Introduction
The critical areas of concern identified in the Platform for Action were among those reviewd on the eve of the Beijing World Conference (CENWOR, 1995). Two initiatives were taken immediately after the Conference.
The Ministry of the Women's Affairs and the National Committee on Women, together with representatives of relevant line Ministries and women's organizations formulated a "National Plan of Action for Women in Sri Lanka - Towards Gender Equality" in late 1995 and 1996. This Plan was discussed with a broad group of participants comprising representatives of line Ministries and a large number of NGOs and women's organizations from all parts of the country, approved by the Ministry, published and re-appraised in 1998. Regrettably, this Plan has not been translated systematically into action nor incorporated in National plans, including the Six-Year Plan developed by the Government in 1998.
Nevertheless, some of action proposals have been and are being implemented by state agencies and women's organizations as components of their programmes.
The National Plan of Action for Women proposed programmes in eight areas of critical concern.
- VAW, Human Rights and Armed Conflict (amalgamating three areass in the BPFA)
- Political Participation and Decision-Making
- Health
- Education and training
- Economic Activities and Poverty (almagamating two areas in the BPFA)
- Media and Communication
- Environment
- Institutional and Strengthening and Support
A special session on the girl-child was not considered necessary as her concerns are incorporated in the proposals and the girl-child is not seen to be specially disadvantaged in Sri Lanka.
The NGO Forum for Women has implemented an ESCAP-supported programme to popularise the BPFA. Activities comprised media-focused workshops, posters and a Handbook/Guide to Action. Subsequently, the NGO Forum has initiated a media campaign on seven of the critical issues which includes newspaper advertisements,posters and TV spots.
The NGO Forum for Women organised also a meeting of these community based organisations to discuss the National Plan for Action for Women in order to mobilise them to implement programmes within their capacities.
This paper will review action taken since 1995 and identify major issues that need to be addressed in each area.
Education and Training
Positive educational policies implemented over five decades resulted in relatively high indicators of educational participation in a 'low income' country. In 1994, female and male literacy rates of the population over 10 years were 87.9% and 92.5%, respectively. Age-specific participation rates were 89.5% for girls and 89.4% for boys in the 5 -14 age group; 55.3% for girls and 53.4% for boys in the 15 -19 age group; and 4.6% and 4.7%, respectively in the 20 - 24 age group. Gender disparities in enrolments in schools have been minimal for over three decades, and 58% of the enrolment in senior secondary grades and around 45% of students enrolled in Universities have been girls/women since the early 1970's. Yet universal primary education has not been achieved and a significant proportion of the population do not have access to secondary education in Grades 12-13 and to tertiary education. Levels of basic educational competencies have declined with the reduction in public social sector expenditure as a consequence of structural adjustment programmes.
Educational reforms proposed by the National Education Commission and introduced gradually since 1997 have addressed some of these issues.
Access to Education
Compulsary education regulations for the 5 -14 age group were introduced in January 1998 and it now remains to pursue effectively steps to ensure that children in economically disadvantaged communities in low income urban neighborhoods, remote rural locations and plantations who comprise the out-of-school population, are brought within the ambit of the educational system - the formal school system and in this period of transition, functional literacy centres.
The inequitable distribution of senior secondary schools providing science education has been a major concern over the years in the context of the goal of "science and technology for all". The programme initiated to establish or upgrade at least one well-equipped senior secondary school in each local Division is intended to fill this lacuna and needs to be accelerated to equalise educational opportunities. The lack of adequate and relevant alternative opportunities to university education in the tertiary education sector remains a problem that needs to be addressed in the context of the demand for tertiary level education and the high incidence of unemployment.
Overall expenditure on education needs to be increased to safeguard the gains of the past, to universalise primary education, to increase access to secondary and tertiary education and to improve the quality of education.
The Content and Micro-Processes of Education
Under the on going curriculum reforms, efforts are being made to improve the level of competencies, to develop the whole personality of the child, to promote creativity and values such as human righrs, citizenship, and national harmony and to develop a wholesome orientation to the 'world of work'.
