Field course

Politics and economy

Report from a field exercise in Tangalle, 28.- 31. January 2019 as part of the field course in the UIA bachelor programme in development studies

AUTHORS: Amalie Byklum Eskedahl, Anders Bendik Aasebø, Ane Thorsen, Celina Husby, Dino Cehic, Silje Balseth

COORDINATOR: Damith

Introduction

In this field report we will present what we have discovered in our field work in Tangalle, Sri Lanka. We have stayed at a family and got help arranging interviews by our coordinator. The way we are going to present our findings, is by first explaining how we did the interviews and then talk about all the challenges we faced during our field work. Then we are continuing with a brief summary about the things in Sri Lanka and Tangalle that are related to our topics. Accordingly, we are going to present our findings in the field with all the different topics related to our main topic. At the end of this field report there is a conclusion of what we have found out, and sources at the end.
Our main task in this field exercise is to look at the major changes in Tangalle both politically and economically.

 Methodology

During our stay in Tangalle we conducted a total of eleven interviews during the two days of researching. By using a qualitative method, we collected data from a wide range of both local people, politicians and councils, tuk-tuk drivers, hotel and restaurant owners, and people working in the tourist office. (Hvad vil du vite? 2019).  The main reason for the broad range of interviewees was because we wanted different answers and sights on the turbulent political situation on the island. We made sure that the people we talked to had different professions and social status, as well as different gender and age.

Before entering the interviews, we prepared four main questions we asked every person we met; What do you think about the political situation? How has the political situation affected you? Do you feel a lot of corruption?  And, have your economy been affected by the tourism? By these main questions we were able to make a structured interview, and make it easier to compare and analyse the results of our discussion. As a follow-up to these questions, we added multiple questions to elaborate the answer to each and every interview object.

Before the interviews we separated the group into two, with three members in each group. By doing this we were able to make more interviews in a shorter period of time. One group went to the interviews that our coordinator had arranged, while the other group went out in the field and found interview objectives on the street. This method worked perfectly and made everything more efficient. Within the group we also had different tasks to fulfil; one person was the main secretary, while the two others had the main responsibility for questioning. For each and every interview we changed roles so everyone could experience the work of a journalist. Before starting the arranged interviews, we asked if we could record, which all went smoothly. The one thing we noticed was that everyone wanted to be anonymous and that the tape had to be deleted after use.

To compliment the results from our interviews, we used quantitative research based on statistics and political surveys. (Hvad vil du vite? 2019). We also collected information from earlier lectures, syllabus and related articles from the internet.

Challenges

The major problem we faced doing this field work was communication and translation problems. Most of the people we interviewed spoke English fluently, but we had some difficulties due to some people not knowing English that good. So, some of our question were too difficult for them to understand and needed to be converted. Doing that we did not get the best answers to what we wanted to know. We used our local coordinator a lot in the interviews that did not know English that good. He translated for us and were to good help, but sometimes the interview object wanted to use their own English and refuse to use our translator. Then we also experienced that some of our interviewers did not have enough information or experience to give a good answer.                                                 

When we interviewed politicians, we soon understood that they avoid some of our questions and started talking about something else. They said a lot, but they were not answering what we wanted to know. We also found it difficult to find literature on the things we got to know in the interviews. And it was hard to write a good conclusion since everyone have different opinions and views. We came upon a problem that we did not expect, most of our interview objects did not want us to use their name, and wanted the recording to be deleted afterwards, so their business or reputation would not be ruined.

Background information

SRI LANKA

The Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is an island beneficially located in the Indian ocean, close to the equator. The tropical climate and the huge coastline make tourism and fishing a big economic factor in Sri Lanka. First and foremost, it is important to look at Sri Lankan history, due to the fact that Sri Lanka was a colony for about 450 years – first by the Portuguese, then the Dutch, and lastly by the British. The colonial time has had a big impact on Sri Lankan politics, as the British constitution was followed until 1978. (Constitutionnet, 2016). When the new constitution came in place, it created a big divide between the Sinhalese and the Tamil people in the country, even though the thought behind it was to equalize the two ethnic groups. (Constitutionnet, 2016).
           

In the early 1980s the conflict between the two ethnicities intensified, and a civil war broke out between the LTTE, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, and the government of Sri Lanka. Even with several peace attempts, the tension between the two sides carried out throughout the 20th century. In 2005, Mahinda Rajapaksa was elected as president after being Prime Minister for some time. Rajapaksa quickly tried to continue peace talks with the LTTE, without any significant luck. Later in 2008, the government withdrew from a ceasefire agreement made in 2002, and launched an offensive on Tamil Tiger rebels. (BBC, 2018).  This offensive ensured government victory, and president Rajapaksa declared in 2009 that the civil war was over, having cost over 60.000 lives. (UCDP, 2019)
          

In addition to the civil war, the country has in newer days fallen victim of its own political instability. As late as in October 2018, there was a constitutional crisis as president Sirisena replaced Prime Minister Wickremasinghe with former President Rajapaksa, which then lead to the Parliament being suspended. (BBC, 2018). Prime Minister Wickremesinghe and President Sirisena announced a surprise coalition in 2015 to oust former President Rajapaksa. (Michael Safi, 2018). The reason that this coalition was so surprising, is because the two politicians came from two completely opposite parties. Sirisena came from the same party as Rajapaksa, the SLFP, whilst sitting Prime Minister Wickremesinghe came from the UNP party. As early as in February 2018 one could see that the coalition was falling apart, and that Sirisena was looking for ways to remove the Prime Minister.
           

The final decision of the mess Sirisena created was that the court denied Rajapaksa of becoming the Prime Minister. The total of 51 days of chaos had a lot of repercussion on the rest of the country, considering one of the main economic incomes in Sri Lanka is tourism, which is the second biggest income in the country behind remittances.
           

Sri Lanka has always been a tourist destination, with varying number of tourists from year to year, and plays a central role in the national economy. The increasing amount of tourism since 2009 has ensured a lot of jobs, and created a lot of opportunities for people in Sri Lanka,

Both tourism and fishing were heavily impacted by the 2004 tsunami. The tsunami took a total of about 30.000 lives, as well as it destroyed big parts of the eastern and southern coastline. The Sri Lankan government estimated to have lost about 1$ billion in assets, and around 330$ million in potential output. (WorldBank, 2014)

TANGALLE

Tangalle is one of the biggest cities in the southern province. It is located in the Hambantota district, about 45 kilometres from the city of Hambantota. Even though Tangalle is governed by the Municipal Council in Hambantota, they also have their own urban council which deals with local affairs. The current population of Tangalle was 72,500 people as of 2012 (Citypopulation.com, 2014)

The climate in Tangalle is pretty stable most of the year due to being so close to the equator. Temperature-wise it is usually between 24 and 31 degrees Celsius. April is statistically the warmest month of the year. There are usually about 2-5 rain days each month, but during the rainy season, which lasts from October to December, there are between seven and eleven rain days. (Source: NOOA)

Tourism is a major income for the city of Tangalle. Along the streets there are many hotels, homestays and restaurants. There are long beaches with good weather most of the year, so everything you need for a beach vacation are located here.

Findings and analysis

LOCAL VIEWS ON POLITICAL SITUATION TODAY

The political situation in Sri Lanka has been discussed for years, and the government has often been described as dysfunctional, unpopular and confusing. Because of the many unusual choices made by the current President, the population has built up a number of thoughts about the current politics. Although Sri Lanka is a social democratic republic, it often occurs incidents such as abuse of power, corruption, political repression and a general detachment between the population and the government. The outcome of the interviews and the discussions has therefore been quite scattered.

 A local election was held in Sri Lanka February 10, 2018, and is the biggest election in the country’s history. The political parties SLPP and UNF got the same results, and the candidate from UNF, Ravindu Wedaaracahhi, was chosen as chairman in the city. Although UNF went out as the leading party in Tangalle, it is still divided as to which parties that prevails in the city. (dailynews.lk, 2018).

