwa Provinces, Publishing a book on preventing domestic violence, clarifying of the regulations of the Domestic Violence Prevention Act No. 34 of 2005, providing a three-wheeler and items required by the Government Safe Home, Conducting counseling services, staff training and provision of 50 motorbikes to Women Development Officers in the North, North Central and Central Provinces have been accomplished.With the aim of minimizing women harassments, an awareness raising campaign under the theme of “Men too can make a difference” was held for the key personnel of various fields of the society. The first such program was getting off the ground in the Anuradhapura district with the expansion to the other parts of the country and it is to be extended to the Batticloa and Ampara districts.
පැතිකඩ
ළමා සංවර්ධන හා කාන්තා කටයුතු අමාත්යාංශය 2010 අප්රේල් මස 30 වන දිනැති හා අංක 1651/20 දරණ අතිවිශේෂ ගැසට් නිවේදනය අනුව ස්ථාපිත කර ඇත. පරිවාස හා ළමාරක්ෂක සේවා දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව, ජාතික ළමා ආරක්ෂක අධිකාරිය, ළමා ලේකම් කාර්යාලය ,ශ්රි ලංකා කාන්තා කාර්යාංශය , ජාතික කාන්තා කමිටුව මෙම අමාත්යාංශය යටතේ ඇති දෙපාර්තමේන්තු හා ව්යවස්ථාපිත ආයතනයන් වේ.
ළමා සංවර්ධන හා කාන්තා කටයුතු අමාත්යාංශය පිහිටුවිමේ අරමුණ වනුයේ ළමුන් හා කාන්තාවන්ගේ සුභ සිද්ධිය වෙනුවෙන් කටයුතු කරන ඔවුන්ගේ අවශ්යතා සපිරෙන හිතකර සංවේදි සමාජයක් බිහිකිරිමයි.
මහින්ද චින්තන ඉදිරි දැක්මේ සඳහන් සුරක්ෂිත සෞභාග්යමත් පවුල් ඒකකයක් ගොඩනැගිමේ අරමුණින් 2010 වසරේ සිට මේ දක්වා අමාත්යාංශය මගින් ළමුන්ගේ හා කාන්තාවන්ගේ ආරක්ෂාව සුභසාධනය හා සංවර්ධනය ලඟාකර දීම සඳහා විශේෂ අවධානය යොමු කරමින් වැඩසටහන් සංවිධානය කර ඇත.
| ඉතිහාසය | වර්ෂය | |
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ශ්රී ලංකා කාන්තා කාර්යාංශය සැලසුම් ක්රියාත්මක කිරීමේ අමාත්යාංශය යටතේ පළමුව පිහිටුවන ලදි. | 1978 |
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ශ්රී ලංකා කාන්තා කාර්යාංශය කාන්තා කටයුතු හා ශික්ෂණ රෝහල් අමාත්යාංශය යටතේ නැවත පිහිටුවන ලදි. | 1983 |
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වනිතා කටයුතු අමාත්යාංශය ( වෙනම අමාත්යාංශයක් යටතේ ) | 1997 |
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කාන්තා අභිවෘද්ධි හා සමාජ සුභසාධන අමාත්යාංශය | 2004 |
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ළමා සංවර්ධන හා කාන්තා අභිවෘද්ධි අමාත්යාංශය | 2006 |
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ළමා සංවර්ධන හා කාන්තා කටයුතු අමාත්යාංශය | 2010 |
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COMMENTARY ON THE PROVISIONS OF THE PREVENTION OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE ACT, NO.34 OF 2005, SRI LANKA
Taking into account the issue of domestic violence in Sri Lanka, the Ministry of Child Development and Women’s Affairs, the Ministry of Justice, and women’s organizations worked together to enable legislation to address domestic violence. The main purpose of the Prevention of Domestic Violence Act is to provide legal remedies to victims who suffer violence in their homes. The Act provides a civil remedy where victims can obtain a Court Order to be protected from abuse and violence at home.
The Ministry of Child Development and Women’s Affairs has developed a Plan of Action Supporting the Prevention of Domestic Violence Act. However, more work has to be done to create awareness and sensitization on the Act among law enforcement officers. There are numerous instances where women have complained about the inability or difficulty that they face when making a Police entry on domestic violence, as domestic violence is considered as a private matter that needs to be resolved within the family. In this context, it was of paramount importance to prepare a manual to educate the law enforcement officers.
This manual is written by Ms. Dhara Wijayatilaka; Secretary to the Ministry of Research and Technology on “Commentary on the Provisions of the Prevention of Domestic Violence Act No 35 of 2005”. It is a user-friendly manual to provide knowledge and resources to the law enforcement sector. This manual will be an exceptional guide to Judges and Police Officers to implement the provisions of the Act in an effective manner. Ms. Wijayatilaka has touched on all aspects of the law in detail and in a reader-friendly manner so as to enable even a layman to understand the implications of the Act and follow its provisions accordingly.
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