A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Thiranjala Weerasinghe sj.- One Island Two Nations
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Wednesday, May 10, 2017
Easy Access To Credit Triggers Violence Against Women In Sri Lanka
By Mithula Guganeshan –May 9, 2017
Microfinance was introduced to provide affordable financial services to
women from low-income households with an objective intended to finance
income-producing activities, build assets, protect against risks and
thereby fight against poverty. It is widely believed that microfinance would
benefit the poor by eradicating poverty and result in financial
inclusion, encourage savings, job creation, provide education, improve
health & welfare and finally empower women.
However,
evidence from research studies on Microfinance shows that there is a
lack of robust evidence to prove the strong impact of microfinance on
poverty alleviation and women empowerment (Duvendack et al, 2011). There
is lack of quantitative assessment on Microfinance Institutions in Sri
Lanka besides the biased results published by MFI’s. Due to ignorance or
lack of sufficient understanding on the impact of microfinance,
Government and policy makers fail to introduce solid measures to
adequately monitor and regulate the microfinance industry.
Microfinance
tends to target women borrowers as they are statistically proven to
less likely to default. Nevertheless, borrowing a sum of Rs. 25, 000
would lead to Rs. 1,000 weekly repayments for 10 months resulting in an
interest rate of 72% per annum. Such high interest rates loans were
borrowed and used for consumption rather than any income generating
activity. Unlike the rich or the middle class, women from poor
backgrounds primarily borrow to meet their basic needs for survival
especially food and shelter due to the lack of employment opportunities
and marketable skills.
Women
are subjected to domestic violence as micro loans are easily accessible
and exclusively available only for the women. So, the men from
low-income families are exploiting the opportunity offered and
pressurize the women to obtain credit to finance household consumption
along with their own personal consumption needs such as alcohol, tobacco
etc. As a result female borrowers were unable to hold full control on
credit. Opening channels to provide easy access to credit has resulted
in tensions within the household leading to abuse and violence against
women.
Men
rarely take any responsibility or are held accountable to repay the
installment once the money is used for household/personal consumption
needs. Women are often subjected to humiliation and harassment by the
credit officers as they are unable to settle their debts on time.
Therefore,
women are increasingly facing gender oppression by institutions
(representatives of the institution) within the public sphere as well.
Generally, when it comes to violence against women greater emphasis has
been given to violence against women inflicted within the domestic space
by individuals involving personal relationships. Public humiliations by
representatives from institutions are often under-reported where
institutions are rarely held accountable for causing psychological and
economical abuse on women. They are being subjected to insults and
embarrassments as the credit officers are trained to collect the
interests/repayments through any means.
Recent
news on a suicide of a woman and her 2 year old baby from Northern
Province displays the severity of the credit issue. The woman committed
suicide following the visit of a loan officer requesting for the monthly
payment of Rs.1, 900, which later resulted in an argument between the
couple. Women in debt are subjected to violence within closed doors and
harassed in public as well.
Microfinance
has taken a detour from its original intention and objective, to
alleviate poverty. Only a handful of microfinance institutions are
charging low interest rates and working with the objective of
alleviating poverty. The major flaw in microfinance is when the loans
are offered without providing any training and expecting the vulnerable
women to transform into successful entrepreneurs overnight. The irony is
when majority of the graduates are working as employees whilst, the
poor & uneducated women are expected to succeed as entrepreneurs
overnight.