After series of interviews, we have realised that the vast of the majority are dissatisfied with the politics today. Many believe that the government is weak, and that politicians in general are very self-centred. In Tangalle, the politicians get criticism of being very slow. And the people who points out that the politics are bad, mainly wants a new presidential election as quick as possible. The governmental issue between the President and Prime Minister is one of the main factors why people are disappointed. In the interviews the President is described as weak and indecisive, and the Prime Minister gets much of the blame for many of the problems. While others appreciate Wickremesinghe and his financial support to hotels, homestays, dressmaking, etc.

The government has the primary responsibility of the people, but the locals feel they are little taken care of. Many of the people that we interviewed reacted strongly to the increase of taxes. They think it is unfair that the locals have to pay more to the government, based on the increase of tourism. High taxes are something most people emphasise as an issue, especially for the poor who lives in the rural areas. Principally, taxes are not a massive problem, but several of the interviewees points out that money does not go back to the people as it should, in form of roads, infrastructure, etc. The cash usually ends up in the pockets of the politicians. On the other hand, there are a few who stressed that the political situation is sable. Only some of the politicians the we talked to emphasise that the politics should remain as it is, and that the current development of the country is good. 

The opinion about corruption is very divided, even though most thinks that the politics are corrupt. Unlike this, some interviewees believe that the court is making effective measures against corruption, and that the cooperation within the state is on the mend. Another interviewee explains that there is no corruption in Tangalle.

After much ado, it appears that Rajapaksa is a person that everyone adores. It pulled clear that most appreciated him as a president, and the development he did in the country. One of the persons we interviewed said that Tangalle once was a poor neighbourhood, but that the situation is different today. This is mainly because of Rajapaksa and his projects in Hambantota, together with the Chinese. Yet we are left with an impression that people in Tangalle is less excited about the Chinese workers. They occupy a lot of the jobs that rather could have been given to the many unemployed in Sri Lanka.

POLITICS AND ECONOMY AMONG WOMEN

Politics and economy among women are discussed subjects in Sri Lanka. Since independence in 1948, the situation among women’s positions have not change a lot. The organizations and individuals we have met and interviewed has given us an impression that Sri Lanka has a culture where men have the dominant role. This is clearly reflected in the country’s political and economically situation.
           

The biggest economic income in Sri Lanka comes from foreign remittances. This was at the beginning, dominated by women, but has now levelled out more. There are still more women than men in that sector, who works as housekeepers in the middle east. The second largest income is tourism. Sri Lanka will in the future become a more attractive destination for tourists, providing income to the country. The third income factor comes from the garment industry. This is also a female-dominated sector. The fourth income factor is plantations, which is also a female-dominated sector. Of the four largest income factors in Sri Lanka, women are in charge for ¾ of them. (Dr.Nalani Henayake, 2019).  The country’s female-dominated income is rarely talked about. Yet, men get higher salary than women in the same positions. Men have the greatest influence on policy and are more respected as leaders. On paper, men and women are equal, but in reality, it is not socially accepted.
           

Although women dominate large parts of the country’s income, it does not mean that women in general have good finances. These occupations are «bad» jobs that gives low wages. Fortunately, there are several organizations that provide micro-loans to women and mothers in particular, which can help them to empower economically, for instance Strømme Foundation and Sarvodaya Development Centre.
           

After spending one month in Sri Lanka, we have gained the impression that there is much that can be developed when it comes to gender balance. Several organizations such as «Strømme Foundation» and «Sarvodaya development Centre» in Colombo, «Women’s development centre» in Kandy, and «Centre for women and development» in Jaffna, are trying to empower women and motivate them to involve in politics. Sri Lanka was ranked 180’th out of 190 countries in IPU ranking of female representation in parliament, June 2017. (Colombotelegraph, 2018) In 2016, a new law (quota) was introduced, that indicated that all registered political party needs to nominate 25% female candidates for each and every election. People thought this were going to be a progressive process. On the other hand, there was, and still is an insecurity among women who comes from a culture where women are not meant for such positions. Several of these seats (quota) has also been given by male, political family members, which makes the system a little corrupt. In the Tangalle council, 4/18 members are women. The parliament in Sri Lanka consist of 225 members, where 13 of them are women, which is 5.7%. Here is a link to the list of the women in the parliament, https://www.parliament.lk/en/lady-members. 
           

Most of those we interviewed and organizations we visited, want women to get involved in politics. But there was also someone who meant the opposite. A politician we interviewed said that «women do not have anything useful to convey. Women are too busy with staying home, look after the children and cook, so they won’t get time to engage in political activities. Women are not as intelligent as men and do not have a good impact on the people.» This was a point of view that shocked, but also seem “normal” for some people here. He mentioned that this only applies to the Sri Lankan politics, not on the world basis.
           

The organization, Centre for Women and development pointed that more women want to get involved in politics, but is hindered by their husbands. It is in their culture, that the man should have the last word. There are organizations that are trying to prevent this, but the problem is huge. Although women have the freedom to get involved, they need motivation to do it. We interviewed a female politician. Sadly, it was not as successful as we hoped. She was not good in English. It was Rajapaksa who invited her into politics. She has been involved in politics for one year and did not have any strong opinions. She had no particular opinion about gender balance either. She believed that women could be inspired to get involved in politics by looking at her and how far she has come.
           

New York Times wrote a post about women in politics in Sri Lanka, 9.feb. 2018. Where they mentioned «We may have elected women, yes that is great. But if they toe the party line, if they are controlled, what is the point? «, By Ms. Satkunanathan. Which give us a perspective of that women are marginalized and still not directly respected like men. Ms. Sandaruwani is a female politician who was seeking a council seat in Kotte, but was prevented from election the second time she tried. She said «People feel that if there are more women in politics, corruption will be reduced.» Her slogan was «Women leading against corruption.» Janaka Ranawaka, the current mayor, was offensive against her and said, «Why should I look for a fight with some random young girl I do not know? «. This gives us an idea of the marginalization political women go through. The post mentions that men have dominated politics for a long time. Therefore, they experience a kind of shock and denial over changes happening now, women trying to involve in politics. (New York Times, 2018)

People may think that gender balance is not a huge problem in Sri Lanka, since the world’s first female Prime Minister, Sirimavo Bandaranaike, was in Sri Lanka. What they do not know, is that she became Prime Minister because of her husband. Women with a prestige position in Sri Lanka, has most likely not started on a grassroot level, but with help from their husband or father. (Sashi Stephen, 2018)

CORRUPTION

In this assignment we will define corruption as a dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power, typically involving bribery. Sri Lanka is ranked to number 89 country in the world and got a score of 38 in 2018 at the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI). The scale went from 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean) and Sri Lanka has the same place they had in 2017. Denmark was ranked number 1 with a score of 88. (Daily Mirror, 2019). This CPI report tells us that even though Sri Lanka has had an anti-corruption mandate provided to the government they have been ranked with 36 and 38 in score since 2013. (Daily Mirror, 2019) So, there is no improvement. Two of the people we interviewed said that the current prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, has reduced the corruption and the court has stopped the corruption in Tangalle. 

According to the website business-anti-corruption portal says that there is a high risk of corruption in Sri Lanka’s judiciary. (Business-anti-corruption, 2018). People or businesses can give payments to get favourable judicial decisions. The website also says that a third of Sri Lankans believe that the police is corrupt, this we also found out in out interviews where most of the politicians told us that there was corruption in the politics and in the police. Even though one of them told us there were no corruption in Tangalle. According to the law section 2(1) and (2) of the Public Bodies (prevention of corruption) act it is a crime to give or take any loan or reward corruptly, also there is no law for gifts, bribery in the private sector nor bribery of foreign officials is not covered by the Act.

