Gender Equality, Empowerment of Women and the JVP In Celebrating International Women’s Day, 2024

Gender Equality, Empowerment of Women and the JVP

In Celebrating International Women’s Day 2024

Lionel Bopage

Gender equality as a human right

My previous article about the International Women’s Day emphasised the importance of working towards gender equality, which is essential for the world in its journey towards a reconciled and a fairer place. The UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development has only six more years to run. This means that in another half a decade every person should have “equal access to education, healthcare, decent work, a life free from discrimination and abuse, and representation in political and economic decision-making”. The 2030 Agenda has called us to strengthen our efforts further towards achieving gender equality. This article discusses how Sri Lanka fares in this regard.

Women in Sri Lanka like in many countries continue to suffer from abuse, discrimination and violence, despite the progress they have made. There exists significant structural barriers and societal and cultural norms that enable the continuation of gender stereotypes, which forces women to live under the yoke of unequal treatment. Unless as a society, we confront and eliminate the prevailing gender inequalities and discriminatory attitudes and practices that hold women back, we cannot look forward to any prospects of progress as set out in the UN’s 2030 Agenda.

Compared with other South Asian countries and many developing countries, Sri Lanka has a relatively high level of gender equality in terms of education and access to health services, as they enjoy free and universal schooling and healthcare. Despite these significant achievements, gender inequalities continue in the social and economic sphere. Nevertheless, the current political and economic agenda driven by structural arrangements may easily affect this status to change in the near future.

Gender discrimination is deeply embedded in social institutions. Yet, this discrimination, in its many forms, often remain invisible. Key drivers behind the perpetuating gender gaps and hindering moving towards a rights-based approach? are mainly socio-economic and cultural norms and practices. Hence, collecting comprehensive and comparative data for quantifying the level of gender discrimination that currently exists, is a necessary and vital task.

Status of women in Sri Lanka

Crimes against women such as domestic and sexual violence are endemic in many societies. According to research studies, 35 percent of women in Sri Lanka are reported to have experienced intimate partner violence during their lifetime and 40 percent subjected to violence. Despite legislation such as the Prevention of Domestic Violence Act providing certain protections in this regard, the law is not implemented for the purpose of achieving its expressed intent. Additionally, the Act does not include economic violence within its defined scope of domestic violence. Furthermore, the Act has mandated family counselling before pursuing legal means such as filing cases in court.

This may push women towards withdrawing their complaints due to pressure and intimidation exerted on them by individuals and society. For example, socially, there is an expectation that women should keep their problems at home and in family as the marriage and family are sacrosanct. As a result, many women do not seek institutional assistance and legal protection. Going against such norms will lead to social stigmatisation. On the other hand, judicial processes are so lengthy, require huge amounts of resources and are time consuming; deterring many women from taking the judicial path.

72 percent of the 8.5 million?economically active population in Sri Lanka are males while only 35 percent are females. However, women comprise 52 percent the population, yet the female representation in parliament is only 5.3percent. Women continue to be more vulnerable to poverty and exclusion in society. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has helped to address this complex issue and helps governments as well as society to understanding its scope, as well as assisting governments who are willing and committed to addressing this issue by developing evidence-based policy solutions.

OECD and SIGI

In assessing gender equality, OECD uses Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) for measuring the level of gender discrimination. This Index is used to assess whether legal frameworks are in place to promote, enforce and monitor gender equality and women’s empowerment, which the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5.1.1 has codified. In this Index, reference to social institutions includes the complex network of formal and informal laws, and social norms and practices.

According to SIGI 2023, globally, women held only 25 percent of management positions. It is no wonder that systemic discrimination has widened gender gaps in the labour market. This situation has led to women’s underrepresentation in leadership and management positions and overrepresentation in low-wage sectors, in the informal economy or in part-time work. The Index measures discriminatory practices in four areas:

????????????? discrimination in the family

????????????? restricted physical integrity

????????????? access to productive and financial resources, and

????????????? restricted civil liberties.

