Guardians of Childhood

Guardians of Childhood: State, Class and Morality in a Sri Lankan Bureaucracy Harini Amarasuriya PhD. The University of Edinburgh and Queen Margaret University 2010 Declaration I declare that this thesis has been entirely composed by me and is my own original work with acknowledgement of other sources, and that the work has not been submitted for any other degree or professional qualification Signed: Date: Dedication For my parents: for their love, support and for allowing Pippin to take over their home (and lives) during my long absences Abstract This thesis explores the everyday practices, relationships and interactions in a Probation Unit of the Department of Probation and Child Care Services in the Central Province in Sri Lanka. Using multi-sited ethnography and the ethnographer’s own experiences in this sector it examines how frontline workers at the Probation Unit engage and draw upon international and national development discourse, ideas and theories of children and childhood to engage with colleagues and clients. This thesis takes as its analytical starting point that state agencies are sites where global development discourse meets local practices. Simultaneously, they are sites where ideas and practices of nationalism, class, morality and professional identity are produced and reproduced. State sector employment is an important source of social mobility, gaining respectability and constructing a middle class identity. Thus, maintaining the ‘in-between’ position in relation to the upper and lower classes is an especially anxiety-ridden and challenging process for state bureaucrats. This shapes the particular characteristics of their nationalism, morality and professional identity and influences the way in which they translate policies and engage with institutional and bureaucratic procedures. This thesis examines this process in detail and illustrates its translocal nature. More explicitly it looks at the ways in which development discourse and practice is transformed by the forms of sociality that it engenders. The ethnography illustrates that this process allows for development policies and interventions to be co-opted in particular ways that articulate ideas and practices of nationalism, class, morality and professional identity. Through this co- option, the outcomes of development policies and interventions are transformed in unanticipated ways. The broader social and political process that transforms development policies and practices remains only partially visible to development projects and programmes. The complexity and in particular the historicity of social and political contexts remains outside development project logic and timelines. To understand the relationship between policy and practice or to evaluate development outcomes is meaningless if development is conceptualised as something that stands apart from society. What is most useful to understand, and indeed revealing, is how actors make meaning of development policies and programmes as part of everyday practices in historically situated social and political contexts. The thesis concludes that theorising, analysing or even critiquing development’s transformative potential is misleading as it fails to recognise that what is being transformed is development itself. Table of Contents Acknowledgements 1 Glossary of Acronyms 4 Glossary of Sinhala terms 7 Introduction 9 Chapter 1: Probation and Child Care Services in Sri Lanka 45 Chapter 2: The Field Site: The Probation Unit Office 64 Chapter 3: Institutional Rivalries 81 Chapter 4: Maintaining boundaries: child rights, the state and NGOs 110 Chapter 5: The tale of two forms: 140 “Jenny’s Forms vs. the Social Report” Chapter 6: The many faces of Sinhala nationalism 176 Chapter 7: Abbuddassa K l: A time of Godlessness 203 Conclusion 241 Bibliography 252 Acknowledgements No thesis can be completed without the support and collaboration of many people. My PhD journey has been especially collaborative. The whole idea of embarking on a PhD emerged from a conversation between Ananda Galappatti, Eshani Ruwanpura, Maleeka Salih and myself one night in Sri Lanka. It was one of many ideas that Ananda came up with that night and the only one that actually materialised, I might add. The idea was for the four of us to embark on a “joint PhD”. Ananda persuaded us that applying together for our PhDs was not only a great idea, but actually quite sensible. And he was right: not only are our shared work experiences and many conversations reflected in the questions I explore in this thesis but the collaboration made my PhD much easier. The “cohort” stimulated my thinking, read and critiqued my work and most importantly ensured that the process was less lonely, isolating and frightening. To Prof. Jonathan Spencer and Dr. Alison Strang, I