There is one event in Tangalle we would like to use as an example on corruption in politics and in the police. In 2013 there was a girl name Victoria Tkacheva from Russia who was raped and her British boyfriend, Khuram Shaikh were murdered. It accrued that one of the eight suspects were the head of the local council in Tangalle and whose family have a close relationship to the Sri Lankan president. (Colombo telegraph, 2013) The girl was found naked and unconscious in her room at the hotel, and her boyfriend was found unconscious with bullet and stab wounds. According to the police report she had been raped and had suffered vaginal injuries, but her bloody dress and underwear was never found so the police had no proof, so all the suspects were released on bail without charge. (Colombo telegraph, 2013) This happening is serious and do tell a lot about the system here. The politicians are hiding the reality from us to make their country better, even though some will say that having leaders in the council who do such things is not making the country better.

What we have experienced though our interviews with politicians is that those who support the current government and sits in the council in Tangalle says that there is less corruption than before and that the prime minister and the president have reduced the corruption. But those who do not support the government says the opposed; that there is corruption in the politics and that the solution is to change the whole government. 

Talking to the hotel managers it seems like they stay away from corruption and if they needed help from the government, they did it the correct and official way, instead of getting help through the community. Despite this, one of our interview objects told us that none of the hotels nor restaurant have license to sell alcohol. So, when the law enforcement is calling ahead of the visit so the hotels can hide it. Then the hotel manager pays the law enforcement.

There is corruption in the hotel industry-they have to sell alcohol illegally since there is no law supporting them-law enforcement call in front of visit to get paid. One also believed that all politicians are corrupt and take a lot of money in their own pockets, he does not trust anyone of them and then do not know who to vote for and is waiting for something entirely new.

TOURISM

Tourism is one of the key sources of income in Tangalle. The tourism has a direct impact on the city. For Tangalle the months December to March is usually the busiest time of year. The rain season ends in December and the tourists start coming. A lot of people from other places in Sri Lanka moves to Tangalle to work with the tourism in this period, or they move to Tangalle for good. January is normally the busiest month of the year with the highest number of tourists. This year the steady, annual increase of tourists seems to have stopped according to the people we have interviewed. Many people have cancelled their bookings leaving numerous rooms empty during peak season. This situation has been created by major political turmoil during the autumn of 2018. Since so many people have cancelled their reservations, it has had an impact on the economic situation in Tangalle. It is not only the hotels that are being affected by this, but the hole city. The restaurant, stores and other people in the service business have lost a source to income. In Sri Lanka there are few tourists from Sri Lanka exploring their own country. Almost every one of these tourists is coming abroad from a foreign country. According to the statistics about tourism in Sri Lanka, most tourists come from either Europe or different countries in Asia. There are also a bigger number of tourists coming from Australasia and North America, and a smaller amount from the rest of the world (Central Bank of Sri Lanka, 2018). All the tourists are expecting one thing when they are out travelling: safety. And something that could disturb the peace and safety in a country is unpredictable political situations. Many countries have been advised not to go to Sri Lanka during the political crises, and therefore cancelled their trip. Many of the people we interviewed were frustrated about the predicament they were in, and the lack of income their business would have this year. The same problem happened after the tsunami when people also cancelled their reservations. At this time there weren’t that much tourism in Sri Lanka as it is now. After the war ended in 2009 the tourism in the country have increased a lot and have many years been on the top lists over “places to travel to”.  (Fernando, Bandara & Smith, 2016, s. 258)       .

One of our interview objects was both a politician and an entrepreneur. He sided with the party which is currently in power, UNP. When we asked him about his opinion on the political crisis said that it had impact on his business. Another interview we had was with a local entrepreneur who mainly dealt with supplying manpower to businesses, but also working himself with other tourist-related ventures. He estimated that the political situation that happened had taken away around 30-40% of his revenue and it affected his economy.

When we interviewed people in the service business who depend their economy on the tourists, we got a lot of similar responses to this issue. Everyone was dissatisfied with the consequences that came from the political complication and it affected their economy. A lot of foreigners cancelled their reservations and there were few people visiting their restaurant and few foreigners who used tuk-tuks. It has been a bad season for their business, compared to earlier.

Even though one of the two main income sources is tourism there is still not that much tourism as other cities in Sri Lanka. People use this as a stop on the way to their destination, and not as their destination. Many of the hotels here, of the ones who are cheaper, have the problem that people are cancelling their reservations the last minute. The more expensive hotels don’t have this problem because they have another type of tourist, who are older and have more money. These tourists often come to stay to relax, and for vacation and not just as a stop on the road.

The tourists that come here are also called for “bad tourist” by the locals. By this they mean that there are a lot of people doing drugs and drinking alcohol, and not use that much money to shop and at restaurants. Then they don’t get that much money as if there were “good” tourist. Since the people do not use that much money, the city won’t develop as much as that it could, to drag even more tourists. They also do not have any special attractions to drag tourist who don’t come to relax on the beach, like other cities in Sri Lanka.

One of the reason tourists go here instead of other places is because of the diving opportunities. (Fernando et al., 2016, s. 251) A lot of people come to dive, but they don’t necessarily stay.  Like mentioned, people come here as a stop on the way to other towns that offers more than just good diving.

Now it is harder working with tourism than earlier. Hotel businesses don’t earn so much that they could because of the high taxes, and many hotels go bankrupt. About 4 years ago many hotels paid ¼ of the taxes that they pay now. Even though the tourism is one of the main incomes for Tangalle it isn’t necessarily the best income for the locals, especially if so many people cancel their booking at the last minute. Then other tourist won’t be able to book in advanced and a lot of hotel rooms are standing empty. The locals think there need to be more tourism so they can develop their city. At the same time tourist aren’t coming to Tangalle because of lack of good shopping possibilities and because it is not a big city.

 DRUGS

Drugs has been a rising problem on the island due to tourism and corrupt politicians. The problem has become so emphatic that president Sirisena has looked to the Philippines for answers. As late as in summer of 2018 it was declared that the Sri Lankan government would start hanging convicted drug dealers as part of the war on drugs in Sri Lanka. (Peter Beaumont, 2018) According to Dangerous Drugs Control Board (DDCB) 250.000 Sri Lankans were addicted to drugs in 2017, which shows just how big of a problem it is. Sri Lanka is considered to be a transit and a source point of drug trafficking in Asia, so the people bringing drugs into Sri Lanka are foreigners. However, it’s not like these routes are not guarded in any way, because they are, the problem of how the drugs come into Sri Lanka lays even deeper than this. (Namini Wijadesa, 2018) Easily corrupted politicians make it possible to sell the drugs in to the country. The corruption, that has been mentioned earlier in the report, has facilitated many criminal enterprises, but drug trafficking seems to be the biggest one. Furthermore, convicted drug dealers work from inside the prison to import drugs into Sri Lanka. Being that cell phones are illegal in the prison, it is highly suspicious there were 3,950 outgoing calls and 360 incoming calls from the cell of a convicted drug dealer in March. (Namini Wijadesa, 2018)
           

As we quickly learned that drugs were a big problem in both the political and economic part in Sri Lanka, we digged deeper to find out whether or not it was so in Tangalle as well.
           

The first interview we conducted in Tangalle was with a member from the UNP. Being very curious about the connection between corruption drugs, and tourism, most of our questions circulated around these themes. Being from the UNP party, the rather nationalistic views quickly came to light. When we asked about corruption in the Tangalle area, the politician quickly worked around the question, stating that «it was not a problem as the council president stops it». Moreover, we continued to ask about drugs in the area, as it usually is a big problem in tourist areas. The interview object quickly claimed that it was a «tourist problem», as drugs among the local people was not usual. He went on to explain that the government was brutal on local people if they imported drugs, so it was only natural that the drugs came with the tourists. To explain further how it was a tourist culture, he told us about the festival held about 25 km away from Tangalle. This festival is popular for ‘hippies’, who then take a lot of drugs during their stay in Sri Lanka. Another issue the politician raised was that the hippies lived with local families, and hung out with local beach boys so that they also were affected by the drug culture following these tourists.
           

