Rent a Child

Rent a Child

By Chandana Wijekoon

As with many developing countries, one of Sri Lanka’s main problems is poverty. While one segment of society leads a luxurious life, another segment of society goes to bed hungry. With those in power unable to find solutions to socio-economic and political problems, the societal cancer called poverty started spreading, and the gap between the rich and poor has been growing.

As a result, there is a segment of society that depends and believes in daily handouts and has chosen to beg on the streets. The way some of these people make ends meet will no doubt horrify and shock anyone. Their home is the sidewalk or a makeshift home in the congested shanty town in the heart of Colombo.

Many beggars in Sri Lanka who have made the city sidewalks their homes will engage in selling heroin or sex, pick-pocketing commuters or even mutilating and disfiguring themselves to gain sympathy from passersby. Some of these individuals perform strange feats such as swallowing sharp knives and eating light bulbs to collect money from horrified onlookers.

This is one aspect of the problem. The other is a horrible dependency on children – even infants – who are rented out by their own parents or guardians in exchange for money to support their drug addictions.

“Where is your mother and father,” I asked a boy sleeping on the sidewalk near the courts complex at Aluth Kade. He seemed to be about 10 years old, and I later learned his name was Suresh. He stared at me for a while and then started to play a flute very loudly. After a few minutes, two older beggars came and stood near me, possibly because I was a stranger in the area.

“Why sir, what do you want,” one asked while the other observed me. “He doesn’t have a father – he ran away with another woman,” said the older beggar, explaining the child’s background. “The boy is dumb. His mother is begging at Borella. This flute is his protection. His mother returns here at night. Usually he goes with her too. But today he hasn’t gone. He’ll just sit here playing the flute.”

Parents of many street children likely grew up in a similar environment. Most children do not have birth certificates. The fathers may be visitors to the city or even another street-dweller. The only source of income for mothers living on city sidewalks with infants is to beg from commuters or sell drugs on the sly.

“I have been working in Colombo for over 10 years now, and I have a good knowledge about the street-dweller community,” said Officer in Charge (OIC) of the Fort police station. “The street sidewalk we see during the day isn’t what it is at night. One cannot even write to the newspapers about what goes on Colombo streets at night. Even the law cannot stop these activities. People’s values should be changed, because a completely different culture exists among these communities.”

The OIC said normal societal standards simply don’t apply to the streets.

“These people will do anything to earn a living,” he said. “There’s no age barrier. There are child sex workers. The mother and daughter will engage in the same trade. There are instances where the mother sells the daughter. There are many takers. We take legal action without any hesitation, but that alone isn’t enough to change this situation.”

According to the OIC, the nature of the problem makes it difficult to gather accurate statistics about the number of street children.

“To confirm their identity we don’t have enough evidence,” he said. “Some are there during the day, and at night they return to shanty towns, and those that stay in during the day come out from the shanties at night. This is the reality.”

Thirty-five-year-old “Nandhini” was arrested six months ago for possessing 100 grams of heroin. The courts fined her Rs. 1,500. Since she was unable to pay, she was put in prison. Nandhini, now back on the streets, says losing her child while begging led her to drugs. We met her around 9:30 p.m.

“I had many problems Sir,” Nandhini said. “When I went to jail, my child was five years old. The child’s father is a drug user. When the child had fever, this man took the child to go beg on the streets. The fever increased, and my child died. After that, I couldn’t cope with it, and I too started using drugs, trying to live any way we can.”

As we spoke, Nandhini kept looking around, very conscious of her surroundings. I stopped the interview when I started sensing that she was getting uncomfortable. Just as I prepared to leave the area, a three-wheeler sped up to her, and she said, “I’ll see you again sir,” as she left in that taxi.    

Adult beggars who don’t have children find other street kids to rent and earn a living. The children are often rented for a daily rate of Rs. 200. Those who rent the children take them to crowded places like Borella, Nugegoda and Dehiwala and have them beg from commuters. Some are sent to bus stops to beg from passengers all day long. On the bus, the adults with rented children tell passengers elaborate tear-jerker stories to wring out every last rupee. The stories usually revolve around being abandoned by partners, serious heart ailments and the inability to hold down a job. At dusk, the person in charge of the children will arrive. They will give a small percentage of the daily earning to each child and take the rest. After a full day’s work, the child will, at most, get a cup of plain tea.

In the vicinity of the Kochchikade Kovil, a woman named Baby Nona is in charge. Groups of beggars, both children and adults, give a part of their day’s earnings to Baby Nona who frequents the taverns in the area.  She takes 12% of these earnings when the depositors come back for their money. She lends the money she takes as interest and works as a broker to sell and trade children.

Sunil Fernando, a driver of a bus that shuttles between Colombo and Moratuwa, said at least 10 beggars with children will board his bus daily.

“These beggars are actually con artists,” Fernando said. “They play out the passengers. The passengers feel sorry and give what they can. However much we say no, they still board these buses. There are laws stating that we cannot allow beggars to board, but they still get on anyway. Everyone tells the same story – that is they have no way of feeding their children, or they have no money to buy what the doctor prescribed. They say such things, show the children and beg for money the whole day. If it’s a crippled man, then that’s fine, but these people take these children around and beg when they are physically fit. More than being victims of circumstances, this begging is a trade.”

Colombo serves as the hub for beggars from around the country. People from rural villages with no income come to Colombo with their children to beg for a living. Kusum Dissanayake, Child Rehabilitation Project Officer of World Vision, said even the children of mothers who work abroad end up on the streets. According to her, nearly 100 boys whose mothers are abroad live and work on city streets without the protection of their fathers. These children are often sold for cash so that the buyer can rent them out per day.

Dissanayake also recounted a story about two 10-year-old children without their mothers who disappeared from the streets. Investigations revealed that wealthy people from outside of Colombo abducted these children to be retained as servants in their homes – another instance of child exploitation.

Many youth living in the streets today have at one time or another lived in child rehabilitation and detention camps. Some have been released while others have run away. Many have also been inmates at the Welikada Prison for petty thievery or drug possession and selling. Others have been repeatedly jailed and released for vagrancy.

Nihal, a youth from Elpitiya, was jailed for several months at the Welikada Prison. Today, his job is to transport boxes of apples to shops. He says he makes enough to live but still sleeps on the city sidewalks. Nihal described his life on the streets.

“I was about 10 years old (when I came to Pettah),” Nihal said. “I lived on what people gave me. A lady called Susila taught me how to beg. I was like a son to her. We told people about our poverty and begged for a living. Since then until today, I sleep on the Pettah pavement. After a while, Susila rejected me and one day when I was sleeping, the police came and took me away to the Welikada Prison without me committing any crime.”

                

If politicians, decision-makers and organizations take greater interest in the future of these individuals and work towards rehabilitating them and giving them vocational training, they may be able to give up their life of dependency and contribute towards the nation’s development. It may be one of the most crucial steps in eradicating poverty.