Abstract
This policy-oriented article is an ethnographic study of the impact of the economic growth on women in the Eastern and Northern Provinces of Sri Lanka in the aftermath of the civil war. Preliminary indications are that the resurgent economic growth in the former conflict-affected regions have had very limited positive impact on women in terms of livelihood opportunities and economic empowerment. The impediments to realizing the opportunities by women are identified through ethnographic investigation and a consultative process with key stakeholders. Programmes and projects could and should be developed to address the profound difficulties faced by women in taking advantage of the opportunities spurred by the resurgent regional economies of Sri Lanka during the post-civil war era.
Gender and Economic Growth
There is a two-way relationship between economic growth and gender equality. That is, rising economic growth could potentially reduce gender inequality in terms of access to formal employment, gaps in pay, etc. Similarly, shrinking gender inequality (in terms of access to formal employment, gaps in pay, etc.) could potentially boost economic growth as well. This section is largely drawn from Cuberes and Teignier (2014).
As the economies progress the resultant structural changes in the economy such as the predominance of the services sector has hugely contributed to the rise in the labour-force participation of women. One economic model predicts that the rise in the service sector accounted for a 44 per cent of the increase in the hours worked by women and an 11 per cent decrease in the hours worked by men (Ngai & Petrongolo, 2013).
The rise in income of countries could lead to decline in gender gaps through changes in income elasticity, technological progress, and changes in property rights of women. The rise in income (per capita income) reduces fertility rates and as a consequence increases labour-force participation by women (Becker & Lewis, 1973). The rise in per capita income is associated with technological progress such as labour-saving microwave ovens, refrigerators, vacuum cleaners, washing machines, etc., which frees up time spent on household chores, thereby promoting labour-force participation of women (Greenwood, Seshadri & Yorukoglu, 2005). Further, breast pumps free women from feeding their babies directly and thereby hasten a woman’s return to the labour market after the delivery of a baby. Similarly, technological advances in freezing of human eggs provide freedom for women to choose when to bear a child irrespective of age or fertility time constraints.
Galor and Weil (1996) demonstrate that generally women have a comparative advantage in mental labour (brain) output—whereas men have comparative advantage in physical labour (brawn) output—and therefore the rise in the capital intensity of production as a result of economic growth raises the relative wages of women. Moreover, the higher wages of women and the consequent lower population growth result in greater capital per worker and higher output growth.
Although the gaps in gender inequality (in the labour market, political representation and intra-household bargaining power) is closing faster in the developing countries of today compared to the developed countries (of today) in the past, it is still high especially in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia (including in Sri Lanka) (Klasen & Lamanna, 2009).
It used to be argued that the education of girls would delay the age of their marriage and/or increase their participation in the labour force, and thereby reduce the number of children they bear. Although the education of girls have risen over time in most countries which has delayed the age of marriage and thereby reduced their fertility rates, education of girls has not always significantly increased the labour-force participation rates of women in the Middle Eastern, North African and South Asian countries.
Gender differences in the labour market are reflected not only in terms of access to jobs but also in terms of differences in productivity and earnings (World Bank, 2012, p. 198). Women who play multiple roles within households and society (such as cooking and carers of children and elderly) endure an opportunity cost for working outside the home for a wage. Thus, potential earnings and productivity are also critical factors that could affect labour-force participation of women. Therefore, instead of jobs per se, the nature and effects of jobs available to women are what would determine labour-force participation by women.
Gender differences in the use of time (where women tend to use most of their time in caring duties) and access to inputs (such as land and finance which are largely owned or appropriated by men) influence productivity and earnings of women entrepreneurs, farmers or workers alike (World Bank, 2012, p. 198).
Similarly, education per se is not going to lift women out of inequality and disempowerment. It is the types and effects of education that could be a game changer. For example, although women are the majority who enter public universities in Sri Lanka, the bulk of them study arts, commerce and humanities subjects that have very low employability in the labour market, especially in the private sector.
Subsequently another body of literature cited the lack of ownership and command over property (especially land) as the primary cause of holding women back from entering productive employment (Agarwal, 1994a, 1994b). According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (2011), ownership and farming of land is lower among female-headed households in five sample developing countries.
According to Cuberes and Teignier (2014, p. 262), gender inequalities may reflect discrimination against women by employers or individual women’s rational choices or societal preferences towards gender roles. In the first case, of course, reduction in gender inequality could potentially increase efficiency and welfare, but may not be so in the latter two cases. Dollar and Gatti (1999) conclude that large part of the gender gap differences could be explained by religion, measures of civil freedom and regional variables.
In spite of sustained economic growth and significant improvements in access to education of women in the Middle East and North Africa, and South Asia, the labour-force participation rates of women in these sub-regions have been very low. Whilst Middle East and North Africa (26 per cent) and South Asia (35 per cent) have the lowest labour-force participation by women, East Asia (65 per cent) and Sub-Saharan Africa (61 per cent) have the highest among developing countries (World Bank, 2012, p. 199). In both the Middle East and North Africa, and South Asia sub-regions cultural and social norms as regards the role of women in society may have dissuaded women from taking part in the labour market (World Bank, 2012, p. 200). In addition to cultural and societal norms, individual attitudes and preferences could also influence the decision-making process within households that account for huge differences in labour-force participation rates of women (World Bank, 2012, p. 201). The foregoing differences among countries in different sub-regions could also be due to different definitions of work/employment used in different countries.
For example, the desire of women to balance (unpaid) family work and wage work (either due to societal expectations, household imperatives or individual choice) makes them pursue jobs with flexible hours (part-time, day-time or informal jobs), which could be of lower productivity and lower earnings. Because of the fact that part-time and informal jobs are usually low-paid, it lowers the incentives to take part in the labour market. Hence, there seems to be a vicious circle of gender inequality in the labour market, not only in terms of the quantity of jobs but also in terms of the quality of jobs.