Having got this view on tourists, we felt that it was only appropriate to talk to a local entrepreneur who depends on tourism. Being a local man with a good education, and as someone who has a lot of experience with tourism, it was obvious that we would get a different view upon it all. Circulating around the same themes as in the first interview, we got a lot of honest opinions. When talking about tourism, he was clear on the fact that tourists usually do abuse drugs whilst in Sri Lanka. However, he did clarify that it was a local problem as well, due to politicians being so corrupt. Due to the strict anti-drug system they have in airports, it would be impossible for a tourist to bring drugs in to Sri Lanka. In addition to this the entrepreneur told us how convicted drug dealers arranged drugs to be imported into the country from prison, with help from politicians. Despite having a totally opposite view on corruption, drugs and tourism compared to the politician, he did clarify that tourism did have a lot of negative effects. Whilst clarifying that drugs was a local problem, he did say that ‘hippie tourists’ brought a negative culture to Tangalle, that the local people seemed to be just fine with.
           

Having got two quite different views, it was time to interview one last politician. This time it was from the SLFP, the same party that Rajapaksa belongs to. Being a council member, it was interesting to hear his views regarding the political situation in Tangalle. This time, we approached the interview in a much more direct way being that we wanted clear answers. When we asked about corruption and drugs, the politician immediately admitted that it was a big problem in Sri Lanka, and even in Tangalle. He went on to explain that both politicians and tourist bring drugs into the area, and that the politicians have in some way «betrayed the country». In addition to slamming some of the politicians, he went on to the ‘hippie culture’ some tourist brought to Tangalle. Once again, we were told about the festival nearby Tangalle, and how hippies/tourists abused drugs as well as disrespecting Buddhist culture. He went on to explain how the same people would live with local families in Tangalle, and effect the local people with their drug filled lifestyle.

OTHER INCOMES

Here is a statistic that shows Remittances per capita and GDP per capita in Sri Lanka from 1975-2006. Both remittances and BNP have over the years become more similar. Remittances per capita has grown a lot, specially over the last five years and is still increasing today. The largest income factors in Tangalle are tourism and fisheries. Tangalle has its own fishing harbour, and some of the people we interviewed said that fishery in Tangalle would last for a long time. The harbour rooms plenty of fishing boats. The most common type of fish being caught here are different sorts of tuna. There are also different kinds of shellfish being caught. (Sri Lanka Business.com, 2019)

Tangalle is known for its beautiful beaches, but also for fisheries. Even fisheries can attract the tourist. On TripAdvisor, which is a tourist-guide on specific places, they recommend several fishing guides and tours. Tangalle also has its own Department of fisheries and aquatic resources.

Conclusion

During this homestay in Tangalle, we have interviewed several different people with a wide range of thoughts, regarding the political and economic situation, both in Sri Lanka and Tangalle. We found out that most of the local people are unsatisfied with the political situation in the country today.  Women need motivation to get involved in politics, and there is still a lot of development left in gender equality. Tourism are providing large parts of the Tangalle economy, and bringing both positive and challenging consequences. Tourism and fisheries are the main income factors in Tangalle. We also figured out that both corruption and drugs are discussed subjects in Sri Lanka, and in Tangalle as well.

Throughout the field trip we have learned that the country is facing several challenges, and many of them do not have concrete answers. Most if the people we have spoken to are frustrated with the political situation and does not believe it will get any better.

We believe that development should begin with in the core of the state. Nothing will develop with an uncertain political government, that also may be corrupt.

Literature Review

Abu Siddique , E. A. Selvanathan & Saroja Selvanathan (2012) Remittancesand Economic Growth: Empirical Evidence from Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka, The Journal of Development Studies, (05.07.12), page. 10, collected from http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2012.663904

BBC, (2018, 29.10), connected from;  https://www.bbc.com/news/world-south-asia-12004081
Hvad vil du vite? (2019, January 31). Forskjellen på kvalitative og kvantitative metoder. Collected from http://hvadvilduvide.dk/metode/forskellen-paa-kvalitative-og-kvantitative-metoder/

Central Bank of Sri Lanka. (2018). Economic and Social statistics of Sri Lanka.

Citypopulation, (2014, 21.12), connected from; https://www.citypopulation.de/php/srilanka-admin.php?adm1id=33

Colombo telegraph, (2013, 22. april)  Tangalle rape victim has spoken for the first time, Colombo telegraph Read: 30.01.19. Collected from: https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/tangalle-rape-victim-has-spoken-for-the-first-time/?fbclid=IwAR2O0eTNnk5PoqZqyTORKLPZg9aApXBiR8TyaQ35XdbRPqg9qtLKmL9hQOE

 Daily Mirror, (2019, 29. januar) SL ranked 89th in corruption perceptions index(CPI) 2018 Daily Mirror. Read: 30.01.2019. Collected from: http://www.dailymirror.lk/article/SL-ranked-th-in-Corruption-Perceptions-Index-CPI–161679.html

Dailynews.lk. (2018, March 27). UNP bags Tangalle UC, Aranayake PS chairs while Pohottuwa wins Dehiwela-Mt Lavinia. Collected from http://www.dailynews.lk/2018/03/27/local/146699/unp-bags-tangalle-uc-aranayake-ps-chairs-while-pohottuwa-wins-dehiwela-mt

Dr.Nalani Henayake, Sri Lanka income sectors, lecturer at University of Peraderiya, held 22.01.19

Fernando, S., Bandara, J. S., & Smith, C. (2016). Tourism in Sri Lanka. In M. C. Hall & S. J. Page (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Tourism in Asia (pp. 251-264). Abingdon, Oxon, UK: Routledge.

GAN business anti corruption, (no year) Sri Lanka, Read: 30.01.19. Collected from: https://www.business-anti-corruption.com/country-profiles/sri-lanka/

Hansani Bandara, (30.03.18), 25% quota. Collected from:
https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/the-25-percent-quota-women-in-sri-lankan-politics/.

Link to fishing tours on Tripadvisor, (no year): https://no.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g304142-d15636039-Reviews-Tangalle_Fishing_Tours-Tangalle_Southern_Province.html?m=19905

Mashal M., Bastians D., (09.02.18), aspect of women in politics, collected from: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/09/world/asia/srilanka-women-candidates.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fworld&action=click&contentCollection=world&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=sectionfront 

Michael Safi (2018)Sri Lanka’s political crisis: everything you need to know, The Guardian, connected from; https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/29/sri-lankas-political-crisis-everything-you-need-to-know
 Namini Wijadesa (2018) The narcotics situation in Sri Lanka is serious, says STF Chief, Sundaytimes, connected from; http://www.sundaytimes.lk/180715/news/the-narcotics-situation-in-sri-lanka-is-serious-says-stf-chief-302492.html
Peter Beaumont(2018) Sri Lanka to begin hanging drug dealers to ‘replicate success of Philippines’ The Guardian, connected from; https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/jul/11/sri-lanka-to-begin-hanging-drug-dealers-to-replicate-success-of-philippines
Parlamentet i Sri Lanka (02.10.15), Female members in the parliament, collected from: https://www.parliament.lk/en/lady-members.

Sashi Stephen, Women in politics vs culture,  lecturer at Women development centre in Kandy, held 21.01.19

Site of Department of fisheries and aquatic resources, collected from: https://www.cfc.gov.lk/web/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=18:contact-details&catid=11&Itemid=101&lang=en

Lakpura (n.y.) Tangalle. Collected from https://lanka.com/about/destinations/tangalle/

 Sri Lanka Business, (2019), connected from; http://www.srilankabusiness.com/sea-food

 Sri Lanka Mirror (2017, 25. march). Tourist hotels in dire difficulty by tax increase. Collected from https://srilankamirror.com/news/2438-tourist-hotels-in-dire-difficulty-by-tax-increase

UCDP, (2019), connected from; http://ucdp.uu.se/#/exploratory

Vidushan Premathiratne (2017),Never-ending corruption in Sri Lankan politics, DailyFT, connected from; http://www.ft.lk/article/595377/Never-
ending-corruption-in-Sri-Lankan-politicsk

WorldBank (2010,23.12) Lessons Learned from the Sri Lanka’s Tsunami Reconstruction ,connected from; http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/lessons-learned-sri-lanka-2014/12/23tsunami-reconstruction/

Social and Cultural Affairs, Sri Lanka since 1948 S

Report from a field exercise in Tangalle, 28.- 31. January 2019 as part of the field course in the UIA bachelor programme in development studies

Authors: Kari Olava Haakonseth, Pål Folmer Jahren, Simon Duarte Andersen, Susanne Sævdal Bere and Vilde Finstad Henriksen.

