WUNRN
SRI LANKA - POST-CONFLICT ISSUES OF
FEMALE-HEADED HOUSEHOLDS
Photo: Amantha Perera/IRIN
Women in a vegetable plot they started
ALLANKULAM, 8 September 2011
(IRIN) - More policies and programmes must address the needs of female-headed
households in
"Most programmes don't take into account the unique role of women
here," Saroja Sivachandran, director of the Center for Women and Development
(CWD), an advocacy body based in northern
"They may be providing for the families, but [women] still have to cook,
look after children and do all household chores."
Since returning to their villages in the conflict-affected north at the end of
the country's 26-year-long civil war in 2009, women have found their traditional role of household chores
and child-rearing expanded with the burden of making a living, rebuilding
damaged houses and a host of other tasks. "Unfortunately, very few
[organizations] seem to have recognized this," Sivachandran said.
Though no official figures are available, the CWD estimates the war left 40,000
widowed, female-headed households in the north, not including women whose
husbands went missing during the conflict or who are in government detention
for ties to the defeated Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who had been
fighting for an independent Tamil homeland.
In August, the World Bank re-launched a cash-for-work programme in the
But, more than two years since the end of the conflict, adapting to the changing role of women in the
northern Vanni is still lagging, locals say.
Aside from balancing work with other responsibilities, a high demand for labour
for jobs such as building roads has made appropriate work scarce for this
population of both bread-bakers and winners.
"Women can't compete with men for those jobs," Sivachandran said,
adding that except in cash-for-work programmes, where pay was equal, women also
tended to get paid less than men for the same work.
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Selvakumar
Arundha tends to her chickens |
The lack of new jobs, partly blamed on the slow inflow of private investment,
is also a big factor behind many of these women feeling helpless, according to
government officials.
Working from home
In some cases women have formed small groups to start cottage industries, said
Nagmani Rathnaraja, deputy director of the Re-awakening Project for Mullaithivu
District, under the Ministry of Economics, such as poultry and vegetable
cultivation.
In Allankulam, a village in the Vanni about 320km from the capital
"We could do much better if we had assistance and outside buyers,"
Arundha said, standing in front of the chicken coop.
Sivachandran said this type of planning was lacking. "We need someone to
assist in poultry farming and finding buyers, then there will be large income
generation. Now the sales are limited to what the village wants and people are
already poor here," she said.
Arundha, who looks after two teenage children, said a job that did not require
her to travel was essential. "Who will cook then?" she asked.