owe a big debt of gratitude for believing in the idea of a “joint PhD” and for making it happen. This PhD is “joint” not only because the four of us embarked on our PhDs together, but also because it is a result of the collaboration between the University of Edinburgh and Queen Margaret University and this would not have been possible without the hard work of Prof. Spencer and Dr. Strang. Financial support from the Scottish Executive, Lloyds TSB Foundation for Scotland and the University of Edinburgh made this PhD a reality and I extend my appreciation to them. I am also deeply grateful for Prof. Spencer’s training and guidance. He gave me confidence, stayed calm when I panicked and pushed me along when I got stuck. I am also very thankful for the support I received from Dr. Jennifer Curtis from the University of Edinburgh. Her feedback, encouragement and support particularly during the most difficult moments of writing up, have been invaluable. Thank you too to Dr. Alison Strang for her encouragement and feedback. Many people helped me with various parts of the thesis and my grateful thanks to all of them: Sajeeva Samaranayake, Harshana Nanayakkara and Cameena Gunaratne patiently answered many legal queries I had; Asanga Cooray helped me find documents in the National Archives and Savithri Hirimuthugoda gave me the run of the Centre for Women’s Reserach (CENWOR) library in Colombo. Apart from my “cohortees”, Siddarthan Maunaguru and Ruth Marsden read different versions of the thesis, (taking precious time off from their own writing up process) and provided extremely useful feedback. Jeanne Maracek’s support through the PhD process and her insightful comments for some of the chapters has been invaluable. Hannah Kitchen and my niece, Sayomi Ariyawansa proofread and edited the final version of the thesis and I sincerely hope it did not discourage them from pursuing their own PhDs one day. Doing a PhD can be a challenging, often frustrating and frightening experience: the support and encouragement of close friends made it that much more bearable. Thank you to Fara, Sammy, Rishana, Romola, Shyamani, Hafsa, Gameela, Sarala, Markus and Asha for sympathy and encouragement. Sally Hulugalle has been a support and inspiration ever since I first started working in the development sector. I am also grateful to Prof. Swarna Jayaweera for her quiet support and encouragement. In Edinburgh I survived the PhD (and the cold) thanks to Ruth, Siddarthan, Becky, Dhana, Luke, Bethany, Lawrence, Mihirini, Lisa, Paul, Suryakant, Qudsia, Amy, Mathew, Tom, Wendy, Heshani and Michael. Thank you too to Yi-Fang and Zeng- Shui for their kindness especially during the late night writing up sessions at the office. I am deeply grateful to Dileepa for believing that my work was interesting and useful. He was a reliable sounding board for all my ideas, helped with translations and in countless other ways. His unfailing (if somewhat unfounded) confidence in my work, constant support and encouragement kept me going through some of the most challenging times. To my long-suffering parents and family: thank you seems quite inadequate but I hope I have finally made it a bit easier for them to answer the question, “so what is it that your daughter/sister does?” Finally, I owe a big debt of gratitude to the National Commissioner of the Department of Probation and Child Care Services, the Commissioner and staff of the Provincial Department of Probation and Child Care Services where I did my field work and above all to the staff of the Probation Unit. The staff at the Probation Unit let me into their office and shared their stories and their work with me. I can never repay their friendship, generosity and kindness. I hope I have done justice to their work and to the immense struggles they go through every day to do their jobs with integrity and commitment. Glossary of Acronyms ACBC All Ceylon Buddhist Congress CCF Christian Children’s Fund CCS Ceylon Civil Service CNC Ceylon National Congress CP Communist Party CRPO Child Rights Promotion Officer CYPO Children and Young Person’s Ordinance DA Development Assistant DCDC District Child Development Committee DCPC District Child Protection Committee DPCCS Department of Probation and Child Care Services FORUT Campaign for Development and Solidarity GDP Gross Domestic Product IDP Internally Displaced Person ILO International Labour Organisation IMF International Monetary Fund INGO International non-governmental organisation ISGA Interim Self-Governing Authority IYC International Year of the Child IYCS International Year of the Child Secretariat JHU Jathika Hela Urumaya (National Heritage Party) JVP Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (People’s Liberation Front) KAP Surveys Knowledge Attitudes

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