Coordinator: Dilshan Jaleel

Social and Cultural Affairs

Introduction

Development in Sri Lanka since independence, 1948, has been slow, and not very much has happened since. Before independence, Sri Lanka was developing fast and was one of the fastest developing countries in South Asia (Dr. Nalani Hennaiake, personal communication, 22.01.2019). But in later years the development has stagnated. In this field report we have decided to focus on how the social and cultural affairs in the district of Hambantota has changed down through the generations. Our main focus will be on gender, marriage, religion, familial structures, work and hobbies between two generations. We are going to explain how the social and cultural affairs have changed from the generation of high school kids and the generation of their grandparents. Our thesis is therefore What social and cultural differences are there between the students and the grandparents in Hambantota, Sri Lanka?

Before starting the interviews, we expected to find that the younger generation would be quite different than the older. For example, we expected that the younger generation would be less religious, and more liberal. We also expected the difference between gender to be great, for example that women are treated worse than men, and that they would have different aspirations concerning work. Out of this field course we expect that we will uncover some of the changes in community that has happened after 1948.

We have interviewed 12 people, and compared the answers, based on gender and generation, to find differences and similarities. We chose to interview people from different religions, and to have an even number of both sexes. Then, by using the literature for this course we have analysed our findings and theorised what it could mean for the social and cultural changes in Hambantota, Sri Lanka.

Literature Review

According to Malhotra and Mather, domestic power is related to economic resources and social structures. Their solution is to go away from broad concepts and rather focus on specific issues, (1997, 599). This could mean that instead of theorising, we need to focus on the specific problems such as how the domestic power is actually structured. This is something we found in our analysis: how women are doing more domestic work, while the men have only a few chores.

According to Isenman, open access to education in Sri Lanka has led to the possibility of social and economic mobility (Isenman 1980, 239). Mobility in social and economic positions can explain why the two generations have such different understanding and opinions on work life, education and, it could possibly explain the different understandings of family structures and even marriage. For example, marrying someone with a good job or education may have been more important to the older generation of women, because it would improve their social and economic position. Today, girls can get educated themselves, making it possible to change position without marriage. It would also mean that in theory the younger generation would have a better source of income.

Generations change when the society as a whole change (Pilcher, 1994). This could potentially explain why the change between the two generations is small. Because, as mentioned, the development as a whole has been slow in Sri Lanka after 1948. What stops the continuum of social structures through generations? A major social event could stop a continuum and change the new generations (Pilcher, 1994). It would therefore be interesting to further study how the tsunami changed the generations. One social event that could have contributed to the difference in generations, is the growth of media and technology. Hambantota district is mostly a rural area, which means that fundamental changes happen slowly, and generations often stay the same.

Mannheim use the term transition. The historical contexts explain the changes from generation to generation (Pilcher, 1994). This means that the social, political, economic, etc. conditions that define a period, also define the opinions and attitudes of the people of that generation.

People within the same class are more likely to share opinions, despite generations (Pilcher, 1994). Therefore, those who are young, and who felt the same as the older people – although not exclusively – could be due to sharing social class. This can also be thought to apply for the caste system in Sri Lanka.

Methodology

In this assignment we chose to use interviews as method of collecting data, as it would give us qualitative information that, for example a questionnaire would not be able to give. When doing the interviews, we used an interview guide, while also asking follow-up questions during the interviews.

We chose to interview twelve people, where six are female and six are male. All of them will be inhabitants of Hambantota district. Three girls and three boys were students between the ages of 16-23 years old, and three men and three women were grandparents. We did this in order to be able to compare the answers we got, making it possible to find changes in the generations. When asking questions, we focused on how they view changes that have happened, and if they feel that they are different from their family members.

Some of the challenges we experienced was regarding language and the participants willingness to answer questions in an honest manner. Our understanding of the cultures could potentially be a problem when interpreting the answers. The interviewees speak mostly Tamil and Sinhalese, and our interpreter speaks Tamil, so it is some language confusions when they are translating. Some of the words we used was not familiar to the interview objects, such as equality and homosexuality, so they did not have the same meaning of the words as we do. It is difficult for them to answer our questions in an honest manner, especially for the younger women, since their family usually was nearby during the interviews, and could hear their answers. Additionally, they did not want to create a bad image of their culture and community, and therefore their answers could be affected by their parents being nearby. We had to keep all of this in our minds while interpreting the answers and analysing the material. By example, some of the answers are too hard to decipher, and we have therefore left them out of the analysis.

Another issue we faced, was that the younger generation, especially the girls, seemed to be too shy to be honest. The problem could be that often that their families were around for the interviews and it seemed to affect their answers. However, the older people seemed to be more honest as they didn’t seem to care what their family member thought.

Findings and Analysis

By reviewing the interviews and systematically arranging the answers by gender and age, we compared the younger generation to the old. What we found was that all of the young interviewees agreed that equality was important. However, they seemed to agree that equality was not reached because the boys felt they had no restrictions based on gender, while all the girls felt they had. For example, one of the girls felt the need for someone to follow her to school for safety reasons, and she was not allowed to use social media. The older generation agrees overall with the youth, in that it should be equality amongst the genders, except one grandmother who thought that it would be disrespectful towards men that they would be treated the same as women. When she told about it she made it seem like she was fine with equality, but that all women should be more respectful towards men. The older generation also confided that they talk to a certain degree about gender issues with friends, in a subtle manner. Overall it seems like it is more common for the youth to talk about gender issues openly with friends. Perhaps it could be a result of social media and impulses from more egalitarian cultures.

All the boys felt it was acceptable to marry someone from another religion, and on the other hand, the girls felt they had to marry someone from the same religion. In practice though, this would be a problem, because Sri Lanka is such a multi-religious country (ICTA, personal communication, 07.01.2019) and if women can only marry from the same religion, then men in practice also would have to marry someone with the same religion. This could mean that only the girls are explicitly told who to marry, while the boys are left to choose. This is also evident as all the girls felt pressured to get married, while most of the boys felt no pressure. All the grandparents except one said it was accepted to marry someone from another religion. Among the grandparents four of them felt pressured by their parents and society to get married, still four of them felt no pressure on who to marry.

When we asked if they have experienced any issues with gender, all three of the grandmothers answered yes, but the men did not experience any.  The same grandmother who stressed the importance of respect, had to quit her job as a teacher when she got married, because she had to take care of her husband and their home. Another talked about how as a woman, she is not allowed to enter the mosque, except on special occasions.

The younger boys and girls all answered that they had daily chores that needed to be done around the house. The difference that we found however, is that girls has even more chores then the boys. Moreover, the girls had to help their mothers around the house while the boys most often just had to keep an eye out on their siblings from time to time. They all seemed to take this division of labour for granted, and one of the girls even pointed out that her brother was too young to help out. Even though, we found out that he was eleven years old and took this to mean that it was rather the gender, and not the age that was the problem. Both girls and boys had friends from other religions, and none of them felt that religion was a barrier for friendship, although they all agreed that religion was important for their identity.

Two of the girls and two of the boys wanted to go to university, while they were also concerned about future job opportunities. They also thought that their future job would be relevant to what they wanted to study at university. This positively surprised us, because we thought that more of the boys would drop out of school and start to drive Tuk Tuk for a living. (ICTA, personal communication, 7.1.2019). However, they all seemed to aspire for a higher level of education. This is connected to what is mentioned earlier by Isenman, that access to education can lead to social mobility. None of the grandparents stated that they had attended university. Again, this could be brought back to Isenman, and it could be presumed that their social mobility would be by different means.

