Sri Lanka Youth Groups

Figure 1.-- This Sri Lanka Boy Scout arounf 2000 wears the full Scout uniform.

Sri Lanka is an island country south of India in the UIndian Ocean. It used to be known as Ceylon. We have vey limited information on the Sri Lanka youuth movement. Ceylon was a British colony ad thus the Souting movement developed as the principal youth movement. We do not know much about Sri Lanka Scouting. Scouting is started in Sri Lanka during 1912. It is very popular among many school children. Boy Scouts between the ages of 11-15 are the largest, the Cub Scouts ages 7-11 comes second, and the Rover Scouts ages 15-24 comes third. The Scouts between 15 and 18 are referred to as Senior Scouts. In Sri Lanka all scouts should wear a standard uniform and the uniform varies according to their ages/levels. Scouting is the only Sri Lanka youth movement we know of at this time.

Boy Scouts

Ceylon was a British colony ad thus the Souting movement developed as the principal youth movement. We do not know much about Sri Lanka Scouting. Scouting is started in Sri Lanka during 1912. It is very popular among many school children. Boy Scouts between the ages of 11-15 are the largest, the Cub Scouts ages 7-11 comes second, and the Rover Scouts ages 15-24 comes third. The Scouts between 15 and 18 are referred to as Senior Scouts. In Sri Lanka all scouts should wear a standard uniform and the uniform varies according to their ages/levels. We notice some information on Cubs.

Boys' Brigade

The Boys' Brigade was organized in many British colonies. We are unsure about Sri Lanka at this time. A Sri Lanka reader tells us that it is not currently active in the country./

Cadet Corps

The National Cadet Corps was established in 1881. It is sponsored by Ministry of Defence. The main objectives are to develop character, building self confidence, spirit of adventure, sportsmanship and improve discipline. It has a history of more than 126 years as of 2007 and boys who are above 15 years can join for this on a voluntary basis. Cadets have no obligation to join the active military service. The Cadet Corps is not very popular among girls.

Girl Guides

Girl Guiding was founded in Sri Lanka during 1917. It currently has about 30,000 members. There are three categories based on their age of the girls. Age 7 to 11 known as “Little Friend”, age 11 to 15 known as “Guides” and finally age 15 to 16 are “Senior Guides”. The activities conducted are to some extent similar to the Scoutings, but Guides are not as involved in active outdoor activities.they do not involve much in outdoor activities such as camping, hiking, etc. Their uniform comes with skirt and blouse and the colour scheme is similar to the Boy Scout uniform.

Other Groups

Scouting is the only Sri Lanka youth movement we know of at this time. A Sri Lanka reader tells us, "According to my knowledge, the Boy Scouts are the only youth group in Sri Lanka which are involve mainly in social activities. HBU have also noted political groups with youth units, but we do not know much about them. As far as we can tell they are more for teenagers than boys and do not organize youth activities or such, but are designed more to use young people in political activities.