We Are Building the Future of Women and Children: Minister Saroja Paulraj
Minister of Women and Child Affairs Saroja Paulraj emphasized that her ministry carries the critical responsibility of addressing multidimensional poverty goals by shaping the future, goals, and lives of women and children while healing their past grievances and shortcomings.
Speaking at an official event, Minister Paulraj stated:
“As a government, our greatest achievement is creating a nation where everyone, regardless of political, ethnic, or religious differences, can hold hands and move forward together—slowly yet steadily—in the same direction.
Just as physical development is achieved through sectors like transport and health, there is an equal need to achieve social development. If social development does not progress alongside physical infrastructure, a society trapped in multidimensional poverty will emerge. Sri Lanka is a nation that has actively worked and continues to work towards overcoming multidimensional poverty targets.
The Ministry of Women and Child Affairs bears a key responsibility in overcoming these targets. Here, we are constructing the future, goals, and lives of women and children—healing the places where they were hurt or strayed. Unlike ministries with tangible infrastructure projects, ours is a ‘hidden ministry’ that compiles the complex personal stories of countless women and children. As a government, our duty is to rectify past mistakes and gift them a healed life so that those hurts are never passed down to their children.
The ‘Diviyata Saviyak’ program was launched as a foundation for a better life. Over 8,000 children currently reside across 356 Child Development Centers island-wide. They arrive as juvenile offenders, victims, or as orphaned, abandoned, and uncared-for children. Though their mindsets and backgrounds vary, we must run a unified mechanism to care for them all.
Our goal by 2027 is to categorize and nurture these children in the safest manner through counseling, guidance, and educational welfare. We must expedite measures to rehabilitate and integrate them back into society. Studies show that the majority of prison inmates are male, and notably, the majority of children in probation and childcare homes are also boys. We must build a secure future for them.
We have encountered children in these care homes who have never watched a movie or a play. Hence, we aim to mold them into wholesome, aesthetic citizens, believing that spiritual and emotional growth will foster a peaceful human community. To achieve this, comprehensive counseling services are being implemented. Therefore, we urge all recipients receiving housing today to plant love within their homes and create a secure, happy environment for their children.”
The event was attended by Governor of the Western Province Hanif Yusoof; Secretary to the President Dr. Nandika Sanath Kumanayake; Chief of Presidential Staff Prabath Chandrakeerthi; Commissioner of Probation and Child Care Services U. L. Matheesha Jinanjali Jayatilake; Secretary to the Ministry of Women and Child Affairs Tharangani Wickramasinghe; alongside female Members of Parliament and government officials.
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