Intensifying Rape Culture of Sri Lanka — Psychology Explains…

Psychologists said that the media is one of the main contributing factors for the increasing rate of gang rape in Sri Lanka.

by Kalana Krishantha-Mar 2, 2018

( March 2, 2018, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian ) No matter whether we believe or not, the rape culture of Sri Lanka has been increasing day by day. The wave of gang rapes has been intensifying for years. In 2017, Sabaragamuwa Province Governor President’s Counsel Marshal Perera openly said it was a disturbing matter that a rape of a woman takes place every four hours in Sri Lanka according to Police statistics and it`s sad to happening this in a country that carries the reputation as the country which produced the first woman prime minister and the first woman president in the world.

Statistics tell the Story

The Care International did a research over sexual violence on 2013, covering the four districts –Colombo,Nuwaraeliya,Batticoloa and Hambantota in Sri Lanka, they interviewed 1658 men and 653 women. The findings were so terrible at that time, but related ministries officers have still been unable to take necessary actions regarding that type of issues. This research revealed that 33% of man had acted at least one time sexually or physically violent manner to their intimate partner and 17% of males contribute to act at least one act of sexual violence against women including a rape. The report, which is named as “broadening gender-Why masculinities matter “is freely available in partners4prevention.org website.

Recent Tragedy-Gang Rape of a Nurse-Narahenpita

The most recent incident is rape of nurse who worked at some private hospital at Narahenpita. She has been allegedly raped for four occasions in different areas of Sri Lanka. The most pathetic thing is so called erudite people became suspects of this incident. Four suspects were arrested by Narahenpita Police and one was a doctor while another one was an engineer. Why so called erudite people are behaving in such a way? The question is remained yet to be answered.

Above all the controversies and dilemmas, it`s crystal clear that our country has become a place with full of sexual maniacs and vulnerable groups of the society, especially children and women have to face much more difficulties due to prevailing conditions.
Minds of the people have become so rude and It`s so worthy to investigate on the psychological aspects of this issue and what are the possible solutions to this from the eyes of psychologists.

Psychologists said that the media is one of the main contributing factors for the increasing rate of gang rape in Sri Lanka.
Clinical Psychologist and Founder of the Arnaha Centre for Wellbeing Kavitha Amaratunga said that the media had been contributing a lot to the increasing tendency of gang rapes owing to unethical reporting.

Media-The way of reporting

“The way the media reports an incident means a lot to the audience. The uncensored and exaggerated reporting of such incidents paves the way for the spread of those things within the country in a rapid manner,” she explained.

War Mentality- Aggression

“The 30-year-long war is over. During that time, people directed their aggression towards their enemies in war. But, after it finished, the aggression was suppressed and now has been released in various ways and gang rape is one of the ways of releasing their suppression. Although the war is finished, Governments have still not been able to initiate a proper plan of rehabilitation. This can also be considered as another factor.”
When queried as to whether culture contributes to sexual suppression, she said that the harmful influence of culture has been on the wane but that there is still some remaining influence.

Psychological Interventions Should be Promoted

While suggesting solutions, she added that the support of the Government should be increased for psychological counselling and in Government hospitals there should be more opportunity for psychological interventions. “Currently, in Government hospitals, there is very little attention paid to psychological counselling, it should be changed. Apart from this, discussion forums, awareness programs on mental health and sexual education-based programs should be held throughout the country,” Amaratunga added.

Sri Lanka is a country which was civilized 2500 years ago and the politicians, religious leaders and etc. are talking proudly about long civilization. However, no one care about the current situation of the country and what is going under the carpet. The country was once renowned as pearl of the Asia, has now become the paradise of sexual maniacs who has been keeping the title for years as, “the country which is searching the term” sex”, for highest number of times in Google”. The time has come to implement the necessary reforms to our society and improve psychological interventions towards this mentally ill society. Otherwise, this land will become a place which is not suitable for human habitation.