Page 28 - KDU INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE

KDU International Journal of Criminal Justice (KDUIJCJ)
Volume I | Issue II| July 2024

where she had to live in. She placed her eight-year-old daughter at the
National Child Protection Authority shelter and she started working full

time. She would visit her daughter once a month. She got involved in a

robbery case and was sentenced to imprisonment.

Meanwhile, the National Child Protection Authority decided to close

down the shelter and obtained a court order to send the children at the
shelter to different orphanages. Upeksha’s Mother was released after she

completed her prison sentence and began looking for her daughter. No

one was willing to give her information about her daughter’s
whereabouts. After months of searching, she discovered her daughter in

an orphanage where she was subjected to child labour, and the older girls
in the orphanage were trafficked for forced labour. The Mother realized

that her daughter would face the same plight and she made an application

to the children’s court to take the daughter under her care. The Forensic
Psychiatrist attached to the National Hospital, Colombo, after having a

conference with his team, decided to recommend that the Mother could

take care of her daughter provided she had a livelihood. The team of
doctors said that the Mother had good parenting skills. A Civil Society

Organization came forward to provide financial assistance for the Mother
and daughter. At present, the Mother is living with the daughter in their

own house.

Upeksha’s case highlights the need to provide housing units to Mothers

who wish to be reunited with their institutionalized children. There is

also a need to have an information desk at the Department of Prison’s to

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