Whether in-farm or off-farm labour, self-employment or wage-employment the average productivity and earnings of women are lower than that of men in both developed and developing countries. The gap is still significant despite a narrowing over time. Similarly, the profitability of women-owned businesses is significantly lower than that of men-owned businesses in rural Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Indonesia and Sri Lanka (World Bank, 2012, p. 201).
However, in certain circumstances and senses armed conflict could transform the gender dynamics in favour of women in traditional conservative societies such as in Sri Lanka (Institute of Agriculture and Women in Development, 1995). According to the UNHCR (1994, p. 115), in Somalia “Women are in control of the ‘fabric of society’…and in recent years, women have had a virtual monopoly over barter trade in food, clothing, gold and qat…and in Mogadishu they were reportedly the most powerful landlords and moneychangers.”
Methodology
This policy-oriented article is based on an ethnographic study of the former conflict-affected regions of Sri Lanka over the past five years of the post-civil war period. While the cross-country experiences of the two-way relationship between gender and economic growth are discussed using secondary (empirical) literature, the intra-country experiences in the past five years are analysed descriptively using secondary quantitative data and ethnographic qualitative data collected by the author and others. The policy prescriptions are an outcome of the foregoing exercises.
Women in the Economy and Society
While the civil war in the eastern and northern parts of Sri Lanka (NE) may have resulted in changes in the geography, demography, economy and the polity of those regions, anecdotal evidence suggests that certain socio-economic and cultural practices such as caste (Thanges & Silva, 2009) and gender (Iqbal, 2013) marginalization and discrimination stubbornly persists albeit at a diminished intensity or scale than that existed in the pre-civil war period.
Economically, few industries/occupations in which women dominate the labour force in Sri Lanka are the highest foreign exchange earnings to the country in the past two decades or longer. The single largest foreign exchange earning to the country in recent years is the foreign remittances from Sri Lankans working abroad, especially in West Asia; about 60 per cent of whom are females (SLBFE, 2013). The second highest foreign exchange earning industry is the apparel export sector where majority of the workers are females. The traditional tea plantations where women dominate the workforce are the third highest and more than a century-old foreign-exchange earning economic activity in the country. However, the contribution of the NE to the foregoing three economic activities in the country is marginal. Only a small fraction of the labour migrants to the Middle East is from the NE (relatively higher from the east than from the north—only 2.4 per cent of the total migrants to Middle East were from the north in 2011, out of which 72 per cent were males, SLBFE, 2013, p. 46), there are only a handful of export garments factories in the east and just two in the north (Kilinochchi and Vavuniya), and there are no tea plantations in the NE.
Throughout Sri Lanka females outnumber males among the entrants to the 17 universities (albeit the bulk in the Arts/Commerce/Management Faculties) and a number of further and higher education institutions in the country. As a corollary girls perform relatively better than boys at schools, which has become a global phenomenon. 1 Except for the Engineering and Physical Sciences academic streams, all other academic streams (including Agricultural, Architectural, Dental, Legal, Medical and Veterinary Sciences) are dominated by female students in all the universities including the universities in the NE (University Grants Commission, 2013). Over a period of time university teachers may also be dominated by females throughout the country. Moreover, in vocational education and technical colleges, and in selected soft-skills courses as well, women outnumber men overall (Tertiary and Vocational Education Commission, n.d.). Furthermore, major professional courses such as accountancy and law (at the Law College) are sought-out by more females than males.
Coincidentally, post-civil war Jaffna witnessed women at the helm of a range of civic life such as the Mayor of the City of Jaffna (since August 2009 to date), District Secretary of Jaffna (2010–2012), and the Vice Chancellor of the University of Jaffna (2011 to date); all at the same time. Besides, the District Secretaries of Kilinochchi (2010 to date) and Vavuniya (2009–2012) districts in the Northern Province were also women during the same time. Moreover, the Chief Secretary of the Northern Provincial Council has been a female for the past three years, and she is the first female Chief Secretary of any province in Sri Lanka. Incidentally, the Mayor of Batticaloa Municipal Council is also a woman. The current District Secretary of Batticaloa is a female (formerly the DS of Vavuniya). It appears that the north has surpassed the east and perhaps the rest of the country as well in terms of women in top positions in the public service including the academia. Jaffna had a female Mayor before as well in the 1990s for a short time. Besides, a Jaffna-born female was a Vice Chancellor at the Open University of Sri Lanka in the early 2000s.
In spite of the foregoing success stories in the administrative, professional and social upward mobility of women in the north, in general and in Jaffna in particular, in recent years, deep-rooted institutional and socio-cultural barriers to women’s upward mobility economically, politically and socially persist. A handful of success stories should not obscure widespread marginalization of and discrimination against women. Moreover, intra-household and wider societal violence against women is rampant throughout the country including the former conflict-affected regions (Sooka et al., 2014).
Dominance of Female Population
The gender composition of the population of Sri Lanka had changed according to the partial Census of Population undertaken in 2001; according to which for the first time the female population (9,438,100—50.2 per cent) marginally outnumbered the male population (9,359,100—49.8 per cent, Department of Census and Statistics, 2002). It was partial because the Census could not be undertaken in the eight districts of the Eastern and Northern Provinces of Sri Lanka and therefore it was based on estimated population in these eight districts.
