K. P. Somalatha
Chairman
Uva Wellassa Women’s Organization
The present of the rural agrarian woman
We as rural agricultural women have faced a lot of problems with this farmer issue since March 2020.
Most of us work as day laborers and earn a living, and there are also women who make a living by trading and cultivating handicrafts at home, so all of them are facing a major economic crisis due to the problem of farmers.
When we look at the details of these families, most families have six children, and some families do not have a husband and women live alone with children, so with these epidemics, these families are also facing a huge food shortage.
Not only that, with the closure of schools due to epidemics, all children have resorted to online education, but their education has collapsed as the children of these families do not have the necessary facilities to pursue such an online education.
No one in our country pays attention to rural agricultural women. They are not big industrialists who grow commercial crops, they are a rural agricultural woman who cultivates vegetables and fruits in a very clean and small organic way and sends them to the market, so their economy has suffered a major setback due to this situation.
Moreover, the harvest of their crops has been stored without transport facilities as they cannot be sent to the market at present. These are unnecessarily rotting, and with the current situation in this country they have not been able to share their harvest, at least not with their neighbors. So a large excess of vegetables and fruits is wasted.
Cost of living
When talking about the prices of Sathosa goods, as stated in front of the media, there is no reduction in the price of any material. All these are only media shows. In practice, the prices of Sathosa products are sky high. These do not make sense in an urban sense.
What has happened to put a control price on rice and coconut? Rice prices are rising to unbearable levels. All of these things are first felt by the housewife. She brings the goods home. Why control the house from making food and beverages. So with this current situation she is in a big mental problem and difficulty.
Covid crisis and harvest sales
We have been storing the peanut harvest we have been collecting from our farmers for a long time. In fact, the peanut butter turned brown. If the government had a proper program this harvest would not have been destroyed.
Also, in the recent past, things like pumpkins and melons were not bought by the government but by businessmen in various industries. These were not bought through a government program. What they do is buy the products of those in the industry who are loyal to them in the commercial sector. These things have caused a lot of problems.
The children of these rural families go to the mother to ask for food, the father brings the food to the mother, so when the mother goes to the father and talks about the food items, the father has no money to bring these.
Then there are family disputes. Domestic violence is on the rise. It also causes malnutrition. Sometimes parents’ quarrels cause their children to lose their father.
These may not be taken seriously by the Colombo society but that is the present life of the fringe farming families. They always lived with a lot of big problems. When Kovid came, they fell right into the frying pan.
covid suppression
If we look at the current situation, half of Sri Lanka’s population will die in a few days. This is how third class people, such as fishermen, daily wage laborers, workers, rural farmers and the disabled, die.
Because they are the ones who are facing this economic crisis as well as various crises at this time. Especially they can fall down the road and die as they are unable to get food.
At this point third class people have become helpless. Public servants, businessmen and politicians are not affected by this epidemic.
That is why they do not feel the economic epidemic that is coming with this wave of covid. This economic crisis is first felt by those of us who live on the margins.