Voices from Padaviya in Anuradhapura district

The village community at the Shri Bodirukkarama Viharaya of Aliwanguwa in Padavi, Shri Pura with the Ven. Periyakulame Sugana Thero

By Surya Vishwa

The Harmony page is commencing a series where we bring the voices of the unheard from across rural most Sri Lanka. This is connected to our embarking on identifying and training of Ordinary Level and Advanced Level school leavers from across Sri Lanka as provincial tri-lingual correspondents. A new young generation of correspondents from across Sri Lanka will be identified to specialise in diverse themes as needed for the prosperity and unity of the nation. They will thereby professionally report on the needs and skills of the region, identifying its vast unused and underutilised human and natural resources. 

In the first phase of our currently ongoing field visit to identify elders, farmer, educators and students we covered areas of Madhu Kanda, Medawachchiya, Padaviya, Vavuniya and Pudukuduiruppu. 

Today we focus on the village of Padaviya in the North Central Province and within the Divisional Secretariat of Anuradhapura district. 

We below publish the unheard of people’s voices from Padaviya, once a historical site in the prosperous Anuradhapura era of ancient Sri Lanka where dedicated monarchs committed themselves wholeheartedly to make this arid part of the country a marvel of irrigation and thereby ensured the stability of sustainable agriculture in the island. 

“I am K.P. Ranjith Premalal. I am a farmer. My son is 26 years and has with greatest difficulty found work as a driver in Ja-Ela. My wife is a kidney patient. Water is a luxury. We have no water. We are farmers. Our crops fail even if the harvest is a success because our harvest is not purchased at a price that will make us get out of the debt cycle. We pay heavily for hired machinery. There is not a month we carry out as free people. We get into debt to carry out farming. We continue to be in debt after the harvest, being able to pay only the interest.”

He adds, “Most of us our paddy farmers. Rupees eighty or less is the amount that the middleman buys paddy from us. We know that our fathers and grandfathers followed the rhythm of the nature in agriculture and did not use chemical fertiliser. But now the soil is long adjusted to artificial fertiliser, pesticide and weedicide. If we overnight try only nature centric ways it will only result in absolute failure and starvation. For our children farming is a job of indebtedness. They will never return to it. But there are no jobs here. Children go to school and pass exams – many also fail – but either way there are no jobs.”

“I am D.M. Somawathie of Maithripura in Padaviya. There is not a single healthy person amongst us that we know. I have many ailments. Everyone has at least 4 to 5 sicknesses, the chief of which are kidney disease, diabetes and eyesight failure. Everyone is under some medication. Eye testing is done in Padaviya and we have a young, very dedicated doctor; Dr. Chathuranga - posted here for the past two years who goes out of his way to help us. But for eye surgery related ailments we have to go to Jaffna. Weak eyesight is a serious everyday problem for us farmers. Medications are a luxury for us. Every single basic facility is a luxury.”

“I am R.P. Niluka. Hundreds of students pass out of Ordinary and Advanced Level examination. Whether they pass or not there are no jobs. How can we go to Colombo to find jobs? Here many girls want to be teachers but only a handful end up with such a career.”

“I am Somawathie. My eyesight was failing for the past few years. For one year it interfered with my household and farming related everyday functions. I have gone from pillar to post seeking to get the required treatment. I got my eyes tested at the Padaviya hospital but the facilities for surgeries are not available there. In very big towns there are private places but they charge high amounts. How can we go that far and where do we get money for one lakh or more per eye for the lenses? I heard there were some donors and charity based groups helping in the assistance for eye surgeries but was told Anuradhapura hospital was not carrying out the surgeries. Then the Padaviya hospital doctor connected us with our Buddhist temple who coordinated with several individual donors and charity institutions focusing on different aspects of health. Hundreds of us from Padaviya were provided transport in a hired bus as we have no way to travelling long distances and taken to the eye ward in Jaffna hospital where surgeries took place. I was operated in one eye and I am now in queue for the surgery of the other eye to be done in Jaffna. If the Anuradhapura hospital carries out such surgeries it will not only help us in Padaviya but relations and friends we have in areas such as Medawachiya which is closer to Anuradhapura than Jaffna.”

Padaviya is one in which the life stories of people are full of hardship, notes Ven. Periyakulame Sugana Thero of the temple, the Shri Bodirukkarama Viharaya of Aliwanguwa in Padavi, Shri Pura. The temple looks after the welfare of villages located in Padaviya, Weli-Oya and Padavi Shripura. Among the social assistance done by Ven. Sugana Thero is coordinating with medical practitioners, as done with eye doctor, Dr. H.M.D. Chathuranga posted to the Padaviya hospital in directing individual and institutionalised donor assistance such as those of Solihull, Karuna Trust and Alaka Foundation to the eye care needs of the people free of charge. 

“Farming is the main income generation method for these families. Now there are many issues connected to water scarcity. Health issues and income generation scarcity poses many problems. Every family is indebted heavily. They borrow to carry out the cultivation. They borrow to get the chemical fertiliser. They borrow again soon after the harvest as they are unable to make a profit out of the harvest. There is no employment opportunity among young people,” explains the Venerable Thero.