Historically, the gendered process of socialisation in the home and in society has been reinforced by the education process through gender-based curriculum diversification in vocational and related subjects, gender role stereotypes reflected in educational materials and differential behavioral expectations of girls and boys. Despite persuasion by women's organisations, no concrete steps have been taken to revise curricula or to introduce learning - teaching materials that promote the concept of gender equality. Women's studies courses are found in only two of the twelve universities and even these have yet to be incorporated in mainstream curricula. The challenge now is to ensure that the current curriculum reforms in schools and universities including the proposed counselling programmes, promote the concept of equal partnerhsip of girls and boys, and women and men, and gender equality in the economy, polity and society.
Education and the Labour Market
The school can provide only an orientation to the world of work and current university reforms are expected to promote linkages with potential employers in order to reduce the incidence of graduate unemployment, to which women are more vulnerable than men.
The Tertiary and Secondary Vocational Sector has, however, a direct link with the labour market. In the past this sector has seen ad hoc development with mininal liaison with unemployment agencies and it has not expanded adequately to meet the needs of school leavers. Wide gender imbalances exist in enrolment, with women concentrated in traditional "feminine" courses linked to their perceived servicing and nurturing roles, resulting in limiting women to a narrow range of skills in an economy that is changing in response to technological advancement in increasing industrialisation.
It is important, therefore, that the ongoing reforms address this issue purposefully from the perspectives of both national human resources development and gender equality. Some women's organisations have introduced programmes to motivate young women to expand their interests and aspirations. A few innovative NGOs have organised programmes to provide access to women to "non-traditional" training opportunities. But it is also the responsibility of the Tertiary and Vocational Education Commission (the planning body) and the State training agencies to promote the diversification of training opportunities for women to meet the emerging demands of the labour market through recruitment policies, counselling programmes and an enabling environment to increase the vocational options of women.
Access to Decision-Making Positions in the Education Sector
Education is widely perceived in employment terms as a "feminised" sector in Sri Lanka but studies indicate that the "glass ceiling" appears to operate as strongly as in other sectors to limit the upward mobility of women to the highest decision-making position. In 1998, 68.3% of teachers, and 25.5& of Principals of schools were women. Women were virtually invisible in the highest positions in the educational administration at the central, provincial and divisional levels. In the Universities, 45% of students, 33.6% of academic staff and 11.3% of Professors are women. But the first woman Vice Chancellor of a University was appointed only this week. While some women are reluctant to assume responsibility through time constraints caused by their multiple roles or through low self-esteem, the highest management level appears to be seen yet as an area of "male excellence".
Health and Nutrition
As in education, decades of progressive health policies, provision or matenal and child health services and later, primary health care facilities in communities have resulted in positive health indicators such as 74 years female life expectancy and 70 years male life expectancy, a maternal mortality rate of.4/1,000 and an infant mortality rate of 15/1000. Both female mortality and female infant mortality rates are lower than male rates. Total fertility is 2.2 and the annual population growth rate has declined to 1.2%. Nevertheless, district-wise disparities still prevail with high mortality rates in low income urban neighborhoods and the plantations, and specific programmes are necessary in these locations.
While survival may not be a major issue, the incidence of morbidity has not declined appreciably over the years. Poor environmental sanitation and inadequate access to safe drinking water result in high prevalence of dysentery and malaria in several districts. Low nutritional levels caused by poverty and the reduction in food subsidies since the 1980s affect the health of women and children, particularly with respect to protein-energy malnutrition, iron deficiency and iodine deficiency. The incidence of around 20% low birth weight babies is generally associated with maternal under-nutrition. Women suffer as both victims and carers in the increasing incidence of S.T.D. and HIV/AIDS.
