How Poverty Affects the Education of Girls in Sri Lanka
Ms. Thilini Wijetunge (Sri Lanka)
Sri Lanka has achieved remarkable progress in the region, and even globally as
more females enter into the higher education stream. The country has achieved over
80% enrolment of women as law students and over 50% as medical students, and there
are many more women who have access to free education in the public university
system. Despite these achievements, however, there are stories of girls who aredeprived of their rights to education, mainly due to poverty.
There are many stories which relate to the above problem in the local context. Thestory of Sanoja, the eldest daughter of a family in a remote village in a central northern
province in Sri Lanka, depicts the hardships that young women have to go through due
to social pressure and economical strain. Her mother, having had to leave the home to
go to the Middle East as a domestic worker due to economic hardships, has left the careof the little children in the hands of her eldest daughter, Sanoja. Being just 12 years old,
she was supposed to do all household chores in the absence of the mother, in addition totaking care of the younger siblings of the family. Although she managed these duties atthe beginning with the help of her father, gradually she lost his support and had toattend to all tasks by herself. Under these circumstances, Sanoja had to stop her
education and became a full-time worker in her own house. Despite doing all this work,
Sanoja was subjected to harassment by her father due to various unpleasant incidents
such as the taste of the food and not being able to prepare meals on time. Because of thissituation, Sanoja became miserable and held no hope for her future. There are manygirls with similar stories in Sri Lanka, mainly in rural areas and in under-educated andpoverty-affected families.
Sri Lanka is a country where many women seek foreign employment as domestic
servants due to economic burdens of their families. There are many situations where
even young girls try to go outside of the country for employment opportunities, in searchof more financial sustenance to support their families. They face a lot of hardships dueto inexperience and immaturity while working abroad in unfamiliar and strange
circumstances. The story of Rizana NAFEEK who was beheaded in Saudi Arabia in
January this year after being convicted of murdering a child under her care is one such
example which proves the tragic circumstances that these women face after migrating
as domestic workers without having experience in such trades.
Rizana was born in 1988, but was forced to alter her date of birth to secure
employment as a house maid. She had been forced to alter her passport to indicate theyear of birth as 1982. She had been sent abroad as a domestic servant to a family in
Saudi Arabia. After starting working, she was assigned to bottle-feed an infant of fourmonths. Rizana, having had no experience of taking care of such a tiny infant, had nounderstanding of the task she was handling nor any clue as to what she was about toface. While she was feeding, the baby started choking, which ultimately and tragically
led to his death. After this incident, Rizana was handed over to the police along withaccusations that she had strangled the baby. She was very harshly treated at the police
station and was not able to explain what had happened due to language problems, andwithout even a lawyer at her trials or her family to support her, she had to face many
inexplicably difficult and strenuous hardships. Ultimately, she was convicted ofmurdering the child and was subsequently beheaded. Although many accept that this isa gross Human Rights violation, even the efforts of Sri Lankan Government were of noavail, and have not elicited sympathy for her plight.
All these stories well represent the deprivation of women and girl children due topoverty. Particularly, girls in poor families are not only deprived of their rights toeducation due to poverty but are also subject to gender-based violence and sexual
harassment in their efforts to fulfill their basic needs. These girl children and theirmothers are compelled to seek employment in foreign countries as domestic workers
mainly to earn an income for family survival, and in many cases, with the intention ofbuilding a house. Once mothers leave their families to make ends meet, they suffer fromboth ends. While being employed in foreign countries, many are subjected to various
forms of sexual harassment and their children suffer here at home without the care andprotection by their mothers. Girls, in particular, are denied their right to education andare subject to gender-based violence, including rape, incest and various forms of sexual
harassment.
In view of this situation despite the remarkable achievements in education, there isanother side to the story: poverty has caused a lot of women and girls to undergo
extremely difficult situations. Although the numbers are decreasing, we still hear suchstories daily. There may be a lot of Sanojas or Rizanas in the current world. Somefamilies suffer without even receiving any information about their female members whohave gone abroad as housemaids. Their employers or job agencies do not provide any
information about these women. Sometimes, after a long lapse of silence, the families
are informed that these women have been injured or dead. Hence, until the country
reaches its targets in poverty reduction, it is not fair to boast only about theachievements in education.