Last Monday, Chamila Thushari, a Free Trade Zone (FTZ) women’s issues worker with the local NGO Da Bidu Collective, received a panic-stricken phone call from a blue-collar working woman at the FTZ. The woman, a mother of two, informed Chamila that she can no longer afford even the milk powder for her children’s daily glass [...]

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Price increase in milk powder hits working women most

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Last Monday, Chamila Thushari, a Free Trade Zone (FTZ) women’s issues worker with the local NGO Da Bidu Collective, received a panic-stricken phone call from a blue-collar working woman at the FTZ. The woman, a mother of two, informed Chamila that she can no longer afford even the milk powder for her children’s daily glass of milk, and then, in a tone of utmost despair, said she was going to take poison.

That was only one of many desperate phone calls and pleas social workers like Chamila receive every day. Another mother, who also works at the FTZ, finishes her shift at six in the evening every day, then works as a housemaid just to make ends meet. With the recent price hikes, especially for milk powder, she too has become one of the many blue-collar workers struggling to provide milk for their already underweight and undernourished children.

For most women in the FTZ, price increases for milk powder means they have to cut back on other food items to purchase milk powder for their children. This causes more problems as a majority of female factory workers in the FTZ are underweight, undernourished and suffer from anemia (caused by iron deficiency).

“Powdered milk is a primary food for families here at the FTZ,” Chamila said. “The benefit of the price drop in the global market is not trickling down to these people. This is an act of injustice.”

“There’s no way they can afford these price hikes,” she added.“Many workers are employed on contract basis or work overtime. Yet they can get only a basic monthly salary of Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 12,000 only. It’s not enough to live by. A census report said a family of four needs a minimum Rs. 44,500 monthly to live by. ”

Away from the FTZ, in Katana, Loretta, a stay-at-home mother, now spends a good chunk of her family income on milk powder. She needs to buy five or six packets of milk powder for her three-year-old. When these are bought she says there’s hardly any money left after paying essential bills. So it was out of sheer desperation that she asked a neighbour for some financial support to buy milk powder. The man agreed, but only if Loretta had sex with him first.

Another mother, Rathnawali Karunajeewa, has had to ration milk to her children. Now each of them only gets one glass of milk per day, instead of three.

“This powdered milk price hike is felt by everyone and in many households,” Rathnawali said. “This is what all the mothers are talking about. ‘How can we afford to give our children powdered milk any more?’ they ask. At Sunday school, at the temple, this is what all mothers talk about now.”

Diana Rishi, joint secretary of the Sri Lanka Housewives Association, described the situation as ‘too much.’ How could middle class families afford the ‘sky-high’ prices of milk powder, she asked.

The Government increased the price of a 400g powdered milk packet by Rs. 61 and a one kilogram packet by Rs. 152 on February 1 this year because of rising global market prices. Two days later, the Ministry of Finance and Planning announced a Rs. 68 tax cncession for powdered milk importers facing global market price increases. When the international prices went down, the Ministry reduced the concession by Rs. 25 earlier this month.

“When the international prices increased the Government increased retail prices and gave concessions so the importers could cover their losses,” Samanmali Gunasinghe, co-president and JVP representative for Women for Rights, told the Sunday Times. “Now the benefit of the international price decreases goes not to the struggling ordinary citizens, the majority of whom live on a measly Rs. 250 per day, not to the little children who depend on milk, but to the importers and the Rajapaksa regime.”

“The Government is robbing the people,” she further charged. “The Minister [Johnston Fernando] comes up with puerile and shameless reasons for price hikes. If the Government wants to protect the local farmer, then this extra Rs. 25 [of the concession] should go to help the local milk farmer. Instead these profits are directed to various useless events, for government bigwigs and for ministers’ sons. So we challenge the Government, stop deceiving people, immediately reduce powdered milk prices, or we will stage a mass scale protest along with milk farmers.”

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