|
|
|
 |
 |
|||
The status of women is better in Sri Lanka compared to the rest of Asia and perhaps certain other countries in the world. A Country Briefing paper on Women in Sri Lanka prepared for the Asian Development Bank in 1999 stated, “Compared to the rest of South Asia, Sri Lankan women are very well-off, enjoying high life expectancy (74 years), nearly universal literacy, and access to economic opportunities, which are nearly unmatched in the rest of the subcontinent.” Moreover, Sri Lanka produced the world’s first woman Prime Minister and the current President is a woman. However, the flip side of the coin, in a country where half the population is women, is a mere representation of 10 in Parliament and a large number of women still stuck in traditional cultural stigmas. Leading feminist researcher, Professor Nirmala Banerjee, Former Professor of Economics from the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences in Calcutta, visited the island recently for the Eighth National Convention on Women’s Studies organised by the Centre for Women’s Research. Addressing the Convention, Banerjee said that while projects targeting women may alleviate specific problems of women, it is necessary to ensure that policy initiatives taken do not affect men and women differently. Speaking to PRIU’s Anuradha Herath, Banerjee asserted that the South Asian women’s movement was quite unique. With roughly 20 years of experience, she said that while the common thread in the women’s movement was that “all cultures have used women as an instrument, I find that the South Asian culture is very distinct from East Asian culture.” She indicated that gender relations in Asian countries have changed to an extent in the households, through state intervention and through women's own changing perceptions. Commenting on the women’s movement, she said that one of the strongest attacks on women which has emerged in Sri Lanka as well, was that women were importing ideas from the west. Comparing the South Asian movement to the west, Banerjee went on to explain why the feminist movement in this part of the world was different. She said that the American movement is very person centred where the woman is encouraged to see herself as an individual. “I think that’s a very difficult battle because in every sense you are confronting somebody,” said Banerjee. Commenting on the South Asian approach, she said, “Perhaps our movement is trying to do it slightly differently. We want to look at the level of class and the community. So we will be together with whatever changes that come. In that sense, it’s slow. We’re probably not getting there as fast as we’d like, but perhaps we’ll get a longer gain in it.” Speaking on the feminist movement as a whole, Banerjee felt many aspects of it had changed. “The issues have changed,” she said, and the “earlier spontaneity” is lost. She described three aspects of the movement that has emerged in the present day. “One part is the NGO movement. The other side is the protest movement. And then there’s a third one where you are doing some research in trying to understand. I think the movement has become more sophisticated.”
|
Today's Stories |
Contact Information: Send mail to 