When Low Taxes Cost Children Their Future

As someone interested in human rights, education, and how policies shape everyday life, Sri Lanka’s recent crisis shows how economic decisions can directly affect children’s futures. In 2022, the country defaulted on its debt and entered its worst economic crisis since independence. For many families, this meant lost jobs, soaring food prices, power cuts, and children missing school because transportation became too expensive. More than four million people fell into poverty. What looked like an economic collapse quickly became a human rights issue.

One overlooked cause was tax policy. For years, Sri Lanka reduced corporate taxes, kept income and wealth taxes low, and relied heavily on consumption taxes like VAT. Because these taxes affect poorer households more, government revenue shrank while inequality deepened. With fewer public funds, investment in education declined, and some schools even asked parents to pay for basic materials such as exam papers.

International human rights law states that governments must use the “maximum available resources” to guarantee rights like education and healthcare. Sri Lanka’s experience shows that when tax systems fail, children’s rights are often the first to suffer.

For Megaphone, this issue highlights how economic policy and human rights are deeply connected. By covering stories like this, we can help readers understand that protecting education is not only about schools it also requires fair economic systems. It also encourages us to examine how policy decisions affect vulnerable communities around the world.

Official Source