The man of the house is a woman

Six years after the end of the war, Sri Lanka has estimated the number of women-headed households in the island’s North to be a staggering 50,000, while a recent study, borne out of Jaffna, highlighted the great economic divide between the women of the North and the South.

Earlier estimates by community-based organizations quoted the number of women-headed households in the former conflict zone to be between 40,000- 60,000.

A 2010 survey conducted by the Jaffna-based Centre for Women and Development claimed that the Northern region had approximately 40,000 female-headed households – including over 20,000 in the Jaffna District alone. “Three factors have reduced the male-headed households in number: the war, disappearances or being in military custody,” said Saroja Sivachandran, the Centre’s director, soon after the release of the study.

While the island’s North and East together have approximately 90,000 war widows, many of them are also the family breadwinners, a new role played by the conservative Tamil and Muslim women who make up the large majority of the two war-affected provinces.

Community-based organizations claim these women, despite the enormous economic responsibilities they bear, do not possess the skills and the financial resources to support their families, making them vulnerable to exploitation, besides limiting their earning capacity.

“They have not learnt a craft and lack the experience to generate adequate incomes. Their fathers, brothers, husbands and sons fulfilled that role and the sudden change is a difficult one, especially when it comes in the aftermath of extensive violence,” remarked Shanthi Sachithanandan, director of Viluthu, a Northern-based centre for human resource development.

But the surprising factor had been the swift transformation of these women, once dependent on their men, into breadwinners, supporting not just immediate but also their extended families.

Sivani’s choice

“I have never worked as a labourer. I mix cement in the morning and carry bricks in the evening, helping construction workers in my village,” said Sivani Doraiappa (40), a mother of four. “I have to do it because my family needs the money,” she said with conviction.

The great divide

In a June study titled Impediments to women in post-civil war economic growth in Sri Lanka, researcher Muttukrishna Sarvananda has highlighted that women are constrained from reaping the benefits of post-civil war economic boom in the Eastern and Northern Provinces due to a variety of community-inflicted institutional-structural and socio- economic reasons, business-inflicted gender discrimination in employment and State-inflicted security phobias.

Further, he has shown that in the agriculture sector – paddy, onions, chillies and tobacco cultivation – the main contributing sub- sectors – women’s participation by and large being confined to agriculture labourers during planting and harvesting periods.

“Females do not go into the oceans to fish. In fishing, women’s participation is by and large restricted to labour, mostly unpaid family labour. But women are extensively involved in the retail marketing of fresh fish throughout the North and East,” the study claimed.

Further, it highlighted that the construction sub sector also has a male-dominated labour force throughout the country due to the predominantly outdoor nature of the job while the services sector is where the bulk of the paid female labour is concentrated in the North and East.

Sivani recalls a time when life was relatively peaceful and comfortable. The family owned onion and tobacco fields as well two small boats. Her brother and husband were home at that time, before the war devoured them. “Soon, fishing was banned, so the boats decayed. The military did not allow us to cultivate and the lands were abandoned,” she recalled. Having lost both brother and husband to the scourge of war, Sivani, has now returned to the field, and her sister, to operate one of the small boats for lagoon fishing.

Nisanga’s struggle

For 24- year- old Nisanga too, it is a daily struggle. A mother of a five-year old, she gave birth soon after the war ended. Her husband abandoned her, soon after marriage.

This single mother takes care of her mother, young sisters and a child, though weighed down by the responsibility. “I went up to Grade Five only. I learnt no craft and can barely read. I work on the fields and assist construction workers,” says Nisanga, who insists on the need to manage two part time jobs, in order to keep the home fires burning.

Constrained by their own lack of skills and a conservative culture, they find it difficult to fit in to what they call a ‘man’s world’ which leaves them vulnerable to severe labour exploitation.

Cabinet decides on special programs

At the Cabinet Meeting held on 10 June, it was decided to introduce new initiatives for the Strengthening of widows and breadwinners of houses.

The official decision stated: “The women’s population in Sri Lanka exceeds 51%. A majority of them have become widows due to the clashes that existed during the recent past and thereby they have become breadwinners of houses. The Cabinet of Ministers approved a proposal made by the Minister of Women’s Affairs, Chandrani Bandara, to implement an expeditious program to enhance these women economically and socially in the districts that these women are present in large numbers.”

The identified districts are: Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Mannar, Vavuniya, Mullaitivu, Ampara, Trincomalee, Batticaloa, Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa.

According to Sivachandran, “It has become cheaper to hire women – men would demand higher daily wages. Women accept what is given. That’s another dimension to this problem.”

Less than the rest

Often, women labourers earn less than a US$ 1 per day, 50 percent less than their male counterparts. Maillaiyappal Thangavelu is one such woman, who supports her two children, parents and three sisters, by working on a construction site. “My husband disappeared,” said the 31-year-old Jaffna resident. “My sisters are in school. My eldest child is studying. My parents cannot work.” Her earnings are a measly US$1.25 a day – half of what a man would earn for the same work.

“Women provide cheap labour, so they are preferred,” explained Nagarasa Thavaselvam, President of the Kampanai Camp Residents’ Committee in Jaffna, adding that in some households, men are now becoming dependent on women for economic support. Thavaselvam himself is one of many house-husbands.

The severe labour exploitation is one of the many reasons for development workers to stress on the need to acknowledge the underreported legacy of the households headed by women. “It will help address the economic issues,” Sugunan, a former aid worker, said. In April, a new estimate showed the number of women-headed households in the North to stand at 50,000, an indicator that the underreported issue is drawing State attention.

“War widows are a special group of people. Then, there are also families headed by these women. They are poor and they need assistance to rebuild their lives,” said Roopavathi Ketheeswaran, the government agent of the Kilinochchi District.

Ongoing programmes

There are various ongoing programmes, offering vocational training to these women who are largely unskilled. Savitri Ponnusamy (31) is one such woman from Kilinochchi, who is learning dress making and mat weaving. “After labouring so hard, what we earn is so little. There is no formal structure for us to channel the wares,” she lamented, claiming her earnings being sorely inadequate to take care of her two children.

So far, there had been only a few programmes to help the war widows, specially to help start up a small business. While many donors continue to help, it is inadequate given the enormity of the problem.

“War was hard, but these economic burdens seem harder,” said Kalaimagal, Ponnambalam, a 38- year-old mother, who runs a small boutique. Many refer to her as an industrious woman with a considerable income but Kalaimagal has seven mouths to feed. “It’s not easy. There is no government assistance still.”

Meanwhile, a national centre in Kilinochchi is to be set up to support women-headed families. On offer are low interest loans up to US$260 and other benefits for setting up small businesses. Despite the new initiatives, the new survey has highlighted the various impediments to women in post-civil war economic growth, stressing the economic disparity between the women from the North and the South.

According to the researcher, Dr. Muttukrishna Sarvananthan who heads the Jaffna-based Point Pedro Institute of Development (PPID), female unemployment rates in the five districts comprising the Northern Province is woefully high. It stands at 10.9 percent in Jaffna, 29.4 percent in Kilinochchi, 21.6 percent in Mannar, 20.5 percent in Mullaitivu and 9.0 percent in Vavuniya.

Said D.M. Swaminathan, Minister of Resettlement of Reconstruction: “The great economic divide had been increased by long years of war. It needs continuous and committed work.”