Despite the difficulties in comparison and Australia not being the perfect example in terms of gender equality, when we consider gender inequality measures between Australia and Sri Lanka, the differences become very clear.

According to OECD figures the measure, Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) for 2023 in Australia is 15.4 compared with the value 59.2 in Sri Lanka. A value zero (0) in this regard indicates no discrimination environment, while a value of 100 an environment of absolute and outright discrimination against women. The dimension ‘Discrimination in the family’ for Australia is 7.9 while it is 62.5 for Sri Lanka. The dimension ‘Restricted physical integrity’ is 13.1 for Australia whereas it is 41.5 for Sri Lanka. The dimension ‘Restricted access to productive and financial resources’ is 17.4 for Australia, while it is 63.2 for Sri Lanka. ‘Restricted civil liberties’ dimension is 22.5 and 44.2 respectively for Australia and Sri Lanka.

Discriminatory social institutions restrict “women’s and girls’ access to rights, justice, empowerment opportunities and resources, undermining their agency and authority” (OECD, 2024). The latest figures indicate 56 percent of the global population believes that when a mother undertakes paid work, children will suffer. Women are often expected to undertake most of the unpaid care and domestic work, thus restricting their time available for education, training and paid employment.

SIGI has also helped identify gender stereotypes in education leading to a gap in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) education. This is associated with the differences observable from the subjects young people chose to study at school or pursue as a career. For example, in the OECD, despite young women performing slightly better in science than their male peers, young women are found to be less likely than young men to study and graduate in STEM related fields. A similar observation has been made regarding the digital divide between young women and young men with young men more likely to gain digital skills required to engage in today’s economy moving towards driven by the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0).

Moving away from gender discrimination

According to the UN based data, women comprise almost half the world’s agricultural workforce and nearly half of the world’s small-scale livestock managers in low-income countries. Working-class women and enslaved women across the world have always been engaged in attending to heavy manual labour.

The early human societies needed people for producing a surplus that benefitted the elites of those societies, and for defending the state, if needed, even at the cost of sacrificing their lives during times of war. “Maintaining population levels put an inevitable pressure on families. Over time, young women were expected to focus on having more and more babies, especially sons who would grow up to fight.” (BBC 2023).

With women being pushed more to be engaged in domestic affairs to focus on motherhood and domestic labour, they gradually disappeared from the public life of work and leadership. In addition, patrilocal marriage practices that sidelined women in their own homes, made them more exposed to be exploited and subjected to abuse. Daughters of these families were expected to leave their parental/childhood homes to live with the families of their husbands. Thus, marriage became converted into a rigid legal institution over time, which treated women as the private property of their husbands.

Armed conflicts and war widows

In Sri Lanka, the issue of war widows continues to be a significant problem. Armed conflicts generated extreme trauma on war widows leading them to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In addition to psychological hardships, they continue to suffer from problematic legal, economic and social issues. These issues range from social exclusion, stigmatisation, sexual and financial exploitation, harassment, intimidation, security threats to demographic changes, post-war insecurities, financial hardships, restrictions by culture and tradition, and economic and land-rights inequalities. These issues have severely affected their lives within and outside the family.

There have been many research studies conducted on war widows in the country. Despite these studies highlighting their plight, it has not raised awareness about the real difficulties war widows are faced with. Many war widows, despite receiving material and financial assistance of the government and many non-government organisations, are still confronted with many serious issues. This is especially acute for war widows in the north and east, whose plight is often overlooked.

The way war widows are coping particularly, those in the north and east need to be appreciated, as their circumstances are much drearier and more vulnerable. They display an astonishing strength, courage, innovation, and agency in finding individual and collective coping strategies, while making use of available opportunities for ensuring their economic, social and psychological survival. Associations and cooperatives of widows have formed networks for developing such economic opportunities and providing psychosocial support, though their effectiveness are yet to be assessed.

Many such initiatives are self-organised while other initiatives receive local or international governmental and non-governmental support. Some programs have played an important role and contributed to empowering young widows. However, it is reported that older widows due to their social traditions and cultural norms have found it more difficult to take charge of such opportunities. Some war widows and women in rural areas in the south have gone overseas for work. Some of them have found their family life ruined, while some are doing better.