While the mother-child syndrome over the years has limited perceptions of the health needs of women, the new approach to reproductive health should focus on the whole life cycle of women and direct more attention to the health needs of adolescent girls, including information on sexuality, the occupational health needs of women workers, geriatric care for ageing women in the context of the changing population structure, and the disabled and victims of substance abuse. The reduction in State health expenditure and the trend towards the privatisation of health services has had adverse effects on the health of the poor who need support in the context of escalating prices of drugs in the open market.
Economic Activities and Poverty
While the contribution of women to economic development has been belatedly recognised, and there is growing awareness that women domestic and plantation agriculture, in burgeoning garment industries and in overseas domestic employment are helping to "hold up the economy", it is not at all clear that their working conditions or opportunities for advancement have improved significantly. Macro-economic policies stemming from market liberalisation and structural adjustment have opened new employment avenues for women in export-oriented industries and in entrepreneurship activities. But there is evidence from the collapse of local industries and their continuing depressed status and the travails of women in the urban and informal sector in an incessant search for a livelihood for family survival (CENWOR, 1999), that macro-economic policies, including the withdrawal of the State have resulted in the social exclusion of large numbers of women in urban and rural poverty groups from the benefits of "development".
It appears that macro-ecoomic policies are biased against the micro-scale sector in employment, in comparison with the incentives and support offered to large-scale export oriented industries. It appears also from the experiences of self-employment programmes over recent decades that women have a high participation rate in such programmes, have relatively easier access to credit in recent years, have been mobilised and are often very articulate in expressing their needs, but a lack of adequate access to technology, vocational and management skills and market information have prevented them from increasing their income significantly and consequently they tend to remain below or around the "poverty line". While a minority of women from families with resources have become successful entreprenuers and have penetrated export markets, the large majority of self-employed women remain enmeshed in poverty, in low skill, low income economic activities. Sri Lanka has introduced poverty alleviation programmes and the National programme, Samurdhi, implemented since 1995, is intended to support entrepreneur development, but any poverty alleviation programme is likely to fail in an inhospitable macro-economic policy environment. Evaluation studies indicate that an immediate need for women workers in the formal and informal sectors is increasing access to technology and technical skills that can contribute to developing their potential and generating satisfactory incomes.
While women have participated in large numbers in export oriented industries, the demand is chiefly for low-cost, semi-skilled labour. Consequently, these women, the majority with a secondary education, have limited opportunities for upward occupational mobility. Their problems of long working hours, and vulnerability to occupational health hazards and job insecurity have yet to be resolved. Migrant Sri Lanka domestic workers in West and East Asia and in Europe form around 80% of all migrant workers. Over the years they have been exposed to economic and sexual exploitation in employment and to family dislocation at home. During the last three years, the State Foreign Employment Bureau has taken several positive steps to address their needs by enforcing compulsary registration and providing access to credit, insurance and training. Much more remains to be done through bilateral agreements to ensure protection and adequate returns during employment, and to promote employment through investment in enterprises after return. It is important to note also that while the current international trend is towards deregulation with respect to labour legislation, the real need is for women (and men) in sub-contracting industries and inother home-based economic activities to be brought within the ambit of labour laws.
The shrinking of the public sector with increasing privatisation has reduced traditional employment opportunities in the services sector. While unemployment rates have declined since 1995, the unemployment rate of women continues to be double that of men - 15.5% and 7.7%, respectively, in 1997. Overall, the gender specific demands in the labour markets have tended to accelerate a shift for many women from vertical to horizontal occupational mobility.
Decision Making and Political Participation
There are no constraints to women in Sri Lanka reaching the height of political power as President or Prime Minister. Below this level, however, women's representation in legislative bodies and in politics and in decision-making positions in the public and private sector is very poor. Only 5% of Members of Parliament and 2% - 3% of members of Local Government Councils are women. Although currently around 12% of Ministers are women, few women head local government bodies. Reasons for low participation are complex. The multiple roles and time constraints of women, socio-cultural norms of male leadership and the prevailing climate of violence limit the number of women who come forward to be candidates for election. Political parties and Trade Unions which nurture leadership are seen to be gender insensitive in their choice of officials or candidates. A recent proposal that 25% of candidates in local elections should be women has not seen successful fruition although local elections are scheduled next week.
