Child poverty in Sri Lanka: issues related to their education and access to safe water and sanitation
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Date
2018-06
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Publisher
Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka
Abstract
The aim of this study is to have a closer look at poor and vulnerable children in Sri Lanka, who are faced
with various deprivations, related to access to education, safe water and sanitation. Out of the estimated
population of 21.2 million in Sri Lanka in 2015, almost one third are children under the age of 19 years.1
It is important to know as to how many of these children are deprived and vulnerable, who are the children
most affected and where are they located. Most of the socioeconomic indicators at national level indicate
that Sri Lanka has made considerable progress during the last two to three decades, including reduction of
poverty. However, eradicating extreme poverty for all people everywhere and to reduce poverty in all its
dimensions, as envisaged in Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) - 1 (SDG- 1), is a difficult task unless
suitable strategies are developed and implemented to minimise regional variations and variations between
various Socio-economic Groups (SEGs). To achieve this goal, one of the main requirement would be to
ensure that no child is in extreme poverty in Sri Lanka, as extreme poverty in children would lead to an
intergenerational poverty cycle,2 which needs to be broken.