Sri Lanka’s 30-year long conflict might be over but the wounds run deep. I recently had a chance to visit the conflict affected areas in the eastern side of the island country. As an outsider, I could evidently observe discrimination in terms in social, economic, political and many other dimensions that touch the life of the general people.
I was in Batticaloa and got the opportunity to interact with the conflict affected people and the families and relatives of the former LTTE combatants. Lack of appropriate substructures, access to education, health and sanitation are some of the elementary challenges that the locals are still facing.
The place gives you a sharp feel of the reluctance and foot-dragging of the state to address these concerns of the people who are categorically in need of urgent help.
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Although the entire country is well-planned with the access to road but there still are those areas and those people who are besieged and are struggling to be recognized as full citizens by the state.
During my conversation, the people spoke their heart out and said that even their political representatives have been cynical and cheated on them, who do not keep their election promises. Most of the people are serving as labors with minimum wage and many men have fled the country in search of better opportunities. It is very tough to digest that fact that the country with the highest literacy rate in South Asia still has people struggling to go to school.
The people still have not forgotten the nightmares and the dark days that they have been through. They still are in the agony of the loss during the conflict. In such a scenario, it is high time that the Sri Lanka Government address the issues of these vulnerable communities in order to bring about structural reforms in the society. If this population feels neglected and unwanted by the state then it will not take much for another struggle.
The government at this point must demilitarize the previously designated conflict zones and ensure that the minority population inhabiting there feel unrestricted and are sheltered to interconnect and rely on the state mechanisms for their betterment. A democratic socialist republic state must be able to embody and take into concerns the prerequisites and wishes of every group, and this is even more important in a postwar setup.
The writer is an MA student at the University of Ruhuna in Sri Lanka.