In the Census of 2012 (first complete Census undertaken since 1981) the gap between the female (10,431,322—51.5 per cent) and male (9,832,401—48.5 per cent) population in Sri Lanka has further widened in favour of females. Among the eight former conflict-affected districts, only Mannar and Mullaithivu districts had a marginally majority male population (50.4 per cent and 50.2 per cent respectively) than the female population (49.6 per cent and 49.8 per cent respectively) defying the national trend (all other 23 districts in the country had higher share of females than males). In five out of the other six districts of the former conflict-affected region, the female population outnumbered the male population albeit by a lower margin than the national divide (51.5 per cent: 48.5 per cent). Moreover, the female population in the Jaffna district (52.8 per cent) was proportionately higher than the national average (51.5 per cent). Even at the Census of 1981 Jaffna (the only district in the country at that time) had a slightly larger female population (50.3 per cent) than the male population (Department of Census and Statistics, Census of Population and Housing 2011, Colombo). The lowest share of male population in the Jaffna district (out of all the 25 districts in the country) is partly due to mass migration of the male population overseas and partly because of large number of deaths and disappearances among its male population as a result of the civil war.
The gender majority of the population is just a symbolic or cosmetic change for the women of Sri Lanka including Jaffna women. However, it is an important change for the policy-makers and administrative personnel to be aware of and get sensitized. Besides, quality (in terms of education, skills, mobility, etc.) rather than quantity in human resources is what matters most in labour markets.
Economically it may not be advantages for women to be in the majority because it may further drop their wages down. Larger female labour-force participation may increase the competition for limited job opportunities exclusively available for women thereby driving the wages down. As the number of males shrinks, their wages could increase because of shortage of labour, if the male labour cannot be substituted with female labour for whatever reason.
Growth of the Regional Economies
The Provincial Gross Domestic Product (PGDP) 2 in the Eastern and Northern Provinces has been rising immediately after the end of the civil war. It needs to be reminded that the civil war in the east ended in July 2007 and in the north in May 2009.
Thus, the PGDP in the Eastern Province grew by almost 33 per cent at current prices whereas the national GDP grew by 23.2 per cent at current prices in 2008, the year after the end of the civil war in the east. Both at the provincial and national levels it is the agriculture sector that fuelled the economic growth in 2008. However, since 2009 the growth rate of the PGDP in current prices in the east has started to decelerate to 13.4 per cent in 2009, 19.5 per cent in 2010 and 12.4 per cent in 2011, and then shot up to 24.9 per cent in 2012. Similarly, the growth of the national GDP in current prices dropped to 9.6 per cent in 2009 but accelerated since then to 15.9 per cent in 2010, 16.7 per cent in 2011 and 15.8 per cent in 2012. As a corollary, the per capita income (average annual income per person) also increased in the east albeit at a lower rate than the growth of the PGDP; by 30.9 per cent in 2008, 11.6 per cent in 2009, 17.9 per cent in 2010, decelerating to 11.7 per cent in 2011, and then shot up to 27.2 per cent in 2012 (see Table 1).
Growth of the Eastern and Northern Economies 2008–2012
The PGDP in the Northern Province grew by 21.8 per cent in 2010 (15.9 per cent nationally), 27.8 per cent in 2011 (16.7 per cent nationally) and 25.9 per cent in 2012, in the aftermath of the civil war. In 2010 it was the construction sub-sector in the industrial sector that fuelled the growth whereas in 2011 the agriculture sector and construction sub-sector and in 2012 construction sub-sector that fuelled the growth in the north. The per capita income also grew substantially but at a lower rate than the PGDP in 2010 and 2011 and higher rate than the PGDP in 2012; by 21.1 per cent in 2010, by 27.0 per cent in 2011 and 42.6 per cent in 2012 (see Table 1). The huge rise in per capita income in the north in 2012 was due to downward revision of the provincial population according to the latest Census. The Jaffna district population declined by 20 per cent between 1981 and 2011, the only district in the country to have experienced negative growth in population.
Employment of Women
In the East, out of the total employed population only between 20 and 23 per cent were females during the period 2010–2012, which was the lowest in the country; 23.2 per cent in 2010, 19.9 per cent in 2011 and 22.1 per cent in 2012. Moreover, the number of employed female population dropped by (−)15.3 per cent in 2011 and then increased by 11.5 per cent in 2012 in the east. Overall there was a (−) 5.6 per cent drop in the number of employed female population between 2010 (109,342) and 2012 (103,233) in the east (see Table 2).
The number of employed male population increased marginally by 0.7 per cent between 2010 (361,610) and 2012 (364,048) in the east. While in the Ampara district both the numbers of employed female (−19.7 per cent) and employed male (−13.2 per cent) population declined between 2010 and 2012, in Batticaloa and Trincomalee districts both the numbers of employed female and employed male population increased (see Table 2).
The annual Labour Force Survey (LFS) has recommenced in the Northern Province in 2011 after a lapse of over 20 years, which covered only two of the five districts in the North, namely, Jaffna and Vavuniya. However, the annual LFS undertaken in 2012 had covered the entire five districts of the north. Accordingly, while the employed female population increased by 17.6 per cent between 2011 (69,477) and 2012 (81,725), the employed male population increased only by 5.2 per cent between 2011 (233,011) and 2012 (245,066) (see Table 2). Although in absolute numbers the rise of females in the labour force was only marginal (net increase of 12,248 females as against the net increase of 12,055 males in the labour force in the Northern Province between 2011 and 2012), the rate of increase of females in the labour force was significantly higher. Therefore, in the north females seem to have gained more than men in the new employments generated.
Moreover, according to the latest available data (Department of Census and Statistics, 2014), in the east 58.8 per cent of the employed female population (as against 41.8 per cent of males) was in the services sector followed by in the agriculture (22.8 per cent) (as against 38.6 per cent of males) and industrial (18.4 per cent) (as against 19.7 per cent of males) sectors. In the north, 53.5 per cent of the employed female population (as against 43.3 per cent of males) was in the services sector followed by in the agriculture (30.9 per cent) (as against 31.2 per cent of males) and industrial (15.6 per cent) (as against 25.5 per cent of males) sectors. In the whole island, 40.2 per cent of the employed female population (as against 44.3 per cent of males) was in the services sector followed by 33.9 per cent in the agriculture sector (as against 29.6 per cent of males) and 25.9 per cent in the industrial sector (as against 26.2 per cent of males, see Table 3). The foregoing figures reveal that the services sector has been the major contributor to the employment of females in the Eastern and Northern Provinces. However, industrial employment for women has been very low, especially in the Northern Province.
