A significant, new thrust in Extra Cover’s activities has been the attempt to ensure all unregistered children in the area where we work have birth certificates. A child without a birth certificate can’t go to school, obtain ID, marry, get a job, or travel. All they can really do is live permanently on, and work at, a plantation – which suits the plantation owners just fine. Except it’s a major breach of human rights.
Mr Athula is the Zonal director for non-formal education, and divisional director for Yakalamulla district, in the heart of “Extra Cover Country.” He oversees three divisions’ care for non-formal children - “non-formal” meaning they have not attended school regularly, and now require tailor-made tuition - and there are 96 unregistered “non-formal” children under his authority. He reports that there is now a government drive to issue birth certificates to children who don’t have them, and there is a group of probation officers and divisional officers doing what they can to bring this about. He says there is a cost of 7,500 rupees per certificate, but only for some children, and has agreed to work with Thishantha to ensure that all the remaining uncertified children get their rightful papers. Once we have physical proof of the certificates, we shall warmly consider his request for a group trip to Colombo Port and Zoo. Thishantha, meanwhile, is creating a small database of all the non-formal children, and whether they have their birth certificates or not.
