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Over the years Sri Lanka also has been celebrating the day along with other countries under different core subject areas. The main aim of the day is bringing solutions to constraints encountered by women.
To ascertain the level of achievement in relation to objectives of IWD in each year needs a different exercise. The intention here is to pick some ideas from Buddhist doctrine in overcoming the key issues faced by Sri Lankan women today, enabling them to enjoy their responsibilities in the family and socio economic development in the country.
According to data produced by the Department of Census and Statistics, 2010, the female population in Sri Lanka accounts for 53%, which is slightly higher than the male population. Proportionately, Sri Lankan women have gained many achievements in the political and the socio economic fields over the last several decades. Literacy rate and health indicators of Sri Lankan women are much better than those of Asian countries.
There are women representatives in the political sphere, at the levels of Parliament, provincial councils and local authorities. Females are increasingly entering employment fields as doctors, lawyers, engineers, accountants, and also entering many other significant categories which are socially recognised as prestigious positions. More girls become qualified and gain access to higher education at universities in Sri Lanka and overseas countries than boys.
Women employees working in foreign destinations contribute a significant portion of foreign exchange earnings to the national economy. The majority of home based workers in the informal sector is women who earn either total income or supplementary income to meet their family expenses. It is observed that women in many fields have excellent performance compared to their male counterparts.
Issues and concerns
Despite these encouraging achievements there are certain issues and concerns pertaining to Sri Lankan women requiring attention. It is estimated that there are 1,100,000 female-headed households in Sri Lanka. Most of them represent the lower strata of the society. They have to bear the entire burden of the family in earning and undertaking responsibilities of building up kids and affairs of family.
Over one million Sri Lankans are employed in foreign countries. Nearly 80% of them are in the category of unskilled workers. It is a widely known fact that many of the women workers have painful constraints at their home front in Sri Lanka and places of their work abroad which are not attended adequately and settled yet.
Further, it appears that incidents on women/girl trafficking, physical and sexual harassments at working places, and torturing of women at domestic front are increasingly reported within the country. Many such incidents remain unrecorded due to social stigma attached to them.
Scarcity of information prevents assessing the magnitude of overall situation pertaining to gender issues in Sri Lanka. However, it is evident from the statistics available in the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, Child Protection Authority and Police Stations that there is a rising tendency of such incidents occurring. Women have become victims of unintended pregnancies, Sexually Transmitted Diseases and various kinds of other unpleasant experiences.
Ideal opportunity
Under the circumstances, International Women’s Day is a potential forum providing an ideal opportunity to study the predicaments of women and prepare a set of programs containing practical solutions focusing each issue and arresting the key causes of such incidents.
Interventions through IWD should be objective and results-oriented. The Government alone cannot be held responsible for finding solutions and implementing programs. The State is directly responsible for policy directives and regulatory functions.
Apart from the Government, all the stakeholders including Non Government Organisations, community based organisations and local authorities that can play a vital role need to get together and work out a sustainable program.
The caucus of Women Parliamentarians established recently in Parliament and State agencies functioning under the Ministry of Women’s Affairs can take the lead. Such an endeavour should not be once a year program only for IWD, but a continuous one throughout the year until the situation is improved.
Buddhist ideas
Sri Lanka has a long history of maintaining a concept called extended family where a few generations including grandparents and grandchildren lived together in one household. Husband and wife had a strong relationship having reverential attitudes towards each other.
Even today the constraints encountered by Sri Lankan women are not as grave as women issues seen in other parts of the world to struggle for equal status. Therefore, the IWD program can have many ingredients from Buddhist ideas to remind and bring back the ancient Sri Lankan family bonds maintained among the members that shaped by the Buddhist civilisation.
During Lord Buddha’s period there were rigid social constraints and rules for women. Women were considered inferior to men. Husbands enjoyed the rights and privileges. Responsibilities and duties remained with the wife.
It was against this background that Lord Buddha radically admitted that women have the same spiritual strength to attain the higher state of emancipation without having any masculine efforts. This statement was confirmed once the Bhikkhuni order started to function.
Many women from different levels and different castes of the society entered the order and attained final bliss. Some of the bhikkhunis had outstanding performance in certain subjects. Some of them are Dhammadinna – the foremost in wisdom, Bhadda Kapila – foremost in remembering past lives and Kundalakesi – the foremost in swift intuition, etc.
The first women’s association in the world is considered to be the Bhikkhunis order. Lord Buddha has mentioned that Queen Kosala Mallika had been an intelligent women to advise the king on many occasions when the king made impractical decisions. Lord Buddha’s advice for successful marriage life focused on both husband and wife (Sigalovada Sutta). Both had to fulfil their respective responsibilities towards each other.
Motherhood was highly honoured by Lord Buddha. He visited the Thusitha heaven to preach Abhidhamma to his mother in the lay life. Lord Buddha followed several steps behind Arahanth Prajapathi Gothami, his foster mother in the lay life, when she departed Jethawana after getting permission for her passing away.
Bhikkhus were instructed to treat women as their sisters and mothers according to their ages when approached by them. It is the Buddha’s teaching to utilise the manpower resources of both men and women for development of the social order.
Educate the community at risk
These teachings of the Buddha would be of immense use to educate the community at risk. Except for a few, most victimised women belong to low income groups of the society. The leading cause for their plight is poverty coupled with ignorance. These causes must be addressed simultaneously while attending the issues of victims.
A comprehensive implementable program consisting education and awareness creation along with the teachings of Lord Buddha and interventions for strengthening the family economy would be of importance. Milestones need to be indicated for monitoring the achievement at regular intervals annually or biannually.
The objective of the IWD should be not to celebrate the day for the sake of celebrating but to harness the potential available in women such as patience, resistance for difficulties and courage for the development of the country.
(The writer is Deputy Minister of Education and can be reached via [email protected].)