Employed Population by District and Province 2010–2012
Female Employment by Economic Sector 2012
The unemployment rates are higher among females (by several folds) than males in all the districts of the Eastern and Northern Provinces according to the latest available data (Department of Census and Statistics, 2014). While the unemployment rates among females have been less than 4 per cent in the eight districts under consideration (relatively higher in the east), the unemployment rates among females have been between 9 per cent and 30 per cent (relatively higher in the north). Nationally, the unemployment rate among females was 6.2 per cent and among males was 2.8 per cent in 2012 (overall 4.0 per cent) (see Table 4).
The unemployment rates among males were higher in the east; 3.6 per cent in Ampara district, 3.1 per cent in Batticaloa district and 2.3 per cent in Trincomalee district. The unemployment rates among males in the north were: Jaffna 2.8 per cent, Kilinochchi 0.8 per cent, Mannar 1.6 per cent, Mullaithivu 2.2 per cent and Vavuniya 1.7 per cent (see Table 4).
In contrast, the unemployment rates among females were higher in the north; 10.9 per cent in Jaffna district, 29.4 per cent in Kilinochchi district, 21.6 per cent in Mannar district, 20.5 per cent in Mullaithivu district and 9.0 per cent in Vavuniya district. The unemployment rates among males in the east were: Ampara 10.8 per cent, Batticaloa 11.0 per cent and 10.9 per cent in Trincomalee (see Table 4).
Labour Force Participation Rate and Unemployment Rate by Gender 2012
The macroeconomic structure of the economies of the Eastern and Northern Provinces is used here in order to discern the differences in national and regional economic structures in terms of the size (in monetary terms), share of the total and growth over time during the post-civil war period (Central Bank of Sri Lanka, Economic and Social Statistics). Furthermore, it is also useful to identify the economic role of women (or lack thereof) in each sector and sub-sector of the economy. The following is a descriptive analysis based on the author’s ethnographic study of the former conflict-affected regions in Sri Lanka in the past five years.
The fastest-growing sub-sectors with substantial contribution to the PGDP in the east are fishing, the factory industry, construction, wholesale and retail trade, transport, and banking, insurance, real estate, etc.; construction, wholesale and retail trade, transport, and banking, insurance, real estate, etc., in the north (Central Bank of Sri Lanka, Economic and Social Statistics). The government services were the single largest contributing sub-sector to the provincial GDPs in the east and north throughout the civil war which continued until 2011. In 2012, for the first time in decades the government services dropped to second place. According to the latest data available, in 2012, the government services sub-sector contributed 13.8 per cent to the eastern and 16.0 per cent to the northern economies, which was just 7.5 per cent nationally (Central Bank of Sri Lanka, Economic and Social Statistics). The foregoing figures have been higher in the previous years in the provinces under consideration as well as at the national level. Unfortunately the Central Bank does not disaggregate the government services data into public administration, other government services and defence.
In the agriculture sector, paddy, onions, chillies and tobacco cultivation and fishing are the main contributing sub-sectors in the east and north. In the cultivation of agriculture crops women’s participation is by and large confined to agriculture labourers during planting and harvesting periods. Female farmers on their own right are minimal in the NE and rest of the country. There appears to be marginal wage discrimination (if at all) among female and male agriculture labourers in the NE. This could be due to widespread labour shortage during planting and harvesting periods throughout the east and north. The arrests of agriculture labourers from India in Ampara and Batticaloa districts (who were working, having arrived on tourist visas) in February 2013 is a testimony to the labour shortage in that area. The plantation sub-sector (tea and rubber) is one of the largest employers of women in the country, but in the NE the plantation sub-sector is non-existent.
Females do not go into the ocean to fish. However, when male fisher persons bring the fish catch to the shore it is mostly women (usually kith and kin of the fisher persons) who remove the fish from the nets and sell, store or dry them. Thus, in fishing as well women’s participation is by and large restricted to labour; mostly unpaid family labour. But women are extensively involved in the retail marketing of fresh fish throughout the NE.
In the industrial sector, the construction sub-sector is the only dominant subsector both in the east and north. In addition, the “factory industry” in the manufacturing sub-sector is substantial only in the east. The factory sub-sector is heavily concentrated surrounding the Trincomalee harbour with the Prima flour mill, Tokyo/Mitsui cement packaging plant, Indian Oil Company owned oil storage facilities and the Biomass power plant. We were unable to get labour statistics in the factories in Trincomalee. However, anecdotal evidence suggests that only a small proportion of factory workers would be female labour because of shift-work in these factories (late-evening and night shifts put females off) and possibly other reasons as well.
The construction sub-sector also has a male-dominated labour force throughout the country due to the predominantly outdoor nature of the job. Although a significant proportion of chemical, civil and mechanical engineers of Sri Lanka are females (including in the NE), a considerable proportion of them do not practice their vocation due to the outdoor nature of job and/or household commitments (see endnote 13).
The services sector is where the bulk of the paid female labour is concentrated in the NE (indeed throughout the country, see Table 3). The services sector’s contribution to women’s employment is common around the world (Ngai & Petrongolo, 2013). Wholesale and retail trade, banking, insurance and real estate, government services (public administration, defence and other government services barring defence) and private services are the sub-sectors that employ the most number of women.
