The Hon. (Mrs.) Saroja Savithri Paulraj – Minister of Women and Child Affairs
In response to a question, the Minister tabled details on children without parental care identified as high risk, stating that 13,521 such children were identified in 2025 and that individual care plans and support in areas such as education, nutrition, medical needs and emergency relief are being implemented. She said the National Policy on Alternative Care, child participation mechanisms, village-level Child Development Committees and awareness programmes support family-based care and child protection. The Minister also reported that 393 Child Rights Promotion Officers and Assistants are deployed through Divisional Secretariats to cover all Grama Niladhari Divisions, while noting cadre vacancies and a request to attach Development Officers to fill gaps.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Mr. Speaker, I table the answer.
¶ 02 - Answer tabled.
¶ 03 (a) (i) When children who have lost parental care and require protection are identified as being at high risk, care plans are prepared and implemented. In 2025, 13,521 such children were identified.
¶ 04 (ii) Interventions, based on a unified approach considering each child’s circumstances, include: - Preparation and implementation of care plans - Provision of various assistance (education, nutrition, medical, emergency relief, newborn support, etc.) - Implementation of the National Policy on Alternative Care to secure safe family-based care - Child participation rights through child societies and child programmes - Activation of village-level Child Development Committees to identify children not at high risk - Awareness programmes to ensure child rights and to establish and empower community structures for child protection
¶ 05 (iii) The Department of Probation and Child Care Services has assigned Child Rights Promotion Officers (CRPOs) and Child Rights Promotion Assistants (CRPAs) to all Divisional Secretariats, and they are deployed so that every Grama Niladhari Division is covered.
¶ 06 (iv) Total 393: - Child Rights Promotion Officers – 189 - Child Rights Promotion Assistants (Field) – 201 - Child Rights Promotion Assistants (Departmental) – 03
¶ 07 (Note: Approved cadre for field CRPOs and CRPAs is 426. As CRPO posts lapse upon retirement and CRPAs cannot be appointed from the Development Officers’ Service to those lapsed posts, some Divisional Secretariats have CRPO vacancies. The Department has requested approval from the Department of Management Services to attach Development Officers to fill these vacancies.)
¶ 08 (v) Direct supervision is exercised by Divisional Secretaries and Assistant Divisional Secretaries of the respective Divisional Secretariats. The Department of Probation and Child Care Services monitors through monthly progress reports, district/provincial/national review meetings, and random field inspections.
¶ 09 (b) Not applicable.
Provenance
- Source
- Hansard, Tuesday, 17 March 2026 ·No. 23387 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
- Page · column
- not yet extracted — page/column anchors are not in the current dataset; the source PDF is the citable location.
- Permalink
/lk/speeches/3010
Cite as: The Hon. (Mrs.) Saroja Savithri Paulraj – Minister of Women and Child Affairs. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 17 March 2026. No. 23387. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/3010