We were also positively surprised that all the young students, except for one boy, were involved in after school activities. After school activities include more than sports, it also includes extra schooling, which a lot of them need because some of the subjects are not taught in school. Through our journey in Sri Lanka we were often told that there are subjects that teachers won’t teach in regular school, so children need these extra classes to able to go to university (Arne Olav Øyhus, personal communication, 27.1.2019). That’s also the reason why one of the girls probably didn’t have time for other after school activities like the other students. The one boy that did not participate in any after school activities, seemed to be occupied with helping at home and taking care of his little brother. Also, all of them were physically active except for one girl, who said that she was too shy to participate. This might be wrong information, her covering up the truth that her parents don’t let her participate. We think this because it is the same girl that weren’t allowed to go out alone and needed a parent with her at all time. She wasn’t allowed to access social media, and meeting people at sports activities could influence her in a bad way in her parent’s point of view. It could also be due to the difference in upbringing of girls and boys, where girls are taught to be timid and silent, and boys the opposite. Often the girls are expected to be inside the house, which together with the expectation of being silent, can generate a low self-esteem in girls. (Dr. Prema, personal communication, 27.1.2019) All the grandparents accept for one grandmother participated in after school activities growing up, and all of them thinks that after school activities benefits the community. Most of them agreed on that it helps building social ties, skills, but most importantly health. One thing we noticed in our analysis, was that both the young and the elders mostly participated in different sports as an after-school activity.

All the grandfathers worked, one of them was a fish salesman and the two others worked for the government. One of the grandmothers worked as a teacher but had to quit to become a housewife, another one worked as a housemaid in Dubai and the last one didn’t work. None of the students worked, so we find it hard to compare generations on this topic. 

The drinking culture in Hambantota for the younger generation seems to be none existent. None of the boys nor girls drank. They all got very defensive when we asked the questions about alcohol and almost immediately said that alcohol was nothing for them. Some of them also thought that it was very bad when other people around them drank. One of the girls had experienced her grandfather dying from alcohol-related disease, and therefore having a negative view on drinking. As we have been told, alcohol abuse is a significant problem in Sri Lanka (Dr. Prema, personal communication, 27.1.2019). It affects not only the consumers but their families and friends as well. This were shown to some degree as one of the grandmothers we asked told us about her late husband who died from alcohol and drug abuse. The other grandmothers had little to none experience with alcohol. On the other side, the grandfathers all admitted to either having been drinking alcohol earlier or still occasionally consuming alcohol. When asked about drinking culture and how alcohol affects them, all the grandparents had a mostly negative view on alcohol and its effects. One of the grandfathers still pointed out that it could have a positive effect which we interpreted was because of the social sides of drinking with friends.

Domestic violence is often related to alcohol where it is mostly the males in the house that are being violent. Once asked about domestic violence, all the grandparents told that they either had a first-hand experience, or that they had heard about someone experiencing it. One grandmother elaborated furthermore that domestic violence is a common thing and happens most families. Alcohol is also being used as an excuse when primarily males are being violent towards someone in their household (Dr. Prema, personal communication, 27.1.2019) We also found that everyone we interviewed had experienced or knew someone who had experienced domestic violence.

When asked about family-related questions concerning family structures, the grandparents felt that they all were taken care of by their grandchildren and children. These statements added nicely up with what the younger generation had to say when they were asked about their relations with their grandparents. All the students told us that they thought it was important to take care of their elders without hesitation. To us it seemed like family relations and taking care of each other is a vital part of life as a family Sri Lanka. We also got the impression that most of the elderly people shared housing with the rest of their family members. With this, we assume that it is one of the reasons for the close relations between the old and the young.

Conclusion

The main finding in our analysis is that the difference between the two generations, is not as major as we first anticipated. Mostly, the difference was found in drinking culture and marriage. The elders had more experience with alcohol than the younger generation, which could be explained by the difference in age. Regarding marriage, the younger generation had more pressure on whom to marry and to marry within their religion.  Some of the differences could be due to different personalities rather than generations. But we do not have enough data to state this. For example, in some cases the older generation felt more modern than the younger one. The muslim girl was very conservative, while one of the grandparents said she could choose her own partner in marriage. One of the reasons we think, why the gap between generations is so minuscule, might have something to do with the settings of the interviews. During the interviews the family was always around listening to what they were answering, and that they might have answered what they think their parents or grandparents wanted to hear. Sometimes it also seemed as if the parents were putting words in their mouth. All together we all have had a very good experience doing the field report. Even though we faced several challenges, we still feel like it helped us in a very good way. We are looking forward to continue our studies of development with this as a background.

Literature

Isenman, Paul. 1980. Basic Needs: The Case of Sri Lanka. Pergamon Press Ltd. Vol. 8. Pp. 237-258.

Malhotra, A. and Mark Mather. 1997. Does Schooling and Work Empower Women in Developing Countries? Gender and Domestic Decisions in Sri Lanka. Plenum Publishing Cooperation. 12(4).Pp. 599-630

            Pilcher, Jane. 1994. Mannheim’s sociology of generations: an undervalued legacy. BJS. Vol. 45 (3). Pp. 481-495.

Health and education

Report from a field exercise in Tangalle, 28.- 31. January 2019 as part of the field course in the UIA bachelor programme in development studies

Authors: Mathilde Haugland, Marte Jahren Hoel, Anne Kristine Utskot, Heidi Gran, Lucia Philipp and Silje Saatvedt

Coordinator: Ms. Shafna Razik,Mrs.Sabina Razik, Mr. Ajith Wasantha Liyanage, Professor Arne Olav Øyhus

Title of Report : Health and Education

Acknowledgements:The health and education group wishes to present our greatest appreciation to the people that have been a part of this field exercise and helped us. With a lot of gratitude, we would like to acknowledge our local Coordinator Ms.Shafna Razik, Mrs.Sabina Razik and the rest of the family for opening their home to us and giving generous hospitality. Furthermore, we would like to express our warmest thanks to Professor Arne Olav Øyhus, for his knowledgeable guidance through the  field course. A special thanks goes out to our program coordinator Mr. Ajith Wasantha Liyanage for his assistance and support. Mr. Ajith has been one of our biggest resources throughout this programme.

Introduction

This is a field report made by six students from the university of Agder. The report is a part of our field exercise in the undergraduate programme of development studies.

The topic question we have chosen for our field raport is How the health and education system functions for children in different economic situations in Hambantota.

We will mainly focus on the children under 18 years old, because they are the future hope of Sri Lanka. Looking at the country’s history we can see that the development of Sri Lanka has been on a standstill for a decade. Are the children the key to the next step in developing the country? We have looked at how health and educational  institutions work in practise . In our report we used two different ways to present our empire in the field report. The health topic was stressing the differences between both governmental and private institutions and experiences from a low income- and a middle income family.There are no private schools in Hambantota according to our coordinator so regarding education we focused on the issue of private after school lessons and gathering information from teachers and local families. We chose to analyse our findings from the teachers and the families we interviewed together, as we felt that it was the best way to discuss around the topic.

The background of the report is to see how the education and health system works in the country for children under 18 years, and how these institutions have changed through the years. Have they improved, stayed the same or gotten worse? This is relevant for development studies because the institutions we looked into is a key part for taking the country forward. It is important that education and health is available to all economic groups of the country, this is what we want to address in this field report. We were fortunate enough to stay with a wonderful and helpful family while writing this report, our coordinator Shafna has assisted us greatly by getting us interviews with key people relevant to our field report.

Hambantota

Hambantota district is located in the southern province of Sri Lanka. In the district of Hambantota there are about 599 903 citizens. (Department of Census and Statistics, 2011) According to our local coordinator Shafna, there are two hospitals in Hambantota, one private and one governmental. In Hambantota there are around 599 903 people in the district and 138,440 of them go to a governmental schools, a total of 321 in the district.  All together there is a total of 8,447 teachers (Statistics Branch Ministry of Education, 2017)

Methodology

We chose to collect data for the report by visiting and interviewing various people. To write the most authentic report as possible we wanted to talk to both people with authority and average families. Our coordinator arranged for us to talk to two different women who had children. One of them was from a middle-income family and one from a low-income family.