Retail businesses (more than wholesale businesses) employ a considerable proportion of women partly because of indoor jobs, relatively greater trustworthiness and partly because women may command lower wages than men. Similarly banks employ a higher proportion of women (compared to the insurance and leasing industries) because of indoor jobs and relatively greater trustworthiness of women, which is the case in most other countries as well. 3 The insurance and leasing industries employ a relatively lower proportion of women mostly because of the outdoor nature of jobs.
Government services (public administration, defence and other government services) account for 7.5 per cent of the national GDP and reportedly employ about 1.2 million employees (out of a total labour force of 7.6 million and employed persons of 7.2 million). The public administration and other government services (in the “government services” sub-sector) appear to be the largest single employer of women in Sri Lanka. The public administration and other government services include Sri Lanka Administrative Service (SLAS), Sri Lanka Educational Service (SLES) and the Sri Lanka Health Service (SLHS). Because of the universal free public education and public health services in the country, a large number of teachers, nurses, doctors and healthcare workers are employed in the public service; the majority of whom are women.
Public service is sub-divided into state (national government), provincial (provincial government) and semi-government (statutory boards, authorities and commissions that come under the national government) services. According to the last Census of Public and Semi Government Sector Employment undertaken in 2006, whereas in the state service 32 per cent are female and 68 per cent are male employees, it was the reverse in the provincial public service where 59.7 per cent are female and 40.3 per cent are male employees. In the semi-government service females accounted for only 25.5 per cent and males accounted for 74.5 per cent of the total employees (Department of Census and Statistics, Census of Public and Semi Government Sector). Since the provincial public service dominates the public service in the provinces we can conclude that the majority of public sector employees in the NE are women.
But the defence services (air force, army, civil defence force, coast guard, navy and police) could be employing the least number of women within the government services sub-sector; understandably because not many women would like to work in the defence services which are national. Out of the total personnel in the defence services our hunch is that less than 10 per cent would be women.
Impediments to Realizing Opportunities by Women
Women are constrained from reaping the benefits of post-civil war economic boom in the Eastern and Northern Provinces due to a variety of community-inflicted institutional–structural and socio-cultural reasons, business-inflicted gender discrimination in employment and state-inflicted security phobias. We would argue that community-inflicted institutional–structural and socio-cultural factors are the overwhelming impediment to women rather than business-inflicted and state-inflicted factors combined. This section is based on the ethnographic investigation of the regions by this author and others in the post-civil war period (2009–2014).
The impediments to women’s economic emancipation also differ among different ethno-religious communities living in these regions. It is important to note that, according to the Census of 2012, in the East Muslims comprise 37 per cent and Tamils (NE plus hill-country) comprise 40 per cent of the total population of the province; in the North Muslims comprise 3 per cent and Tamils (NE plus hill-country) comprise 94 per cent of the total population of the province. Out of the combined population of the NE, 23 per cent are Muslims and 62 per cent are Tamils.
According to this author, out of the three major ethnic communities in Sri Lanka, namely, Muslims, Sinhalese and Tamils, the Sinhalese community could be claimed the least conservative, the Tamil community could be claimed less conservative and the Muslim community could be claimed the most conservative as regards equal rights for women. That is, the institutional–structural and/or socio-cultural barriers for women are least among the Sinhalese, less among the Tamils and most among the Muslims (also see Jayasundere & Weerakody, 2013). The foregoing is also reflected in the lowest labour force participation rates of women in the country recorded in the Ampara district (16.6) in the east and Mannar district (12.8 pr cent) in the North (Table 4); whereas in Ampara and Trincomalee Muslims are the single largest ethno-religious community accounting for 43.6 per cent and 40.4 per cent of the total district population respectively; in Mannar, the Muslim community accounts for 16.2 per cent of the total district population.
Institutional–Structural Impediments
The institutional–structural impediment to women’s participation in the economy, in the name of the Thesawalamai customary personal law (as opposed to the civil law which is Roman–Dutch law), applies almost entirely to the Tamils of northern origin who comprise a considerable proportion of the eastern Tamil population as well. The institutional–structural impediment to women’s participation in the economy is marginal (if at all) to Muslim and Sinhalese communities, though separate customary personal laws, such as the Muslim personal law and Kandyan personal law respectively, govern them as well.
Agarwal (1994a, 1994b) and Quibria (1995) argue that the lack of ownership and command over property (or productive assets such as land) is the fundamental impediment to women’s economic emancipation within households and wider society. It is the various customary inheritance laws in South Asian countries (and beyond) that discriminate against women in terms of ownership and command over movable and immovable assets (Agrawal, 1994a, 1994b; Quibria, 1995).
Through extensive field research in various parts of India, Agarwal (1994a, 1994b) articulates that gender disparity in property ownership (in favour of men) is the single most crucial determinant of gender inequity in economic, social and cultural spheres of society, because the lack of ownership and command over property and immovable assets also restricts access to institutional credit for women as a result of the absence of collateral (also see FAO, 2011; World Bank, 2012, p. 198).
Independent ownership of and command over land by women will go a long way in redressing gender imbalance in resource distribution within households and hence would increase overall welfare in society, because there is sufficient empirical evidence to show that women mostly spend resources under their command on basic necessities of the family whereas men mostly spend on personal consumption such as alcohol, tobacco, etc. It has also been found that a child’s nutritional standard is positively correlated to the mother’s earnings rather than the father’s (Agarwal, 1994a, p. 1461). Independent right to ownership of land and other property for women is advocated on moral and social grounds as well (as opposed to economic grounds) as it would empower women to be on an equal footing and enable them to challenge male dominance and chauvinism within households and in the wider society (Agarwal, 1994a, p. 1464).
The customary law (as opposed to the civil law) of the Northern Province is an institutional–structural impediment to women’s economic emancipation in the north. The following is drawn from Thambiah (2001). The Thesawalamai (national norm) law governs the Tamils of the Northern Province, first codified by the Dutch colonial rulers in 1707. The statutes under this law are the, (a) Thesawalamai law; (b) Matrimonial Rights and Inheritance (Jaffna) Ordinance of 1947; and (c) Law of Pre-emption of 1947. These statutes govern the inheritance of property and matrimonial rights of the Tamils of the north and therefore Thesawalamai is a personal law.
