By Dr. Mrs. Mareena Thaha Reffai

The rate of mothers abandoning their children is alarming. We had two cases of mothers throwing their children into rivers and recently one handing over hers to the authorities. How many more undetected, unreported ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ cases are there?

It had not been unusual for mothers abandoning their illegitimate children but now it is grown up children ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” this state of affairs says a lot of where our society is heading.

On one hand people are loosing hope. There are many ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ single mothers eking out a living on meager income and still surviving, sometime bringing up their children to be ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ excellent citizens. Often they survive on working at othersƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ houses as maids, washing clothes, cooking or even taking children to school. Many a neighbor or a distant relative will provide minimum food for the family on days they donƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t have enough. So how come these mothers could not find even such a job? What is the reason for such hopelessness?

What is the solution for these? Remanding the mothers and handing over the children to the social service department is never going to solve the problems. Even the best run orphanages cannot provide a motherƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s care and love, however poor she is. The government and/or the society must provide some facility for the mother to be able to look after the children. We may be seeing only the tip of the ice berg. If we do not look in to this matter in detail seriously now itself surely we will end up having ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ a really sick society where no one will be responsible for the future generation.

We must assess the possible reasons for this situation .

One may be that the men are becoming less and less responsible. Drinking, gambling and drugs are contributing factors. But the most important factor is the absence of controlling authority. Each area must have a controlling authority on such cases which will call the father ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ of the children to account for the loss of responsibility. Knowing Srilanka if we make it the responsibility of government authority it will truly and surely be abused with bribes and corruption. So the best authority will be the religious authority. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Each area ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ temples churches ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ and mosques must be made to be responsible to question and guide people.

Will we take measures to stop the rot early or will we, as usual, leave it to become an uncontrollable monster?