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by Hambantota special correspondent

"The best way to get a representation for women in politics, is to reform the law to have the way for women to enter into representative politics, legally a proportion of representation should be allocated for women", the co-ordinator of the International Centre for Ethnic Studies (ICES) Ms. Kishali Pinto Jayawardhana said.

She said so addressing a two-day workshop on the issue of women's participation in representative politics held at the Human Resources Development Centre auditorium, Mirijjawila, Hambantota, recently.

Ms Pinto said, we are having similar kind of workshops throughout the island to present a set of proposal to the political parties, the Government and the civil society as to why we should have more women in politics in the country. When we compare with the countries in South Asia they have more women's representation in politics. Basically India, Pakistan and Bangladesh have a particular quota for women in politics. If you compare the representation of women in politics in those countries and Sri Lanka, there is a big difference. In Sri Lanka the percentage of women in Parliament 5% Local Government 1%, Provincial Councils 3%, etc.

The purpose of holding these type of workshop, is to initiate a dialogue between the women and men both in the cities and the villages to bring them together to present a set of proposals to the Government, the political parties and to the civil society in general as to why we should lobby for more women in politics.

Ms Kumuduni Samual, Attorney-at-Law of Media Collective; Attorney-at-Law Chulani Kodikara of ICES and Thilak Jayathilaka of ICES also spoke. 

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