The Thesawalamai, in its original form, is a blend of the Marumakathayam (a matriarchal law of Kerala) and patriarchal Hindu laws of South India. This original form evolved into a “customary law” of the northern (Jaffna) Tamils, over the years, reflecting the customs of their Malabar constituents. The Tamils of the Northern Province are governed by the Thesawalamai law wherever they reside within Sri Lanka. The remaining Tamils are governed by the civil law of Sri Lanka, which is the Roman–Dutch Law.
The Thesawalamai law entitles women to “own” property, but does not entrust “command” over the same property. Thus, women are entitled to Mudhusam (patrimonial inheritance) and Urimai (non-patrimonial inheritance) of properties. Women are also entitled to retain their cheethanam (dowry), both cash and property. Further, women are also entitled to at least half of Thediatheddam (the assets and wealth acquired after marriage by either or both) and any other asset and wealth possessed prior to marriage or as a divorcee/widow.
Though women are entitled to ownership of property, a woman is not permitted to manage, invest (in a business), mortgage, lease or sell immovable property without the written consent of her spouse. Women have no locus standi in a court of law and hence are treated as a minor in litigation. As a consequence, no one will enter into a contract with a Tamil woman as an individual without the inclusion of her spouse. Therefore, Thesawalamai law bestows nominal ownership on women with no real command over such assets and wealth.
Whether in the case of separate properties of women or common properties, men exercise effective command and control over such properties. However, an amendment to the law in 1947 made it that a husband cannot sell a property acquired in the name of his wife without her written consent. In certain cases the law courts have held that a woman can lease her property without the consent of her husband.
According to the Thesawalamai law, daughters are entitled to equal inheritance of parental properties in theory. In practice, however, sons are the ones who inherit parental properties. Thus, daughters who have received cheethanam and have brothers, do not inherit parental properties in most instances, which is discriminatory.
Thediatheddam, a unique feature of Thesawalamai law, includes acquisitions of property by either or both after marriage and profits accruing from independent ownership of properties by either of them. These are communal ownership rights shared by husband and wife. That is, the wife owns half of the acquired property even if the property was solely acquired by her husband. Moreover, on the death of her husband intestate, the wife is entitled to half of her husband’s share in addition to her own half (that is, three-fourths of the total). Hence, Thediatheddam provides some kind of economic security to housewives who have very little opportunity to acquire property on their own, but not necessarily to non-housewives. Nevertheless, it is nominal rather than real security because the law does not permit her to independently manage, invest, mortgage, lease or dispose of the property that she partly owns when her husband was alive.
The customary Thesawalamai law had imposed additional impediments to women’s economic emancipation during the civil war and its aftermath. The civil war has resulted in a surge in female-headed households in the east and north because many men died, disappeared or fled abroad. In the cases of the spouse of men who have fled the country, women were/are unable to dispose or make productive use of their properties because of the absence of spouse who has to consent by signing any transaction. In the cases of the spouse of disappeared men, women were unable to dispose or make productive use of their properties because of the lack of a death certificate. Despite the fact that women could request a court of law to sanction a transaction involving their property in the absence of their spouse, it has been elusive because of non-functioning or limited-functioning of the courts in the NE during the time of the civil war.
According to the civil law of the country that binds other Tamils, women are entitled to independent ownership and command over properties under the “Married Women’s Property Ordinance”. In marriage, women are considered as individuals with regard to ownership and command over assets and wealth. A woman could manage, invest, mortgage, lease or sell assets and wealth under common ownership without the consent of her spouse. Thus, women have locus standi in a court of law and are considered femme-sole.
However, the civil law does not provide economic security that the Thediatheddam provides to women. Therefore, women who are home-bound are disadvantaged in terms of the civil law. But, with growing employed women and substantial female-headed households Thesawalamai law is inimical to Tamil women’s economic emancipation in the north and to a lesser extent in the east.
Mohan (2011) provides an excellent review of reform of the laws to inculcate gender equality in property rights and property restitution in post-civil war countries such as Guatemala, Liberia, Mozambique and Rwanda. It is high time the women of NE demand such positive legal reforms in Sri Lanka as well.
Socio-cultural Impediments
There are severe socio-cultural restrictions on women in general and on women of NE in particular to venture out of their homes or villages or towns to seek employment either within or outside the country. This is a widespread problem in countries throughout South Asia (Nayar et al., 2012; World Bank, 2012, p. 200).
However, women of the majority Sinhalese community have been able to significantly overcome this centuries-old socio-cultural barrier in the past 37 years or so (post-1977) because a large number of them (c. 500,000) has sought employment in the Middle East and significant number of them (c. 250,000) has sought employment in the apparel factories outside their home villages and towns. On the other hand, only a small fraction of Muslim and Tamil women have been able to overcome the respective centuries-old socio-cultural barriers to seek employment in the Middle East (Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment, Statistics 2011, p. 46) or in garment factories outside their home villages and towns (Jayasundere & Weerakody, 2013).
Tamil women have relatively more freedom than Muslim women with regard to employment outside their homes or in far-away places. This is reflected in the relatively higher labour-force participation of women in the districts of Batticaloa in the east and in Jaffna, Mullaithivu and Vavuniya in the north where Tamils account for the overwhelming majority of the respective district populations (Table 4). Moreover, Muslim women in general are less educated than Sinhalese and Tamil women in the country, including in the Eastern Province. Thus, the lower educational level of Muslim women (in addition to socio-cultural norms) also restricts their participation in the labour force.
