Saturday Dec 14, 2024
Saturday Dec 14, 2024
Friday, 7 April 2017 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
By Frances Bulathsinghala
If we examine the concept of human development as defined by Amartya Sen, it means a holistic encompassment of measures taken to uplift the human being towards capability and opportunity. This development of the human thereby gives her or him freedom to choose what they value as beneficial towards their ‘development.’
Recent research as well as newspaper reports have thrown light on life as is lived by women and men in the north and east of Sri Lanka in the current post-war context. This context is filled with poverty, deprivation, exploitation as well as lack of freedom to choose their own ‘development.’
In the backdrop of such a post-war situation and with 2017 being dedicated as the year of poverty eradication, the Centre for Poverty Analysis (CEPA) in a recent public forum presented qualitative and quantitative data from a panel survey it had carried out as part of a six-year research on service delivery and governance. The survey done by CEPA for the Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium (SLRC) focused on multiple factors pertaining to livelihood and wellbeing of individuals and households in the north east within the macro setting of post-war governance and micro setting of the village community. The districts specifically focused on were Jaffna, Mannar and Trincomalee. The survey examined how resettled communities have fared in the backdrop of evolving post 2009 economic, political and social dynamics.
The CEPA forum titled ‘Reflections on post-war recovery’ held at the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute introduced the initial results of the survey and showcased information related to how gender, class, caste and ethnicity connected to core factors such as capital, labour, social welfare schemes, food and security, education and health.
The survey was a result of overall field work between 2012 and 2015 where 86% of the sample covering all three ethnicities was tracked in the first wave in 2012 and the second in 2015.
Dr. Vagisha Gunasekera who presented the survey findings stated that the same households were surveyed over the two time frames in order look at changes that would have occurred both within and between households.
All Sinhala respondents came from Trincomalee, while respondents in Jaffna were Tamil and Mannar it was the Muslim community. These communities the survey had focused on had been displaced over two to three times on average. Thirty eight percent of the respondents were from urban Grama Niladhari areas.
Both the war and the tsunami were events seen as having an impact on lifestyle and wellbeing, assessed through access to food and security. The Coping Strategy Index (CSI) that measures the frequency and severity of coping behaviours had been used as a measuring tool in the survey.
According to the survey, households have got more food insecure between 2012 and 2015 where the situation of Mannar was seen as acute. Among the reasons attributed to increasing of food prices were changes in weather patterns resulting in floods and droughts but not entirely attributed to climatic issues.
The survey revealed that women (women in general and not just women heading households) are significantly more food insecure and face lack of opportunity for work while also facing what the research panel described was a ‘visible violence.’ This violence was linked to political economy and discrimination as well as the violence they faced within the family and sexual exploitation in employment. The survey findings had revealed that the women’s own perceptions of safety were affecting their attempts at livelihood negatively.
A key paradox of the survey was that while ownership of assets has increased in all three districts (purchasing most of their assets on credit) they were worse off in food security. Those who had undergone prolonged displacement had faced a higher food insecurity impacted by policy concerns such as where the relief packages offered to new IDPs after 2008 were not offered to those displaced earlier.
Some improvement in access to services had been recorded. For example the average time it takes to reach the nearest hospital and schools had reduced due to diverse factors. The survey found that the border areas continue to be neglected by the reconstruction efforts of both the government and aid agencies and that particularly in Jaffna those who were in need did not receive Samurdhi.
It was revealed that what buffers households from shocks are assets of land and labour. In terms of exploitation, women especially, were seen to suffer from low pay alongside sexual exploitation. The survey had found the need to innovate better in terms of assistance for war affected communities that went beyond the standard model of micro finance and vocational training that usually involve the repeatedly taught basic skills such as sewing, home gardening or farming. What was strongly noted was a mismatch of policy against issues that need to be addressed.
To describe what lies beneath the north eastern economic and social travesty, narratives from a number of qualitative studies carried out by CEPA were presented. Nadhiya Najab presented findings from a study on the political economy of violence focusing on women’s economic relations in post-war Sri Lanka. The presentation was based on the women’s engagement in the beedi industry in a village in Jaffna.
The study had focused on the everyday lives of these women and their connection with the industry as a whole which is transnational, extending all the way to India, leaving a long trail of virtual and helpless slavery and alienation from the final product.
The sample population was drawn from a fishing village in Jaffna referred to as ‘Vettikadu’ (actual name of village withheld to protect identity of the respondents), where, left out from the main industry – fishing – which is controlled by men, women have been pushed to the narrow and exploitative confines of the beedi industry. For these women, who were mainly identified as low castes and had been rolling beedi with their bare hands for over 50 years, there were no other options of economic opportunity.
Caste was cited as a strong obstacle in obtaining employment. Whatever alternative employment opportunities available to these women, such as in the textile industry was seen as based on exploitation on account of their caste. The women had strong fears about venturing out in search of employment for fear of sexual exploitation and abuse within and outside of the village.
The researchers who carried out the study pointed out that for these women engaged in the beedi industry, there is no separation between work and home and that their labour continues with limited breaks in addition to being vulnerable to health hazards through tobacco dust.