Women in Sri Lanka are disproportionally feeling the brunt of the poly crises the country is currently faced with such as the rising cost of living and food insecurity. However, it appears that with women equipped with livelihood skills will enable them to confront and surmount such challenges. Women have applied their own Indigenous knowledge and innovation to enhance the investments they have made and some have made remarkable achievements. Particularly, during difficult times in rural areas, women can truly become agents of change for their families and communities, and thus for the country as a whole.

Patriarchy and capitalism

Exploitation of women continues within patriarchal societies and marriages. Forced marriages, is one of the more notorious examples; the most extreme version of this, is a form of modern-day slavery. In 2017, the International Labour Organization (ILO) designated this in its statistics for the first time. Recent estimates indicate that 22 million people globally are living under forced marriages. By making the current gendered order appear normal and natural, the patriarchal society has brought about lasting psychological damage on others due to gender differences. It has been done the same way that class and racial oppression have historically been framed as “natural” by those in power. These social norms have become today's gender stereotypes. This includes the idea that women are a universally caring and nurturing species whereas men are violent and are more suited to war. By deliberately confining individuals to narrow gender roles, patriarchy not only disadvantages women, but also many men. The intention was only to serve to reinforce the patriarchal mindset.

Capitalism grew and was sustained by the degradation and exploitation of humanity the world over. “Colonial policy frequently laid a heavy hand on social development, freezing old forms of hierarchy and creating new ones in the name of tradition. Simultaneously, colonial policy impoverished society; plundered social wealth and directed that wealth towards the North Atlantic states; and created social deserts in areas that once had rich cultural dynamics and the potential for social development” (The Tricontinental 2021, Dawn: Marxism and National Liberation). Only a few saw the colonial intervention as progressive for their capitalistic social development, since these colonial powers typically collaborated with the worst elements in the societies of their colonies to maintain power, such as the aristocracy, landlords, clergy, and traditional intellectuals.

“Bourgeois nationalists confronted this by denying it and by glorifying traditions, whether they were precolonial forms or forms fabricated under colonialism. This kind of revivalism only deepened the morass, stifling the development of the colonised economy and its society. Peasant and worker revolts pushed the bourgeois nationalists to understand that, while the task of political independence had to be seen as central, it could not be isolated from the social revolution and the revolution against the economic and cultural conditions that had been put in place by the colonial powers. These powers worked intimately with the landed aristocracy and the bourgeoisie to suffocate society” (Ibid).

Patriarchy is closely associated with masculinity. Masculinity has provided the socio-cultural foundation for gender discrimination in social institutions. Hence, any policy formulation for moving away from gender discrimination has to start with policy conversations on patriarchy and masculinity. The concept of masculinity is associated with the ideas shared about “what men do and who men are, as well as what men should do and be” (OECD 2023). For example, societies in many countries believed and still do that men make better political leaders than women.

Without critiquing and inhibiting the norms of masculinity that constrain the empowerment of women, it will be almost impossible to transform society into a more gender-equitable one. In Australia, for example, this is attempted through dialogues and programmes that involve both men and boys, and women and girls. In addition, Australian governments have enabled an environment where both women and men can take parental leave. That is in the belief that men and boys engaged in a fairer distribution of unpaid care and domestic tasks could help shift age old unexamined norms and practices.

Quota system and gender inequality

There has been decades of debate world-wide whether quota systems would help shift the balance of gender representation in both the public and private sector. Would such a system contribute to changed attitudes about women in politics? Would quota systems help change the status quo in environments where rigid gender norms restrict women’s ability to become political leaders?

