Contact Admin. At a makeshift school in northern Sri Lanka. Traditionally, Hindus consider widows to be inauspicious and the religion does not favour remarriage. According to government estimates, the ethnic conflict has widowed 59, women, the bulk of them in the Tamil-dominated north and east. With rehabilitation tardy and options to earn money few, many women have been compelled to resort to sex work to earn a livelihood and provide for their families.
The government is selective about permitting non-governmental organisations NGOs to work in the north. Many more cases go unreported. There is concern that the atmosphere of uncertainty, caused by lack of resources, broken families and the absence of responsible males, has impacted the security of young girls.
Women say they are scared to leave their homes fearing for the safety of their children. So how do we provide them a livelihood? The problems of women in northern Sri Lanka are enormous with their inability to speak out a major hurdle in the post-conflict healing process.
The government has repeatedly denied charges by Western countries and international human rights groups that large numbers of civilians were killed in crossfire and aerial bombing in the months leading to May Journalists were not permitted into the war zone and NGOs and humanitarian agencies asked to leave, with the result that there are no independent versions of what may have happened in the killing fields of the north.
In March, the Geneva-based U. The LLRC, appointed by the government to look into issues relating to the conflict from February to May , called for a probe into allegations of deliberate attacks on civilians and the prosecution of those responsible. Rights groups working with war widows and mothers who lost their loved ones, fear repercussions if they dare to speak out publicly on sensitive issues.
