Impediments to Women in Post-civil War Economic Growth in Sri Lanka

What is it about?

This policy-oriented paper is an ethnographic study of the impact of the economic growth in the Eastern and Northern Provinces of Sri Lanka in the aftermath of the civil war on women. 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 realising 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.

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Why is it important?

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, ethnographic evidence suggests that certain socioeconomic and cultural practices such as caste (Thanges and Silva 2009) and gender (Iqbal 2013) marginalisation and discrimination stubbornly persists albeit at a diminished intensity or scale than that existed in the pre-civil war period. Hence, this paper unearths overt and covert gender discrimination and marginalisation of women.