Holidays: The need for logical thinking

Holidays in Sri Lanka became a hot topic again last week when most of the places were deserted or crippled without people. The majority of the people enjoyed a long holiday while some people started working on April 15 or 16.

The people who took the long holiday enjoyed it by giving a break to their physical and mental suffering while the people who started working experienced some hardships when buying food and getting their work done because most places and services were closed. It made them angry but we have to look into the matter without being biased.

At the moment Sri Lanka has the ideal number of public holidays for an year. The problem lies in the way it is being used. It is very funny and interesting to see the common characteristics of the persons who say Sri Lanka has too many holidays and others who say we have an adequate number of holidays.

Anyway Sri Lanka does not have 65 holidays out of 365 days or at least it does not exceed 30. We have around 28 holidays per year and we are not in a competition with other countries to have the minimum number of holidays.

The persons who say that Sri Lanka has too many holidays have very interesting common characteristics. They are rich, residing in Colombo or suburbs, the mode of transport is inter-coolers or other luxury private/company owned vehicles. They spend holidays in foreign countries or whenever they get opportunities to go abroad they convert it to a family vacation.

On duty means on vacation for these persons. No rostered duty hours for them. Their bank accounts are overflowing and they can afford for a long holiday. Their life is similar to the life of people living in developed Western countries where there is winter. No wonder they expect calendars of such countries here in Sri Lanka and demand to cut down the number of holidays.

Let us take a look at the majority of Sri Lankans who suffer during all 365 days. They wake up at 3.30 am and get into a bus from Matara or Kurunegala to come to Colombo for work. They reach home at 11.30 pm. They travel for over eight hours in dirty and corroded buses. For women, the daily trip to home after work is a nightmare.

During work ordinary people travel here and there by public transport under hot sun for official purposes. No need to describe a trip in private bus. They are lucky if they don't get harassed or lose their wallet. They work in very unpleasant working environments with minimum facilities. They eat cheep food from a boutique because home made food do not stay fresh for nine hours.

Some of them stay in tiny, congested unhygienic rooms and work in Colombo leaving their infants and elderly parents in villages located over 200 kilometres from Colombo.

Like foreign countries Sri Lanka does not have `Summer Holidays' or any other type of exact holiday period except for schoolchildren. So what is wrong with enjoying a few holidays ?

Last week some persons asked how can Sri Lanka be developed when people enjoy too many holidays. So do we have to make innocent poor people suffer more to develop the country? Then how about the unofficial `on duty holidays' and `informal holidays' enjoyed by some people ? Who is going to cut them down ?

If we make people suffer more, they will not work harder. They only try to get more free time/leave to ease their physical and mental burdens. Rules and regulations are very important for all. Today no one remembers how April school holidays were fumbled in the past making children and parents mentally sick and unproductive.

All State and private institutes should have a proper prior plan on how they run their institutions and services during holiday periods. Simply they can have a clear shift system and prior plan/schedule, because all ethnicities and religions do not celebrate all the cultural and religious celebrations.

Workers apply for leave, get them approved by their superiors and only then stay at home. This is more than enough for superiors to plan the schedules. Workers do not vanish or run away from their work places suddenly.

No one needs to discriminate different ethnicities or religions by cutting down holidays and create a new conflict. Can public holidays such as National Day and May Day be abolished ? No one has the right to question Buddhists whether they observe Sil on Poya days or whether Christians go to church every Sunday or whether Muslims fast.

But what is clear here is there are persons and groups who benefit from a new conflict.