Since the eastern districts have the youngest population in the entire country, eastern youth will have greater opportunities to find employment in other districts of Sri Lanka where the population is relatively ageing. However, due to socio-cultural restrictions on the mobility of Muslim and Tamil women of the east, women may be less inclined to take advantage of the opportunities available outside their respective districts.
Gender Discrimination by Businesses
Private businesses may discriminate against women by preferring male employees because women may not want to do outdoor work, may be shy to interact with male customers, may want to take long maternity leave and a host of other reasons. Here again, Muslim and Tamil women are more likely to be discriminated against because of their relatively higher conservativeness.
However, private businesses may prefer women employees (over men) in certain occupations such as dealing with money and financial accounts because of relatively greater trustworthiness. For example, cashiers in banks and self-service retail shops are largely women because of relatively greater trustworthiness or honesty. This is reflected in the concentration of employed women in the services sector (see Table 3).
Security Phobia of the State
Even five years after the end of the civil war there is a large presence of security forces in the NE. Due to significant sexual violence (including rape) against Tamil women, with impunity, during the course of the civil war and the continued large presence of security forces on the ground, the mobility of Tamil and (to a lesser degree) Muslim women for employment is very restricted (Iqbal, 2013; Sooka et al., 2014). This security phobia of the state on top of community-inflicted socio-cultural barriers is a double jeopardy for women of the NE to reap the benefits of the post-civil war economic boom.
Ageing Population and Geriatric (Elderly) Care
Sri Lanka’s population is rapidly ageing. Since there is no public old-age care service in the country the burden of caring of the elderly population falls on the family and by extension primarily on the female members of the households. Thus, the burden of care of the elderly is yet another factor that inhibits women from seeking employment outside their homes, home villages, towns and districts. Jaffna district is particularly affected by old-age care which has one of the highest proportions of elderly (60 years and over) population (14.4 per cent of the total district population) in the country (after Kegalle and Matara 14.6 per cent and Galle 14.5 per cent of the respective district population, Department of Census and Statistics, 2012). Moreover, since the children (mostly male) and grandchildren of many elderly people in Jaffna are living abroad (having fled the civil war) the burden of old-age care of parents and grandparents falls on the female members of the extended family.
The foregoing are the major impediments to women to realise the opportunities spurred by the post-civil war economic boom in the Eastern and Northern Provinces. These impediments are almost entirely community- or household-inflicted as opposed to business- or state-inflicted. Therefore, awareness-raising and sensitising within households and communities is of paramount importance. Reform of the community-specific customary personal laws should also be prioritised. It has been the practice to lobby the state or businesses to remove gender discrimination and impediments to women’s economic empowerment rather than the communities or households. The foregoing has been the critical lacuna in the advocacy work of the non-governmental and civil society organizations in Sri Lanka as regards equal rights for women.
Policy Suggestions
Sri Lanka has one of the lowest labour-force participation of women in South Asia (Nayar et al., 2012). Within Sri Lanka the eastern and northern districts have the lowest labour-force participation rate by women (Ampara 16.6 per cent, Batticaloa 19.0 per cent, Trincomalee 19.8 per cent, Jaffna 21.0 per cent, Kilinochchi 15.1 per cent, Mannar 12.8 per cent, Mullaithivu 20.4 per cent and Vavuniya 25.5 per cent, Department of Census and Statistics, 2014; also see Table 4).
In order to boost labour force participation by women a carrot and stick approach could be pursued by the state. On the one hand, paternity leave, child care/crèche services at workplaces, better and safer public transport facilities for women could be afforded by the private and public sectors in order to incentivize women to join the labour market. On the other hand, women who refuse to join the labour market without any compelling reason could be penalized by withdrawing public welfare services such as the free health care in order to disincentivize them to remain out of the labour market by their own choice.
Moreover, anecdotal evidence reveals that most homes in the Eastern and Northern Provinces of Sri Lanka still rely on firewood for cooking because of its abundance and as a consequence cheaper, which is a health hazard for women who largely cook (due to high probability of respiratory illness), time consuming and environmentally damaging. Therefore, the use of liquid gas cookers should be promoted by subsidizing the cost for a limited time period and thereby reduce the time consumed for cooking and making more time available for women to enter wage labour or self-employment. Moreover, the use of consumer durables such as solar-powered microwave ovens, refrigerators, vacuum cleaners and washing machines should be promoted in order to free up the time used for household chores by women and thereby encourage them to join the labour force.
In order to overcome the institutional and structural barriers to women’s more active participation in the resurgent post-civil war regional economies, awareness raising for advocating positive changes to the customary laws of different ethnic communities in the Eastern and Northern Provinces are necessary. This awareness-raising advocacy work should highlight and celebrate women’s numerical supremacy at the local level, higher educational level of women vis-à-vis men at the local level, and the predominant and growing economic contribution made by women at the macroeconomic (foreign remittances, export of ready-made garments, and tea production and exports) and household levels.
As a campaign tool for positive changes to the traditional customary laws of the regions under consideration, the post-civil war experiences and best practices of Guatemala, Liberia, Mozambique and Rwanda should be tapped and suitably modified to suit the local requirement/s (Mohan, 2011).
The socio-cultural restrictions imposed on women by households and local communities are driving women out of the country in order to seek freedom of life. Community-inflicted socio-cultural barriers to realisation of the full potential of women within the majority Sinhala community is what motivated them to seek freedom from home and community and seek largely menial employment in the Middle Eastern countries and in the export garments factories outside their villages and towns since the late 1970s. Similarly, marginalized Muslim women from the east and other parts of the country have also tried to spread their wings of freedom by seeking menial employment in the Middle East. Likewise, Tamil women have been fleeing socio-cultural restrictions in their homes and local communities by marrying grooms from the Tamil diaspora. The local communities should be made aware of dated socio-cultural barriers against women that are impeding upward mobility of female members of the households within the country which is steadily driving them out of the country to seek self-fulfilment in terms of economic and social life.
