Media Release
18.07.2024
On 18 July 2024, community leaders, researchers, activists, cooperators, and university students came together at an initial discussion organized by the YUKTHI Collective in Jaffna’s Thanthai Chelva Auditorium. This event titled “Sri Lanka’s Economic Crisis and Its Impact on Northern Sri Lanka” introduced YUKTHI to the audience as a plural forum that supports working people’s movements and struggles for democracy and justice in Sri Lanka. The panel discussion of this event sought to understand different struggles by diverse communities in Northern Sri Lanka and how the state’s neoliberal policies along with its chauvinist agenda have aggravated the living conditions of the working people amidst the economic crisis.
Dr.Ahilan Kadirgamar of the University of Jaffna unpacked the debt crisis and the neoliberal policies of the state that affect the present and the future of the working people. He highlighted how the domestic debt restructuring process dispossesses workers’ retirement funds.
This speech was followed by community leaders, researchers, and activists explaining the existing issues in conflict-ridden Northern Sri Lanka and how their already harsh living conditions and livelihoods are further aggravated by the current economic crisis. Mr. Annalingam Annarasa, a fisher leader from Kayts, condemned the state’s export-oriented commercialization of seafood production which is disrupting the livelihoods of small-scale fishers and the food security of the people. The demands of the Northern fishing community include requesting the state’s support in local seafood production leading to self-sufficiency, restoring the fuel subsidy, implementing laws that prohibit illegal fishing activities, and taking necessary actions to stop encroaching Indian trawlers in Northern waters.
Ms.Suganya Kandeepan of the Young Researchers Network (YRN) highlighted the distressing situation at the household level where families have been trapped in personal debt to sustain consumption since the onset of the economic crisis. Following her, Mr. Thanabalasingam Thulasiram, of the YRN from Mullaitivu, emphasized the importance of self-sufficiency in a context where the government promotes policies that Favor agribusiness and the commercialization of agriculture while punishing small-scale farmers and livestock breeders of the region. Ms. Mohammed Aameer Ameerun Nisha, a community leader in Manner, spoke of her community’s troubles in accessing land in Musali, where thousands of acres are occupied or fenced off by the military and the Forest Department, which has seriously undermined people’s livelihood activities. Furthermore, as a preschool coordinator, she also highlighted that preschool teachers in the Northern Province up to now have been receiving a salary of Rs.6,000 from the Provincial Council, which continues to ignore their protests. Speaking of the right to land, Ms.Yathursha Ulakentheran of the YRN highlighted how different communities are denied access by a range of actors and vested interests such as the state and the dominant caste, class, and ethnic groups in the region. In the context of the crisis, she stressed the relevance and urgency of land redistribution to the landless communities to enable food production to safeguard household nutrition. Finally, Mr. Francis, a fisher leader from Poonakary in Kilinochchi, underlined the struggles of the fishing community, which is constantly being deceived by politicians and policymakers. This neglect further comes at the cost of the people of Sri Lanka who depend on fish protein for their health and well-being.
In the active discussion during the event, several young university students highlighted the fear of unemployment and the lack of state investment in the public sector, which is otherwise needed to create employment opportunities for them and to support the basic needs of their households in an economic crisis. The government that is formed after elections due in 2024 and 2025 must prioritize the plight of the working people and their future, they said.
YUKTHI Collective is working towards understanding the impact of the national debt crisis on working people. This event brought to the fore how the costs of the crisis and its proposed “solutions” are being shouldered by the people and not by those that engineered sovereign bankruptcy, debt default, and IMF austerity.
For Further Information
Researcher and the Media Manager Sakuna M Gamage
Leave a comment