In Sri Lanka, women are underrepresented at all levels of government, national, provincial and local. At the general election held in 2020, there were only about five percent women’s representation in the parliament. The amendments to have a mandated 25 percent quota for women and implemented since 2016 have led to women’s representation at local government level to increase from two percent to around 23 percent. However, an Australian government funded study found that despite the increase in the number of women, women representatives did not address the key issues of entrenched gender inequalities in the political system, the lack of democracy in political parties and predispositions against women in society. However, with increased numbers active in the public sphere, women have been ?able to break through the glass ceiling at the local government level.

The study found that both female candidates and councillors encountered gender based violence and intimidation, but neither legal frameworks nor media exposure protected them. In fact, the current system was found to be perpetuating male dominated structures. The study recommended that training and development programs in gender sensitisation and democratisation had to involve both men and women in order to address the power imbalances at the local government level. In addition, the local government system had to be made more participatory, inclusive and democratic. Political parties need to develop policies that will foster gender sensitive participation, structures, processes and promotion. A quota of at least 25 percent women at the parliamentary level was also recommended.

The JVP’s history in organising women

In the post 1984 record of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), one cannot find many references to its pre-1984 activities carried out for organizing women. Society was then much more male dominant, despite several women dominating politics and the bureaucracy in Sri Lanka. Only a few mentions are recorded in the JVP history that has been written later in the nineties, about the contribution women had made in the development of the party organisation. One reference is to the first rally, the JVP held at Hyde Park in August 1970. Comrade Rohana Wijeweera, as the main speaker of the rally, made an appeal after his speech to make whatever donations possible for the purpose of taking the party forward. Some young women in the audience donated their necklaces and ear rings.

Another reference was to the ‘Rosmead Case’ heard at the criminal justice commission, in which 22 suspects were charged for attempting to abduct then Prime Minister Sirima Bandaranayake. Out of the 22 suspects seven were women; six of them were undergraduates. Among those who did not plead guilty at the trial were Comrades Somawansa Amarasinghe and U.A. Nandaseeli of Ragama, who played a leading role in resurrecting the Socialist Women’s Front. There was another note about the 4th congress of the JVP delegates held in Colombo in 2002. These references do not relate to organising or empowering women, but to the presence of thousands of workers, farmers, youth, students and women in the JVP ranks during the post 1977 period.

In the pre-1984 JVP, there was a general belief and acceptance, particularly among the leadership that women cadre/members/sympathisers of the organisation had not developed adequate political consciousness and / or matured enough to take leadership roles in the party. The party leadership could not find any women who had these qualities. This was a general reflection of the socio-economic background and the backwardness which exhibited our political consciousness on the matter. Many of us, including me had a rural Sinhala Buddhist upbringing. This was reflected in our political praxis when it came to women cadres.

When the JVP started its open political activities after the United Front regime withdrew emergency rule in 1976, all female cadre of the Socialist Women’s Front had been told to end their daily travel by 6.00 pm. Whenever a woman cadre had to travel during the day, another woman cadre had to accompany her for safety. When I heard this story, I was taken aback because at that time, there was no danger lurking around for any woman to walk alone in the streets, to have such a rule. Looking back, I think, if we compare the roles played by some of the male leaders of the party, then the JVP at that time would have had many female cadres, who could have had political leadership roles, in which they would have been more than competent. Sadly, they never did get the opportunity. I would like to highlight this not only as a self-criticism but also as a political learning experience.

A further complication was that the leaders of the JVP at the time did not see eye to eye with the agenda of women’s liberation movements that was gaining popularity around the world. We did not maintain or develop any networking relationships with any women’s organisations. I remember comrade Sunila Abeysekera, probably in early 1978, organising a discussion at? Ward Place with some women activists including a Tamil lady, who became prominent later. Comrade Rohana Wijeweera also attended it. Unfortunately, the party leadership (including me) did not take this political initiative forward. This may have been because for us, building Socialist Women’s Front was not different to building another solidarity organisation like Socialist Student’s Front or Socialist Bhikkhu Front - not one of empowering women.

