Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières
Women’s rights groups in Sri Lanka reject the current debt restructuring solutions that place the burden of repayment on Sri Lanka’s working classes, particularly its women. They are demanding urgent and sustainable solutions to the ongoing debt crisis in Sri Lanka, that respond to the actual (...)
While condemning the recent recommendations given by Muslim Members of Parliament (MPs) on proposed amendments to the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act (MMDA), civil society groups and lawyers have urged the Ministry of Justice to opt for progressive reforms and refrain from allowing such (...)
The IMF Staff Report on Sri Lanka released in March 2022 outlined a number of policy prescriptions to address Sri Lanka’s unprecedented economic crisis, including increasing women’s labour force participation. The few lines in the report on this issue provoked some responses within mainstream (...)
Arguments about the economic benefits of women’s labour participation go hand in hand with assumptions about the personal value of women’s work, often framed in terms of empowerment and choice. Yet this notion of choice and empowerment elides not only the deeply unequal and often exploitative (...)
Informality is highly prevalent in the Sri Lankan apparel industry in the Katunayake export processing zone where there has been a labour shortage since the 2010s (Ranasinghe et al. 2016). Against this shortage, informal labour plays a key role in guaranteeing uninterrupted production in the (...)
The benefits of women’s labour force participation (LFP) have been broadly discussed along two strands. The first is its utilitarian value. According to International Monetary Fund estimates, increasing women’s LFP can boost the national output levels by as much as 35% in developing countries. (...)
It is only by coming together as citizens of this country that we can ensure the inalienable fundamental rights of Muslim women and children without being appropriated either by majoritarian state agenda or by conservative Muslim community agenda
“The MMDA as it stands now is far from (...)
Women’s empowerment through employment is not a new focus for international financial institutions and development agencies. It was also among the objectives of the ‘structural adjustment’ programmes introduced by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (WB) in the Global South (...)
The Sri Lankan Government needs to move ahead with MMDA reforms before any more delays and scuttling by conservative groups with intentions to suppress Muslim women’s rights in the name of culture or religion
The Sri Lankan Muslim communities have been abuzz with debates about the reform of (...)
Arguments about the economic benefits of women’s labour participation go hand in hand with assumptions about the personal value of women’s work, often framed in terms of empowerment and choice. Yet this notion of choice and empowerment elides not only the deeply unequal and often exploitative (...)
Caring for household members. Well-being of the family. Putting food on the table. Washing clothes. Making ends meet. Looking after the young, the old, and differently abled family members. These are everyday activities performed by someone or some people for someone or some people. The (...)
As part of Sri Lanka’s economic bailout, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is telling us that we should increase women’s labour force participation. It is part of a recommendation about ‘growth-enhancing structural reforms’ including reducing youth unemployment, liberalising trade, (...)
Sri Lanka’s embassies have repeatedly warned the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) and other authorities of glaring shortcomings in the handling of local labour in West Asia–including an urgent need for Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) attachés in these missions to have minimum (...)
Feminist Collective for Economic Justice Co-Founder, researcher, and activist Sarala Emmanuel says that the brunt of the economic crisis has been borne by women and the brunt of the recovery proposals will also be borne by women.
Following is an extract of the interview given to Channel (...)
Countless images of women carers flitted through April-July 2022 on Sri Lankan television screens, social media, and newspapers. Carers with young children, mothers with new-borns leaving them with equally young children while they stood in queue for gas or kerosene, children doing their (...)
Academic, rights activist, and Member of Parliament Dr. Harini Amarasuriya delivered the keynote address at the Regional Conference on Equality and Equity in Recognising Unpaid Care Work and Women’s Labour in South Asia on 20-21 October, organised by the Women and Media Collective and Social (...)
Polygamy has become the final hurdle in introducing the long-awaited amendments to the Muslim marriage law and final recommednations on the matter are to be submitted in two weeks.
Polygamy has become the final hurdle in introducing the long-awaited amendments to the Muslim marriage law and (...)
Economic hardships in the last few months have aggravated, making the class divide more visible than ever in Sri Lanka. The Government is preoccupied with establishing ‘stability’ through State repression.
Since Ranil Wickremesinghe took oath as the President of Sri Lanka, the crackdown on (...)
Call for halt of witch hunt of protestors; slam state of emergency
The Women for Democratic Struggles (WDS) group yesterday (2) called upon the Government to call for an early General/Parliamentary Election, and for the Government to stop its witch hunt of protestors and key activists (...)
The Sri Lanka garment industry was deeply hit by the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent economic crisis. Millions of garment workers are now living on the edge, increasingly suffering from volatile incomes, unstable jobs and low savings.
“Watching the Aragalaya march, I felt that Sri (...)
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