Women beedi rollers get 1/4 of the market value; 50 cents per stick; where the remaining go to the middle men and bigger players in an industry estimated to be worth four billion rupees a year and which has been growing at almost 200% since 2007.
Case studies of the women engaged in the beedi industry were presented to illustrate their plight, with one example being that of 80-year-old Anandiamma (not her real name) who has been rolling beedi for much of her life owing to having no other option of getting out of poverty.
In another example – that of Sarojini – it was shown that she took to beedi rolling in the absence of work-related options. Sarojini had taken over as head of the household following her husband being injured and unable to work. However, it was not a form of employment she wanted her daughter to resort to. It was also highlighted in the findings of the survey that many women who were part of the study acted as head of households, especially in an economic sense but also suffered abuse at the hands of their husbands.
The next segment of the survey that was presented was on ‘Caste identity and access to education,’ pertaining to Jaffna. CEPA researcher Aftab Lall who carried out the survey pointed out that two popular narratives came up in relation to caste. The first was the apparently popular narrative that caste is no longer relevant in Jaffna society. This argument maintained that caste has been erased due to the LTTE and other reasons such as access to free education, with the argument being that the overall emphasis has shifted from caste to class.
The other narrative was that caste was resurgent in the post war scenarios because the LTTE was no longer in existence. Here the view was that when the LTTE was present caste was not allowed to manifest itself in the marriage sections of newspapers but that after the defeat of the rebels in 2009, caste in marriage had resurfaced.
In his presentation of the survey findings Lall emphasised that caste continues to shape access to schooling in post war Jaffna and dismissed the widely held claims in Jaffna especially amongst bureaucrats, civil society members and religious representatives that caste based discrimination is no longer prevalent in the district.
Case studies pertaining to the parayar community highlighted poverty, landlessness, poor quality of access to services, and a history of marginalisation and discrimination. The survey carried out in 2013 revealed that factors of reinforcing caste included schooling, location of living and form of livelihood engaged in. Livelihood was found to be strongly caste based.
The CEPA study focused on the sanitary workers of the municipal council in Jaffna; a Catholic community who had moved into their current living location – a shanty area – from remote Jaffna islands. Shockingly it was revealed that most of these families have no access to toilets. On the positive side, they focused on education as a means of uplifting their children in society, past the barriers of caste. Schooling was seen as relatively easy as most of the students lived in close proximity to school. The student community of the local school to which the children of sanitation workers went to was homogeneous but the overall point emphasised was how caste identity continues to shape access to schooling in general in present day north where caste remains a strong identity marker. Most of the respondents believed that money could ‘hide’ caste.
The survey presentation revealed that garbage was being collected with bare hands and that workers looked to education to save their children from the same kind of work they saw as ‘undignified.’ In the discussion that ensued it was pointed out by members of the audience that sanitation work is ‘dignified’ as all work is and that the focus of the survey recommendations should be on the need for proper facilities and respect being given to these workers as without them the cities would not be functional.
Meanwhile, the third parallel survey findings on how the Samurdhi program was being delivered to war affected communities was presented by CEPA researcher Nayana Godamunne, covering the entire politicised and stagnant nature of a scheme that neither uplifts nor is transparent but only acts to perpetuate poverty and subservience to politicians.
The delivery process of the Samurdhi was seen as being governed by favouritism. Personal connections on which politician you knew or if you were a friend of the GA were found to be the criteria through which it was determined if people got Samurdhi or not.
It was pointed out that women in particular, especially in Jaffna, have difficulty in benefitting from Samurdhi owing to the lack of transparent and standardised procedures. The sum up from this study was that the poorest and the most economically vulnerable remained without Samurdhi assistance. In Trincomalee there had been comments such as “We cannot fight with officials… we have explained our situation to the Grama Niladhari but he does not care about them…”
In another pertinent example a respondent had pointed to a three-wheeler parked in the vicinity of a well-to-do house, stating that the owner of that three-wheeler and house receives Samurdhi while women heading households and battling extreme poverty in the area do not.
During the discussion that ensued queries were made about the use of recent comparative studies on Samurdhi to strengthen the CEPA survey findings. It was however pointed out that there is a lack of any recent comprehensive research on Samurdhi, with the CEPA survey being the first research initiative on the subject, thereby identifying a gap for human development focused researchers to fill. The research panel meanwhile admitted that they did not inquire in detail into the caste and class of Samurdhi recipients. The need for re-structuring welfare schemes in Sri Lanka was stressed.
Meanwhile, the overall situation of militarisation of the north east in the aftermath of the end of the war was cited as being a top most issue from the perspective of the population there. Alongside, the emergence of a high level of domestic violence as well as overall insecurity by vulnerable groups such as women heading households was discussed. These reflections were linked to the macro concern of post war reconciliation and State-connected action. In regard to domestic violence that women are facing in the north-east, the question arose whether women and child protection desks are adequately functional in the region.
The CEPA panel explained that the post war development sub themes that were researched were part of a bid to support State and non-State actors in ensuring that economic gains are not made at the expense of deepening existing inequalities in north eastern societies. Also accentuated was the urgency of devising coping strategies which in turn could be developed and strengthened into sustainable livelihood strategies in the post-war rebuilding phase that Sri Lanka is still in, if this country is to truly make ‘development’ people centred.