Challenging Patriarchy

Pre-1984, the JVP was not in a position to challenge the patriarchal political culture that prevailed in society. However, many of us were aware of the women's rights movement growing in the form of feminist liberation movement the world over. This political current reflected an alignment of feminist intellectualism with women’s liberation, which we simply saw as a western influence on women rather than a liberating one. To a certain extent, comrade Sunila Abeysekera was representing this political current. However, the JVP comprised of individuals who grew up in a rural Sinhala Buddhist patriarchal society. Some of us may have been intellectually aware of the ingrained bias due to our upbringing, others may have openly displayed this bias in their political action.

Unconscious bias, prejudice or stereotype about women and people of other backgrounds to us was sadly a political fact of life. These subconscious attitudes may not have been well-formed, but appeared ingrained; which impacted our emotional and rational responses to the everyday issues we encountered. This unconscious bias (or implicit bias) affected the way we felt and thought about, women, who would have been suffering due to the socio-economic inequalities that were prevalent in society. Likewise, was the way many of us looked at the socio-economic issues affecting Tamils, Malaiyaha workers, Muslims, Christians, Hindus etc. Such biases were mostly ingrained in our consciousness during our childhood upbringings and tainted with the then accepted norms of caste, class and other social prejudices.

For example, during my childhood in Weligama, the latrines were cleaned by a class of people known as “Sakkili”, a derivation from the caste classification in South India, by the name of Chakkiliyan. Later on, I came to understand that these people were forced through Hindu religious edicts and sanctions and through violent means into conducting these demeaning tasks.

Hinduism comprises a spectrum of philosophies of living, with each component having its own deities and beliefs. People categorised as “Sakkili” were and are considered the lowest caste with an exceptionally low status in the Hindu caste system. They also practice Hinduism and as other Hindus do, and they believe they can attain "moksha" or freedom from the endless cycle of birth, death and rebirth by performing rituals and good deeds. Like many Buddhists visiting temples and Kovils looking for divine help, the people categorised as Sakkilis, visit Hindu Kovils and offer prayers, food, flowers, and incense to their gods in the hope of gaining protection and benefits.

In countries like India and Sri Lanka, it is difficult to escape from casteism. It is a surviving social stratification that divides people into groups based on their karma (work) and dharma (duties). Over the years some measures have been taken to eradicate the caste system. Unfortunately, it still remains an inescapable reality.

I can still recollect, the “Sakkili” community in Weligama, both men and women, performing a special type of dance playing their own type of drums, while being heavily drunk and very upbeat during annual festivities. Isn’t it strange, even something as universal as dance were not immune to the biases of the caste system?

“Sakkili” people only eked out a subsistence income. Hence they had a very low literacy rate. Traditionally in India, they have been leather workers or human waste ("night soil", or human excrement collected at night using buckets) removers. If we look at this issue in an incisive manner, one could identify that this social classification was an outcome of a society that lacked a proper sanitation system. When someone handles human waste, the way the “Sakkili” community did in Sri Lanka and India, the reluctance of the rest of the society to associate with them can be understood. As the sanitation systems have become better, the need for this community to perform their demeaning tasks does not further exist.

Even after several decades these types of communities continue to suffer due to human bias and discrimination, though for many their plight has improved. Some of them have moved to other areas of work such as agricultural and casual day workers. In Tamil Nadu, after receiving a good education, some of them have been occupying administrative positions both in private and public sectors.

Origin of Socialist Women's Front

Pre-1971 JVP saw a presence of women cadres that could be considered modest. Before the April 1971 uprising there were full-time and part-time women cadres active within the “movement”. Among them were comrades such as Nandaseeli from Ragama, Seelawathi (comrade Osmund’s mother) from Wanathamulla, Kusuma Buddhikorala from Akuressa, Karuna (comrade Gamanayake’s wife) from Rambukkana, Kamani and Sampathi from Ambalangoda, Vitleen and Sujatha (Handagama) from the University of Peradeniya and Karuna from the University of Colombo. The Socialist Women's Front laid the foundation necessary for women's involvement in the JVP. Post-Uprising rebuilding efforts expanded the women’s network. Despite their contributions, leadership positions for women remained elusive, mirroring broader societal gender biases. After 1977, the organisation became known as the Socialist Women’s Union. Despite their presence, they were not elected or appointed as leading cadres within the organisation.

