Child Labor and Forced Labor Reports

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka
2022 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor:

Moderate Advancement

In 2022, Sri Lanka made moderate advancement in efforts to eliminate the worst forms of child labor. The government amended the Children and Young Persons Ordinance to raise the age of majority from 16 to 18 to align this law with international standards. The government worked with the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund to implement a $34 million campaign to support children's school attendance, nutrition, and safety in response to the economic crisis. The Sri Lankan Police also made criminal law enforcement data related to the worst forms of child labor publicly available for the first time. However, children in Sri Lanka are subjected to the worst forms of child labor, including in commercial sexual exploitation, sometimes as a result of human trafficking, and forced domestic work. Research indicates that some children in rural areas face barriers to accessing education, including difficulties in traveling to school, an inadequate number of teachers, and challenges with registration. Furthermore, the labor inspectorate lacked sufficient staffing and funding to carry out an adequate number of inspections, including in factories in the northern and eastern provinces.

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