While designing programmes to address the institutional–structural and socio-cultural barriers to women’s economic emancipation, it is imperative to involve the parents and/or the spouse of women in order to realize better outcome/s of such programmes.
Gender discrimination in terms of wages and salaries or other conditions of paid or unpaid work in private businesses should be confronted by awareness raising with the employers and communities, failing which legal remedy should be facilitated and sought. In the medium-term an equal opportunities law should be advocated in order to institutionally outlaw all forms of discrimination against women. Established and emerging private business community in the NE (outreached through the district chambers of commerce and industries) should be made aware of the salient features of the female labour market in the former civil war-torn areas and encourage them to self-regulate the prevalent discriminatory labour practices.
Gender-specific insecurity of women in former civil war-torn areas has become a serious impediment to women’s access to gainful employment and livelihood activities mainly because of disproportionate presence of armed forces personnel amidst civilian population (ostensibly to provide security), especially in the Vanni districts and throughout the NE as well. Former anti-state female combatants and single/divorced/widowed woman-headed households are particularly vulnerable to sexual harassment, abuse and rape by the members of the local community as well as by the security forces personnel. These female combatants and woman-headed households could be organized to provide collective security to themselves as well as the local communities where they live and work through neighbourhood watch initiatives.
The retired and resigned state armed forces personnel (including police personnel) have collectively established private security firms in order to provide employment to their colleagues by providing security services to businesses, homes and offices in Colombo and various other parts of the country. Similarly, former anti-state combatants and single/divorced/widowed woman-headed households could be encouraged and facilitated to establish security businesses in their respective villages/towns/districts in order to enhance their own gender-specific security and make their services available to business premises, homes and offices.
Moreover, safe and secure transport facilities to women at night time and in remote places are scarce. This is a severe impediment to women’s mobility to engage in paid employment in shift-based jobs in urban areas as well as in remote places. Therefore, facilitation and promotion of women-driven/run public transport services could mitigate transport bottlenecks to women seeking employment far-away from their homes and habitats.
Sri Lanka is confronted by an ageing population throughout the country. However, the NE has a relatively younger population than rest of the country. But, Jaffna district, for example, has a relatively significant elderly (>60 years old) population along with a relatively youthful population. Ageing population is a significant drawback for women who largely shoulder the burden of old-age care within their households. Nevertheless, an ageing population also opens up growing opportunities for lucrative private old-age care services. The potential geriatric care market could and should be assiduously tapped by less-educated women including former female combatants and single/divorced/widowed women. Geriatric care happens to be an untapped market in the NE and less-tapped in other parts of the country as well.
The Vanni mainland in the Northern Province (comprising Kilinochchi, Mannar, Mullaithivu and Vavuniya districts) and vast areas in the Eastern Province are sparsely populated jungle areas where population densities are the lowest in the country. For example, the population density of Mullaithivu is the lowest in the country with 38 people per square kilometre, followed by 53 in Mannar, 81 in Monaragala, 93 in Vavuniya, 94 in Kilinochchi, 128 in Anuradhapura, 131 in Polonnaruwa, 149 in Trincomalee, 153 in Ampara and 201 in Batticaloa (Department of Census and Statistics, 2012).
Due to the very low population densities, setting up of businesses in the foregoing districts is difficult because of lack of economies of scale. Under this topographically trying circumstance, innovative marketing strategies such as the door-to-door direct marketing should be promoted by employing local unemployed women to become micro-entrepreneurs. Consumer produces (such as personal hygienic products) should be packed in smaller quantities (that could be affordable to poor people) and marketed in remote places through a network of microenterprises operated by local women.
Footnotes
Acknowledgements
Critical comments by two anonymous referees are gratefully acknowledged which have been helpful in substantially improving the quality of this policy-oriented paper.
This was a background paper prepared for the research study entitled Identifying Post-war Growth and Economic Opportunities for Women in Sri Lanka (Collaborative study of the International Centre for Ethnic Studies, Colombo and the Point Pedro Institute of Development, Point Pedro) under the Growth and Economic Opportunities for Women (GrOW) program (Grant No. 107850-001) jointly funded by the Department for International Development (DFID, UK), The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation (California, USA) and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC, Canada).
1.
2.
The compilation of Provincial Gross Domestic Product (PGDP) commenced only in the 1990s at the National Planning Department of the Ministry of Finance and planning, which was originally undertaken retrospectively for the period 1990 to 1996. Later, in early 2000s the Central Bank began compiling PGDP retrospectively from 1996 onwards on an annual basis. However, it is done in an indirect way; that is, by way of decomposing the national GDP by province, which is inherently unreliable. The methodological problems confronting the PGDP are: (a) very little availability of intra-provincial data; (b) limited availability of data on inter-provincial trade, services and transactions; (c) absence of provincial price indices that makes the estimation of real PGDP impossible; and (d) the time lag of one year between the availability of the national data and the provincial breakdown (Muthaliph, 2005, pp. 11–12, cited in Sarvananthan (
, p. 6)).
Therefore, the data presented here are conjectural. Nevertheless, what are relevant for our purpose are the broad trends rather than precise numbers. Besides, PGDP of all the provinces are compiled using a common set of arbitrary assumptions and uniform methodology; hence distortions in data emanating from methodological problems are common to all the provinces. Therefore, the broad trends arising out of inter-provincial comparison are indicative of the differences between the provinces in relative terms (quantitatively and qualitatively). For a comparative analysis, percentage shares are more useful than absolute quantity and therefore the former is used as much as possible.
3.
According to a young urban woman in Indonesia, ‘Bank and teaching jobs are considered safe and respectable for women, whereas executive and engineering jobs are considered respectable and high paying jobs for men’ (World Bank, 2012, p. 207).