After the April 1971 Uprising, some women cadres left the organisation due to political differences, just like many male cadres. Yet, over time, the JVP was able to rebuild a large network of women cadres working as full-time and part-time activists. Unfortunately, the situation was not different to that of the pre-1971 period. None of the female cadres moved beyond from being members of the district committees. The JVP did not have a single female member at the party Central Committee and Politbureau. Compared to the abilities, awareness and activeness of the male cadres, the reason for women cadres being not elected or appointed to leadership positions can be understood in retrospect, only in terms of following the gender biases that prevailed in society at the time.

Political Landscape: Challenges and Opportunities

The JVP, though influential, faced challenges in mobilizing women compared to established parties who leveraged informal networks. The JVP had a strong political network among women, though it was not the robust among political organisations. The ruling political parties always had strong, but mostly informal networks among women. Those parties easily mobilized such networks during election times, to create political waves through the provision of short-term incentives. This was similar to the way the political elite made use of the religious, the trade unions and many rural organisations and networks.

Under those political circumstances, the inaugural Congress of the Socialist Women's Front marked a pivotal moment in the history of women’s involvement in the JVP. It was held at the Sugathadasa Stadium in Colombo on January 7 and 8, 1982, with over 3,000 women party activists and sympathizers attending. Due to the internationalist stand the JVP had taken at the time, it was able to establish good relations with many national liberation movements and some of the countries who had been liberated from the colonial yoke.

There were two delegations in attendance, one from the Palestine Liberation Organisation and the other from the Ba’ath Socialist Party of Iraq. There were fraternal greetings offered by several movements fighting for their national liberation. Among them were Namibia and South Africa. Our hands of international solidarity had been extended to socialist movements in Vietnam, Kampuchea, and Laos and many other national liberation movements such as the ANC, PLO, FNLA in Angola, FRELIMO in Mozambique, ZANU in Zimbabwe, Fretilin, Polisario, EPLF in Ethiopia, FSLN in Nicaragua, FMLN in El Salvador, and MIR in Chile. Hosting international delegates underscored the JVP's commitment to global solidarity.

Sadly, the higher echelons of the party including comrade Rohana Wijeweera took an opportunistic stance subsequently and shifted towards an exclusive nationalism that compromised the party’s internationalist position. Comrade Upatissa Gamanayake followed him due to a lack of understanding of the importance of internationalism in the world-wide struggle against neo-colonialism. Later on, the JVP became strongly entangled in a nationalism bordering on chauvinism. Comrade Rohana who wrote the publication, “Proletarian Internationalism or Opportunism?” became a champion of advocating this nationalist outlook through his later writings. That is why, since 1984, there was a total lack of expression of solidarity towards national liberation movements the world over.

Contemporary Progress and Persistent Gaps

The current JVP and the National People's Power (NPP) exhibit varying degrees of gender inclusivity. The JVP has its own separate political organisation. The NPP represents a broader front comprising 21 diverse groups, inclusive of several progressive organisations in the country. The organisational structure of the JVP appears to follow the standard Leninist model, though as an outsider, I cannot comment on its internal organisational make up and methodologies employed. The JVP has a Central Committee of 28 members, six of which are in the Politbureau. Of the Central Committee members, two are women, and the Politbureau has no women members. Compared with the pre-1984 JVP, a slight progress in terms of gender inclusivity can be noticed. The NPP is seen to be doing better in this regard. The organizational structure of the NPP comprises a National Executive Committee established on the basis of District Executive Councils. The Executive comprises 68 members of which seven are women, i.e., a percentage of about ten.

Despite the persistence of disparities, there are certainly marked improvements in a comparative sense. Both the current JVP and the NPP are doing better in terms of women’s participation, especially in the policy making structures than the pre-1984 JVP. But there is still a long way to go. Women constitute 52percent of Sri Lanka's population; yet female representation in the Sri Lankan parliament is only 5.3 percent. This figure in no way reflects the population's diversity. Political parties need to prioritize the issue of women's leadership in order to effect meaningful change.

