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| Monday, 13 December 2004 |
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How war impacts women by Chandani Jayatilleke Alternative for housemaids A representative from Batticaloa said that poverty was not only due to the war. It was also largely connected with the free economy. Citing an example she said the well-known Batticaloa mats had died a natural death as nobody wanted to weave a mat and earn an income. Instead they opted to go overseas as housemaids. "The free economy has created unhealthy competition to earn money and everybody falls for it," she said adding that it was important to find an alternative to going abroad as housemaids. Key issues * lowest budget any allocation for the Women's Affairs Ministry - and use of funds is lowest. * Women's participation in politics and peace process is insignificant * IDPs should be given identity cards * Women should be given a proper understanding of the law - HR violations * Heavy alcoholism among men, a major reason for poverty * Lack of women officials in police stations The needs and concerns of women affected by the Lankan conflict and the necessity to include these concerns in the peace process and interim policy were reiterated at a National Consultation on Women's Concerns and the Peace Process, organised by the Women and Media Collective (WMC) early last week. The WMC also presented some of the recommendations, the organisation had gathered over a couple of years with extensive visits and discussions with women and women's groups in the war-affected areas. The recommendations were on four different themes - Violence against Women, Internally Displaced Persons, Gender and Poverty/Female Headed Households and Governance and Women. Concurrent to the presentation of recommendations, the Consultation also organised four discussion sessions. Each session had a chairperson and three to four speakers from a wide circle of NGOs, Government institutions and women's organisations. In addition to NGOs and Government representation, the audience included women representatives from the affected areas.
The first issue taken up at the Consultation was Violence against Women. Manouri Muttetuwegama, well-known lawyer, chaired the session. Violence against women is a key issue in the post ceasefire period. Sexual harassment and domestic violence continue as a major issue in many areas of the country. The presenters of this session spoke about their experiences on this theme and said that high levels of domestic violence, rape and sexual harassment were directly linked to a climate of impunity encouraged by the war. Violence against women is a human rights violation. Though there is no domestic violence law in the present legal system, there was a committee to look into the issues in domestic violence law. The presenters opined that in the event of drafting such a law, priority should be given to simplicity of language, so that everybody could understand. Speakers at this session including Dr. Radhika Coomaraswamy highlighted the need for law reforms, a continuous dialogue with the legal fraternity, more public awareness campaigns and links with law colleges and universities. Language barriers Talking about their experiences in Vavuniya, Puttalam and Batticaloa, representatives from these areas said that their complaints were disregarded and ignored by police stations and law institutions. Many times, there were no women police officers to take down their complaints. There were no officers who could write and read such complaints in their language - Tamil. In certain instances, women did not get the assistance of women police officers when they wanted to lodge a complaint. "Even if we speak to a woman PC, she would refer us to the OIC or the person in-charge of the police station who was always a man. This complicated matters," they said. Even if there were women constables to handle women's complaints against violence, they were not well-trained to handle such cases. For example, they pointed out, police officer Soma Kumarasinghe who was in charge of woman's issues at the Children's and Women Bureau (CWB) of police was transferred to a different station as she was gaining experience at the CWB to handle women's issues. Another representative highlighted the issue of educating men on such issues. "We need to get their support and we need to educate them on the issue of violence. Sometimes men are ignorant and their knowledge on human rights and women's rights are not sufficient at all," they said. IDPs and land issue The second topic taken up was the issue of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and the session headed by Jezima Ismail discussed the community work done by UNHCR in the North and East in this connection and about the fate of internally displaced women, highlighting the woes of Muslim women and the land issue in these areas. The speakers said the peace process should pay attention to the issue of the IDPs who had lost their business, employment, houses, lands and everything they owned. According to reports 350,000 IDPs returned to their homes by June 2004, and a balance 369,000 still remain displaced, of whom 90,000 are living in camps. Unfortunately, 70% of the displaced are estimated to be women and children. "We have to think of these issues from a human angle. One of the major issues with regard to the IDPs is land rights. Many IDPs who had lands and houses before have lost their lands. They don't have any documents to prove ownership - having lived long years in camps, away from their homes. We have to look deeply into this issue," a presenter said. According to the WMC, land rights are one of the most difficult and contentious issues throughout the North East. The displaced need to reclaim their land and property and receive compensation for loss and damage. Large tracts of civilian land are occupied by the military and have been demarcated into high security zones. The WMC says that the displaced who cannot return should be resettled elsewhere. And those occupying land and property abandoned by the displaced or evicted must vacate such property and be resettled. Women, widows and women heads of household should be given title to land and property. Gender and poverty The issues with regard to gender and poverty with emphasis on female-headed households were discussed at the third session chaired by Dr. Sepali Kottegoda, Director, WMC. Poverty is another major issue. Women are more miserable owing to unequal distribution of power between women and men. Women's ability to overcome poverty is marred by this disparity. Speakers at this session pointed out there was acute poverty in the war affected areas. Women are the most affected by this situation as the responsibility of feeding the children is entirely shouldered by women. This is due to two major reasons - firstly, the number of female-headed households is large, and secondly, financial support from their husbands is insufficient. Even if they earn some money, that is simply spent on alcohol. According to a UNDP report, 41,000 widows had been identified in the districts of Batticaloa, Trincomalee, Vavuniya, Ampara and Mullativu. The Foreign Employment Bureau says that the N/E districts of Trincomalee, Ampara and Batticaloa account for approximately 10% of total female migration overseas. Over the last two decades the unemployment rate for women has remained more than twice that of men. The speakers in this session reiterated the need for active income generation for women. Some women were encouraged to grow vegetables making use of the environment in the area. Later they found out that even if there was nothing for a meal in the household, women would make some greens (keera) for a meal. "This system worked. We need more of such systems," a speaker said. To alleviate poverty, participants suggested many ideas including skills training centres at the village level, equal wages for men and women and secure terms and conditions for women migrants as housemaids. Governance and women The Consultation concluded with a fruitful discussion on Governance and Women during which the speakers highlighted the fact that though women were represented in almost all-governing bodies their presence was insignificant in areas such as politics and the peace process. Participation by women in these areas was an absolute necessity, speakers said. Women's organisations in Sri Lanka have been involved in efforts to increase women's representation at all levels of Government through training, capacity building and awareness raising as well as through engagement in advocacy and lobbying with political parties and policy makers at the national level for affirmative action. However, women are marginalised in many decision-making bodies and processes. Such marginalisation occurs at the national and local levels and cover cooperative societies, mediation boards and trade unions. The WMC plans to add more recommendations based on the Consultation and to amend the existing recommendations where necessary, and forward them in a more focused manner. "We are hoping to lobby for these recommendations with the political parties, government officials and other related institutions," Kottegoda said. |
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