The "glass ceiling" operates effectively in the public and private sectors. There is only one women Secretary in a Cabinet Ministry - the Ministry of Women's Affairs. A few women hold key positions but the majority are concentrated at the "additional", "deputy" and "assistant" levels.
Violence, Human Rights and Armed Conflict
Since the Vienna World Conference on Human Rights, there is greater awareness among policy makers and the general public that women's rights are human rights and that gender-based violence needs to be eliminated. A major achievement has been the ammendment of the hundred year-old Penal Code in 1995/96 to increase penalties for rape and to make incest, sexual harassment and grave sexual abuse punishable offenses. More publicity is given now to these sexual offenses, particularly as a result of lobbying by women's organisations. Prevention of child abuse is being given priority attention currently. Domestic violence legislation has, however, yet to be formulated and tends to be hidden under a facade of privacy. The new Constitution that is being drafted needs to strengthen women's rights as fundamental rights. Measures to protect the employment rights of workers outside the public sector and to prevent gender discrimination under Personal Laws need to be introduced as they are currently not provided by the Constitution.
The armed conflict that engulfed the South in the late 1980's and the North, East and neighbouring districts since the early 1980's, has created unprecedented problems. Violations of human rights including the sexual abuse of women in conflict areas are no longer overlooked and both legal action and administrative measures are being taken currently. Nevertheless, cases of disappearances still occur. Women have been victims of violence both directly and as widows, members of refugees and internally displaced families, often as female heads of households in difficult circumstances. Programmes have been implemented to provide financial and other forms of assistance. But relieving economic deprivation and the psychological trauma of violence are major tasks that need to be addressed by rehabilitation programmes.
Women's organisations have taken the initiative to introduce legal literacy programmes to increase women's awareness of their rights. Special women and children police desks have been organised but support services such as counselling, legal aid, crisis centres and shelter for battered women are an imperative need.
Media
While women's organisations campaign for gender sensitive media programmes and attempt to use the media for corrective action, there has been no action at policy level to prevent the distortion of the image of women by media agencies. Electronic communication, and particularly Internet, has increased the volume of pornographic material that exacerbate the situation.
Environment
The environmental lobby is extremely strong in Sri Lanka, focusing attention on the environmental hazards of development schemes. A large number of Environmental Impact Assessments have been carried out but the evidence is that none of them have incorporated gender concerns in their criteria or assessment (Vitarana 1998).
Institutional Strengthening and Support
The National machinery for women's affairs - the Ministry of Women's Affairs and the Women's Bureau continues to be marginalised in the National planning process. Its focal points in line Ministries tend to be ineffective. A UNDP supported project for strengthening the national machinery is currently being implemented but a change of perspective at policy level is also necessary.
The National Committee on Women appointed under the Women's Charter to oversee its implementation has been virtually resourceless and powerless since its inception in 1993. An Act of Parliament formulated to convert it to a National Commission with greater powers was formulated in 1994 but has yet to be introduced or discussed.
The absence of adequate gender disaggregated data has been a constraint to more gender sensitive planning, implementation and monitoring of programmes. In 1997/98, a Commonwealth Secretariat initiative in "Engendering the National Budget", has generated both interest and data. An ESCAP supported programme has strengthened the capacity and sensitivity of the Department of Census and Statistics to produce gender disaggregated data. Preparations are afoot for Census 2001 - a process that requires gender senstive interventions.
A noteworthy feature in recent years has been the increased activity of women's organizations at all levels after the stimulus of the Beijing Conference. They have become in particular an articulate lobby for action to eliminate violence against women. Regrettably, these organisations tend to cooperate outside mainstream programmes and their activities are bedevilled by lack of adequate resources.
