Tamil women complain increase of ethnic sexual harassment in public sector

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 April 2016, 19:57 GMT]
The successive regimes based in Colombo, unchecked by the absence of the political balance of power from the side of Eezham Tamils, have engineered the structural administration of public sector, by bringing in Sinhala males from South into leadership positions in the East. Tamil women employed in the public sector are being subjected to sexual harassments at working places. Also in the cases where Tamil-speaking males harass the female workers, Tamil women experience increased difficulties in taking forward the complaints to the Sinhala-dominated hierarchy in the public sector, feminist rights activists in Batticaloa told TamilNet.

The Tamil activists cited a particular case at the Coconut Development Board office at Kalkudaa in Batticaloa district, where non-Sinhala employees have been harassing a Tamil graduate employee. The complaint was brought forward to the director, who is a Sinhalese. But, the complaints have been repeatedly ignored, the sources said.

Even the Human Rights Commission in Batticaloa was not helpful to find a better way to address the issue.

Tamil-speaking women lack ways to address their concerns in the current system dominated by males in the district, the activists further said.

Several Tamil women have chosen to drop their employment due to the harassments.

Colombo-centric women groups, funded by USAID and other Western NGOs are also discriminating Tamil women in North and East.

Citing ‘human rights’ benefiting ‘war-affected’ Tamil women, the so-called feminist groups in Colombo secure findings to their Establishment-centric activism while poverty-stricken females in the North and East are continuously being victimised by the Colombo-centric system, the activists complained.

Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has also come under severe criticism for the lack of gender-balance in its hierarchy.

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