News

News

All female party to the fore in Colombo
A group of women wanting to give credence to the old adage "the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world" have come together to become the first all female set of candidates to submit nominations to contest a parliamentary election in Sri Lanka's electoral history.

The women, led by attorney-at-law Sharmila Daluwatte, will contest under the National People's Party banner in the Colombo district.

The 23 candidates include four lawyers, five university students, one retired teacher, three housewives, an architect and a Middle East returnee. The motivating factor behind their election aspiration is to draw attention to the problems faced by women who make up around 50 per cent of the voting population but are sorely under-represented in elected bodies at both local and national level.

"We are using this election as a platform to speak out on problems that are faced by women but are totally ignored," Ms. Daluwatte said in an interview with The Sunday Times.

Among the issues will be a call to repeal outdated pieces of legislation that are discriminatory towards women and the enactment of new laws that will benefit and protect women who make up the backbone of the country's working in the estate and garment sectors and also make up the bulk of the migrant workers.

One area to which they attach specific importance is the voting right for migrant workers. "There are around 800,000 local women working overseas and they are faced with many problems. If they had voting rights, they at least will have some bargaining power, which will force the rulers to address their problems", Ms. Daluwatte said.

The pioneering women also want to pave the way for more females to enter the political mainstream and not be intimidated by the prospects of being in public life. "Almost all the women in Sri Lankan politics today either have a dead husband, brother or father behind them. We want to bring in women who can come in their own right and speak up for the women of the country," she said.

She added that unfortunately today women are used by political parties only as sidekicks for political propaganda and the few who are elected do not exercise enough clout to introduce women friendly legislation or speak out on women's issues.

Although Sri Lankan women have enjoyed universal franchise since 1931, before many of their compatriots in the South Asian region, and even before many in the western world, the number of women elected to local bodies is the lowest for the region.

Sri Lankan women make up less than two per cent of the elected members in local bodies as against over 30 per cent in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh and 20 per cent in Nepal. The situation is equally bad at both the provincial council level as well as at a national level even though literacy among females is as high as among men.

"Although Sri Lankans boast of having the world's first woman Prime Minister and now a woman President as well, no women can walk on the street after eight in the night, they can't go in a bus without being harassed and now they are not even safe in their own homes. Widowed and divorced women are looked down upon despite the fact that many thousands have been widowed because of the war and they have become the sole breadwinners of the family. We have to change this and allow women to live in dignity", Ms. Daluwatte said.

Top

Back to News