One could argue that the numerical strength of gender representation may not be so relevant. However, in terms of a qualitative transformation, to neglect the fact that 52 percent of the population is not sufficiently represented at the leadership level displays a clear drawback on the way the organisation approached political work. Again, in comparison, the leaderships of the major political parties in Sri Lanka cannot be said to be doing better in terms of gender representation. Both the JVP and the NPP have quite a long way to go if they are to reflect a proper representation of women. However, this could be compensated by the qualitative commitment and contribution the women’s leadership makes to build a better society and transform Sri Lanka into a better country.

Pathways to Empowerment: Initiatives and Challenges

Realizing women's political empowerment demands a systemic change that transcends inherent prejudices. A process of successful empowerment of women involves them having a sense of self-worth; possessing the right to determine and have choices, the right to have access to opportunities and resources, the power to control their own lives and the ability to influence the direction of social change for creating a better and fairer social and economic order. There are a number of structural and ingrained prejudices about the role of women that need to be overcome to fully realise this goal.

Recent legislative debates, like proposed amendments to deal with sexual consent, highlight the persistent resistance against entrenched biases. Sexual harassment has been a part of the social and political culture of Sri Lanka. More recently, a bill to amend Sections 363 and 364 of Chapter 19 of the Penal Code of Sri Lanka was gazetted.

According to the current law, even if a girl under 16 years of age has sexual relations of her own free will, it is considered rape. With the new amendments, if a girl between the ages of 14 and 16 has sexual relations with a person under the age of 22 with her consent, there will be no legal retribution against him. This amendment has been proposed under the purview of Minister of Judicial Affairs and Constitutional Reform. The Forum of Sri Lankan Women Parliamentarians has opposed this amendment. The National Child Protection Authority of Sri Lanka has also advised the government that they do not agree with the proposed amendment. The Leader of Opposition has called for a review of the government's decision. Whether the Minister has responded to these concerns is not yet known.

Lessons Learned and Future Directions

Examining and honestly discussing past incidents, such as internal disputes over women's roles, illuminates the journey toward true empowerment of women. Confronting nationalism's pitfalls and fostering international solidarity remains imperative in overcoming societal biases. For, embracing diverse voices and transformative actions will pave the way for a more equitable and inclusive political landscape. Advocacy, awareness, and quota systems offer pathways forward, which can help overcoming the existing economic and cultural barriers.

Women and their allies could exert pressure on the government and bureaucracy against gender discrimination and other practices that demean women. For this to happen the country’s political culture needs to change both quantitatively and qualitatively. A quota system that brings more politically conscious women in politics will be of immeasurable help for this to happen. Also, society needs to become better aware of the real issues that women are confronted with. Empowerment of women will also contribute to better socio-economic and cultural gains for all.

Conclusion

Celebrating International Women’s Day in Sri Lanka showcased both the progress and persistent challenges in achieving gender equality, particularly within political movements such as the JVP. Reflecting on the JVP’s past efforts, will allow delving into the historical context and contemporary dynamics. Thus, achievements can be appreciated while endeavouring to address the lingering disparities. In this context, it will be of extreme importance to provide better opportunities for awareness raising, building self-confidence, and expansion of choices available, provide better access to education, training and development opportunities, and control over the resources that they will need.

Actions to transform the governance and bureaucratic structures and institutions that reinforce and perpetuate gender discrimination and inequality are important tools for empowering women to claim their rights. Interventions with this in mind will provide practical means to uplift lives of vulnerable communities, particularly in rural areas, with a focus on women’s economic empowerment. This will enhance their capacity by promoting women’s productivity and sustainability, thus, contributing to economic recovery.

Empowering women politically is not an exercise involving numbers alone, but also about fostering a culture of inclusivity, respect, and equality. By confronting prejudices, amplifying women's voices, and advocating for systemic change, a brighter, more just and equitable future for all can be built.

March 28, 2024