Another important aspect of our report was to compare the public sector with the private sector. We met a doctor from a government hospital called Hambantota district general hospital. A doctor from Ruhunu hospital which is a private hospital, this doctor worked in a government hospital during the day and therefore he had a lot of information and experiences from both sectors. For our research on education we interviewed teachers from a government school and from a private after-school program. At last we included an orphanage in our research to get a broader perspective on our report. We prepared questionnaires before every meeting.  As explained in the introduction, the group focused on comparing. Therefore when we interviewed we asked similar questions so it would be easier for us to compare in our report. We used an interpreter when talking to both of the local women (low-income and middle-income families) and also when we met the man in charge of the orphanage. We used our local coordinator as the interpreter and it worked very well. As a part of the research on government hospital we got to see the male ward at the local hospital in Hambantota. It was interesting to see the ward with our own eyes and not only having the doctor describe it to us. This also applied for the orphanage, we got to talk to and play with the children there. Being able to visit several of the institutions gave us a wider understanding of the information we were given.

Challenges

Our main challenge during this field exercise was the limited time we were given to complete this report, and because of this we felt we couldn’t do all the research we wanted to look into. We also had to divide our group into two to cover all the interviews in the short time we had. In retrospect we would have loved to have an extra day our two on this assignment. Because of some re-scheduling of different meetings, it created unnecessary time waste. The language barrier also created some minor problems.

Findings and analysis

In this part of the report we want to present our findings in the field of health and education. We collected the data for this report through interviews with families and institutions, and have interpreted this information through different statistics and articles that we found relevant to our topics. We will first present our findings regarding health, and move on to our findings in education.

Health

The health system in Sri Lanka is enriched by a mix of Allopathic, Ayurvedic, Unani and several other systems of medicine that exists together (Samarage, 2006).Since 1930s under the democratization, have competitive politics, left-wing political parties, trade unions and public pressure structured a strong policy discourse that makes it the state’s responsibility to deliver free health care as a basic right for all citizens. In 1940, Sri Lanka became independent. Then the government invested in a network of accessible and free health care services.

(Russell & Gilson, 2006).  To give a better insight into the health system is also relevant to look at healthcare expenses is 3,0% of the country’s GDP, and is financed through taxes.  The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Sri Lanka expanded 1.40 percent in the fourth quarter of 2017 over the same quarter of the previous year. (Trading economics, u.y). In this part of the  assignment will we present a general background about the health care system in Sri Lanka, But or main findings and focus will include Hambantota.

Governmental hospital and private hospital

The doctor from the government hospital (doctor A) and the doctor from the private hospital (doctor B) gave us a lot of information. Some of it was similar and some of it differed.

Child mortality is relatively low in Sri Lanka compared to developing countries. According to world data atlas the child mortality in Sri Lanka was 8.8 in 2017, in Uganda it was 87 and in norway 2.5. (The World Bank, 2017). We asked the doctors to comment on this statistic. Dr. B said the reason for it being so low is because the doctors are used to working a lot. Therefore they have very good experience and will rarely miss anything about the child’s health. Both Dr. A and Dr. B were a bit unsure of the main cause of death among these children. According to Dr A genetical problems is the main reason in Hambantota.

When it comes to the main health challenges facing children today malnutrition and lack of education among the parents are some of the biggest problems, according to the doctors. There is a lot of poor families in Hambantota and they have very little information about health in general. Sometimes they can not identify that something is wrong with their children. The poor parents also lack information about nutrition. In these types of families traditions stand very strong also when it comes to what they eat. A lot of rice, some vegetables and very little meat is standard. Some families can’t even afford proteins like egg and meat. The food they are serving their kids can often lead to iron deficiencies, underweight and more. According to a report about nutrition of children and women, done by the Sri Lankan government, 21% of children under 5 years are underweight, meaning that they are thin for their age. (Department of Census and statistics Sri Lanka, 2016, childs health). Dr Ranatunga believed that there is no severe malnutrition problems in Sri Lanka like in some African countries, for example in Uganda.

The vaccination of children was another important topic for us. In Sri Lanka you get a book when you are born. The book is called “child health development record” or CHDR. In the CHDR the child’s health is monitored and written down, for example vaccinations, height and weight over the years. The parents need to visit a nearby clinic with their kids to do these “check ups”. The doctors believe that this is a very good follow up after the birth. The book is also being monitored by the hospital, teachers and midwives. The vaccination of children is free in Sri Lanka. According to dr.B the monitoring and the fact that it is free are the main reasons why the number of vaccination is so high in Sri Lanka. According to the government “in 2016, among children age 24-35 months, only one percent were not received any vaccinations”. (Department of Census and Statistics Sri Lanka, 2016, nutrition of children and women) . They also do vaccinations in private hospitals but these are not free. It will cost around 1500 rupees, according the dr. Man. The book is only given to the mother and to the midwife. There is no registraztion on computers. This is a huge problem, especially if the book gets lost. As a part of the study we wanted to know why there is so many private hospitals in the country. What is it is that is missing in the government hospitals? The doctor from the government hospital gave us several insights. There are way too many patients compared to the amount of doctors. Lack of doctors is a huge problem. A lot of the young people who get educated as doctors move to work in other countries with better salary, facilities and more. This is called brain-drain. The doctors who do stay in Sri Lanka want to work in big cities like Colombo because the hospitals there are much better than in more rural areas. Therefore it is a huge lack of doctors and also facilities in the preferi, like Hambantota. In Hambantota hospital the children under 14 are staying in one big room or ward. There is also one big ward for women and one for men. According to dr. Ranatunga if the beds are full, the people who are “not that sick” needs to share beds, sit on chairs or sleep on the floor.

The doctor from the privat hospital gave us a lot of the same information regarding this issue. In addition he said that the medicine in the private sector is better. They have different brands, but unlike the government medicine these cost money. The doctors in the private hospitals have more time with each patients. On the other hand the doctors in government hospitals have good experience in being efficient and precis at the same time. Dr. Mori explained to us that being a doctor in a government hospital has higher status. The two doctors agreed on a lot which made us feel that the information we were given was reliable.

Middle-income family and lower-income family

Our local coordinator arranged a meeting with a 56 years old woman from a middle-income family, with 3 grown up kids, and a woman from a lower income family, with 5 kids. The woman from the middle-income family was a government officer in the engineering building department, while the woman from the lower income family was a stay at home mom. The middle-income families youngest son was 16 years old and still in school, and the same was the other families two youngest kids at 18- and 13 years. The older children had moved out and was no longer under the care of the parents. Still, both women have lots of experience by raising their kids. Even though Sri Lanka provides free universal health, the women presented different views on how the system functions.

Both families use the public hospital if their children where to fell ill, despite one of them being from a middle-income family. Working for the government brings several benefits, one of them is regular health checkups, thus makes it convenient to bring her children to the public hospital.

They had quite different opinions on the development of the health system. Their different economical situations do most likely play an important role in their experiences. On the one side, the middle-income woman described the changes in the health system as a positive development. She told us that her children had a more opportunities then she had, and better medicines and treatment. On the other side, the other woman described the changes as more negative. She tells that some medicines who were available for free, now costs money, making poor people left behind not available to buy them.

Nutrition is also an important factor in children’s health. Sri Lanka is facing substantive challenges in addressing poor nutrition. You can find malnutrition in every stage in the Sri Lankan life-circle, starting with 1in 6 newborns being born with Low Body Weight (LBW).Further, older age children in Sri Lanka currently has one of the highest rates of acute malnutrition (wasting) among children under 5 years in the world. This is being categorized as at the «critical» threshold level by World Health Organization (World Food Programme, 2018).«Twenty-one percent of the children born to mothers in the poorest households were registered as of low birth weight, compared to 9 percent among the richest quintile” (Department of Census and Statistics, 2016). Both families were in the interviews asked if think about nutrition when they cook dinner, and further, if the added vegetables for the health benefit they come with. The woman from the middle-income family did not usually think about it, however tries to cook healthy when the whole family is gathered. The other woman from the lower-income family did seem more focused about healthy nutrition, intentionally using a lot of green foods including fruits and vegetables. Their different attitudes towards nutrition came a bit surprisingly, due to their different sources of learning about it. While the middle-income woman learned about nutrition when she studied home-science and by her midwife when she was having her sons, the lower-income woman was taught by her grandparents and mother. We did not achieve enough information about their cooking habits to see who got the better nutrition, nether did we have a chance to see their children or households. We can only imagine that the middle income family have more knowledge about nutrition, due to learning from stuing and health personal, and thus do not have the same need to focus when cooking. Furthermore, better knowledge leads to more healthy and nutritious meals for the children in the family.

