Gender-Based Violence: A Social Scourge
Around 200 people gathered at the Forum’s opening event
By Michael Hardy
With a speech from Minister of Child Development and Women’s Empowerment Sumedha Jayasena, the unveiling of a banner in the Fort Railway Station, and a short play dramatizing the effects of domestic violence, the Forum against Gender Based Violence kicked off its fifth-annual publicity campaign last Wednesday. Lasting until December 10, the campaign will spread awareness about gender-based violence throughout the country, from Nuwara Eliya to Anuradhapura.
Sumedha Jayasena speaks at the Forum Against Gender Based Violence
Organiser Saama Rajakaruna, a development officer at the Canadian International Development Agency, said that violence against women was a major problem in Sri Lanka.
“Unfortunately we don’t have proper statistics about the total number of incidents, but there have been several small research studies done,” Rajakaruna said. “According to a study by the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, over 60 percent of women in Sri Lanka have experienced domestic violence (usually by their husband). But we don’t know the exact number.”
The Forum was created in 1995 by a group of local and international NGOs, UN agencies, donor agencies, and government representatives. Rajakaruna said the organisation’s goal was to encourage victims of abuse to speak out and seek help.
The lighting of the lamp
“There are places people can go for counseling and legal aid,” she said. “We want to create awareness and say that you can do something about the violence. We also want women to talk about the issue, to break the silence. People think it’s a private problem and don’t talk about it.”
The 16-day campaign will include seminars, advertising and media outreach. It will target four cities: Colombo, Nuwara Eliya, Anuradhapura, and Tissamaharama.
According to a press release, the Forum chose Anuradhapura because the presence of the army has led to “women being forced or coerced into prostitution.” Nuwara Eliya was chosen because of the high prevalence of domestic abuse on the tea estates, and Tissamaharama was chosen to target pilgrims en route to Kataragama.
A crowd of about 200 people gathered at the Fort Railway Station on Wednesday to attend the opening event. Volunteers handed out white wristbands with anti-domestic-violence slogans. One onlooker said he supported the Forum’s goals.
“I am happy about this, but they have to spread the message to the villages,” he said. “Tomorrow the papers will cover this, but in one month’s time nobody will remember.”
However, not everyone was convinced by the speeches and publicity material. Viraj Ranasinghe, a former student of political science in America, denied that domestic abuse was widespread in the country.
“I don’t think there is a big problem in Sri Lanka,” Ranasinghe said. If there was abuse, he said, it was partially the fault of women. “In my opinion, women also have to take some sort of responsibility because of the way they dress. They provoke men, so to a certain extent they are responsible for these incidents. They dress provocatively and they become the victims of abuse. In the Middle East, women are covered so they don’t provoke the males.”
The Forum Against Gender-Based Violence was founded to combat views like this. If Ranasinghe’s opinion is representative of the country at large, the organisation will have to work hard to wake up Sri Lanka to the horror of domestic abuse. A 16-day campaign is an excellent start, but it will take many more years of activism to curb this social scourge.