It is clear that even though the the health system is supposed to be free for all, the new development in medicine, making some medicines cost money, and the non-equal distribution of information about nutrition, is leaving the poorer behind. These families does not have the funds to pay for their children’s medicines, or send their children to study and learn about nutrition, thus preventing them from developing as a group.  

Meththa child orphanage hambantota

To achieve a broader perspective on how the health and education system functions for children in different economic situations in Hambantota, We decided to visit Meththa child orphanage in Hambantota. We have compared one middle income family and one lower income family, to see if there is any difference in their experiences and opportunities regarding both the health and education system in Hambantota. The children who do not have parents, how do they get to the hospital if they get sick? How are the health services for the children living in the orphanage in Hambantota?. The human tragedy of a child becoming orphaned is a daily reality around the globe. These children are not just numbers , they are real children living without parents to protect and nurture them (Global health invasion, n.d.). We did an interview with the person who is responsible for the orphanage, and he explained us how the system works. When it comes to the education they get good support. At the orphanage all of the children go to school. The primary school for the youngest is walking distance away, but the older take a bus. The orphanage center has their own school bus. The students do not go to after school classes, but the man who runs the place gives some lectures for free when he has time. So this is a lack in the education for the children. It can be hard for them get into the advanced level in older ager without proper after school classes now. The orphanage do not get any support from the government, but from Buddhist monks. Regarding health situations for the children, we got that impression that the health and the healthcare was generally good. If a child got sick one of the employees will take the child to the government hospital, even though there are long queues. He also mentioned it was possible to contact a private doctor and ask him/her to come to the orphanage. The government school offers free routine health checkups for the children, the doctors weigh them and measure the height. One of the main issues for the children at the orphanage is that they don’t have their CHDR (child health development record) and, they don’t have their birth certificate. The CHDR contains all their medical information like vaccinations, birth weight and so on, this document is very important when the child needs medical attention. The birth certificate is a key document for identification, as an example you need this to be able to take your exams. The lack of these documents creates a major obstacle for the children who don’t have these documents. The government are providing this so called “dummy certificate”, but it’s a long and difficult process. Development countries like Sri Lanka are beginning to understand the desperate need for comprehensive services to care for children who are orphaned and vulnerable around the globe. Health care provides an opportunity to identify children most in need and provides a foundation that allows them to start living productive and healthy lives (Global health invasion, n.d.).

Education
We are focusing on children under the age of 18, and looking at the diversity between middle-income families and lower-income families. According to the statistics we found 46,6% of children between 7-19 are not attending school and as the children get older there is a higher risk that the pupils drop out of school. (Child Activity Survey, 2015) There are numerous of children not attending school, poverty is a central impediment, which is closely linked to child labour. Out of these children who are not attending school most of them come from poorer families (Child Activity Survey, 2015). We got this confirmed when we interviewed two teachers and the principal at St. Mary’s College. Though the dropout percentage is relatively low in this school (around 10%) it turned out that it was the children from the poorest families who dropped out from their education.
All the teachers and families we interviewed in Hambantota told us that the education system is free. They get provided textbooks and school uniforms, but they do need to pay for the exercise books. Another issue was the after school classes. When you wanted to study at advanced level in year 10, age 14-17, we got the understanding that it is almost impossible to pass exams without private lectures after school. The pressure to succeed is really high and this may be one of the reasons why as many as 78% drop out of school around this age in Sri Lanka (Child Activity Survey, 2015). Both the teachers and the parents we interviewed explained that because of  too many students, 40-50 in one classroom, and each session only last for 45 minutes, it is very difficult to cover the whole syllabus, thus they need to give private lessons in the evening. But this is also economically motivated by the teachers as their salary is very low. The teachers that we interviewed at St. Mary’s College told us that their beginners salary was only 17,000 rupees and that this made it really hard to get by, but despite of this, these two teachers chose to not do private lessons to get extra income. The private lectures cost money, between 500-800 rupees per subject per student every month. The price depends on the subject. If you come from a poor family it is common to start working at a young age instead of going to school. (Child Activity Survey, 2015).
In Hambantota we got to interview a government teacher who also teaches after school classes. He told us that for the students who cannot afford after school classes, they can get a kind of free card. He also said he gave extra classes at the school, these were also free of charge. For him it was most important that the students got the opportunity to learn and pass exams, but he also told us that his main motivation for the paid classes was the extra income, as his government salary was only 19,000 rupees a month, but with the extra money from private classes, his monthly salary was 36,000 rupees.  According to the families that we interviewed the main source for the private sessions to their children, was due to the competition of getting better examens results, if not they fared of the consequences the children may suffer if they did not pass their exams. There is a lot of academic pressure on the children to get into a good university, this pressure starts at an early age when the children are only 11 years old. The school days are long for these children, the two mothers we interviewed told us that the children’s school day started at 07:30 and getting off around 13:30-14:30 with only a 15 minute lunch break. After this they go to private sessions for 2-3 hours, then they come home and and do their homework for 2-3 hours. Despite of this the women we interviewed, low and middle-income, still felt it was necessary to pay for extra private lessons. The woman from the low-income family explained that she herself was a great student, but didn’t pursue a higher education, as she got married when she was only 15. That’s why she forces her children to be good students, so they can pursue the things that she couldn’t.
Poverty seems to be a factor that decreases school attendance for the poor, due to the direct and indirect costs of schooling, there is also a poor quality of education delivery due to the lack of funds from the government, according to the teachers we interviewed.We have compared statistics from the 1990s and 2015, and both of them show that there is a high percentage of students that are not attending school because of poverty. So there has been little change the last 20 years. According to (Arunatilake,s1, 2006) in 1999-2000 93% of the children in age 5-14 attend to school. This suits good with the statistic from 2015. They show that 98.3% age 5-11 attend to school and 71.5% age 11-14 attend. If you take the average of those two it will be almost the same as in 1999. So this has not improved.
 If we look at some global issues with education in developing countries we can see that they are facing a lot of the same problems as Sri Lanka. There is a lack of good qualified teachers in the rural and poorer areas. (Arunatilake, 2006) That is because the best graduated teachers work in the urban areas. The teachers who pass out from teacher training schools get deployed to schools all over the country where there is a need for them, often in poorer areas.(Arunatilake, s 139, 2006). This is something we can see in many other developing countries. According to our findings it is important to mention that due to lack of funds from the government to the education system this  brings the education development to a standstill. There are around 130 million children worldwide at school who are not learning the basic skills like reading, writing and maths, because the teachers are not able to teach them.(Rueckert, 2019)
Outdated and worn-out textbooks is also a big issue in developing countries.(Rueckert, 2019) The teachers we interviewed at St.Mary’s College said that they update the syllabus just every fifth year at the government schools, they felt like this was not enough to give the children high quality education.

Conclusion

Our impression after spending 3 days in Hambantota and a month in Sri Lanka, is that we clearly see that it still is a developing country. Though it is ranked as a middle income country because of the relative high GDP per capita 3800(Trading economics, n.d).

We learned a lot about the health and education system regarding children in Hambantota, and it became clear to us that there are a lot of good structures, but the health and education institutions lack the necessary funds from the government to keep up a good development process.

Looking back at our topic question, how the health and education system functions for children in different economic situations in Hambantota, it shows that there is an diversity regarding children’s opportunities within health and education system. The governmental health and education system in Sri Lanka still have a long way to go to reach the demands of number 3 and 4 of the UN’s development goals 2030(UN Sustainable development goals 2030).

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