Jaffna the northern province and how it faces the current economic and social turmoil of the country .
In the midst of the economic and political turmoil in Sri Lanka, it is necessary to analyze whether the Tamil minority in the country, who paid a heavy price during the civil war, has once again become a victim of this economic and political instability. Sometimes some people say that some people flee to Tamil Nadu in India. Another group is of the opinion that they are entitled to help from Tamil Nadu. At a time when Sri Lanka is facing an acute shortage of essential supplies and fuel, are our fellow people in the Northern Peninsula, another half of Sri Lanka, suffering the consequences of the economic and political crisis, or not? This is the discussion about it.
Thousands of Sri Lankans took to the streets of the capital demanding the resignation of former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. But protesting is a luxury that many Sri Lankan Tamils do not enjoy, and the shortages caused by the economic crisis are not new to them. The country’s largest ethnic minority, the Sri Lankan Tamils make up nearly 12% of the population of 22 million and are spread mainly in the northern and eastern provinces.
Social, cultural and linguistic ties.
Since long, the ethnic minority shares deep social, cultural and linguistic ties with the people of Tamil Nadu, South India, and is still engaged in a wider struggle to rebuild their communities and properties, devastated by the communal crisis.
In the country’s latest economic and political crisis, Sri Lankans from different ethnic and social backgrounds are all suffering equally, rioting everywhere without fuel and essential goods, this has added an additional burden to the Sri Lankan Tamil people in the north that disrupts their daily routine. . They were victims of war for decades. Now victims of an economic crisis created under an informal regime.
There is no doubt that the economic oppression is very familiar to the Tamil people in the Northern and Eastern Provinces who endured many years of poverty during the civil war. ‘Tamils are already trained to live in less comfort with or without fuel, gas and electricity. Based on decades of experience, they have many ways to manage this ongoing problem. But it is difficult for them to maintain their daily life in a proper way. There is no motivation for the Tamil people to protest. This is because the side effect of civil protests is that wrong methods focus on the divisive tactics of politicians based on religion and ethnicity and which tends to create many problems.
30 years civil conflict
The city of Jaffna was facing 30 years of internal conflict and many of its facilities were deteriorating. The communal crisis that was the source of the development of this historic city ended in 2009 and the following decade saw rapid urbanization. When the revitalization of Jaffna, with a population of nearly 625,000, began, the city became overcrowded and polluted, putting great stress on this urbanization. How did the economic crisis in the country affect the water supply system, sanitation, food security, housing and working conditions and the fast and complex lifestyle of the citizens of Jaffna?
The gas queues and fuel queues that existed in the south were also here for many kilometers. The prices of basic food items like rice, vegetables and fish have skyrocketed. The well-organized farmer, who started with the aim of banning chemical fertilizers and shifting Sri Lanka to completely organic farming, has been knocked down. Due to the sharp decline in crop yields, farmers had to pay for chemical fertilizers in the face of payment schemes that were previously free, reducing the number of active farmers. Farming practices have not yet recovered.
Sometimes the miracles of nature are simply the distribution of resources among the living beings in order to create a balance in an ecosystem, even though the farmers of Jaffna, who procured water from sky water and Aadiya well and cultivated their fields, did not get the fertilizer. Crops like potato, sweet potato, onion, long beans, red potato and banana have decreased a lot. Vegetables and fruits brought from Dambulla economic center are sold at very high prices in the Jaffna market.
Shortages of essentials
The best example of what happened to the fruit trade is the loss of the grape harvest today as it was then. Last year many grape vendors were seen selling grapes on both sides of Palali Road. But this is not the case these days. And since the northern peninsula is surrounded by sea, they enjoy marine resources to the fullest. But due to the fuel problem, the number of fishermen who went to the sea decreased a lot, and the prices of fish, shrimp, squid, and crab were too high to be consumed.
’”According to the current situation, we spend about 37,000 rupees on fuel and food per trip. Small boats require 50-60 liters of kerosene. But we get only 20 liters. That too occasionally. Because of that, many people have left the fishing industry and gone for other jobs.’
Due to the shortage of kerosene and its black market price is around Rs. 600-1000 per litre, some have tried to install petrol engines in boats as an alternative, but there are no other options as such engines catch fire quickly,’ said the Gurunagar fishing community.
Traffic on the roads was minimal. The hospitals had minimal patients who came from the islands as well as from many kilometers away for basic treatment and clinics. In particular, the method of providing electricity to the islands of Delft, Nainativ, Analativ etc. around Jaffna was the small diesel fuel plants on the respective islands. Their impairment disrupted the daily routine of many islanders. Also, those who came to the city via boats to get services, buy goods, and the islanders who came to attend hospital clinics experienced the side effects of the economic crisis due to the lack of fuel.
Health and education
The health sector has also been affected in Jaffna. There is a shortage of drugs especially for heart patients, stroke and cancer patients. General surgeries at the hospital have been suspended and only emergency surgeries are performed. Some oncologists have had to appeal for foreign donations to get the drugs they need for treatment. Many patients have to get medicines from private pharmacies at exorbitant prices. Education also has major barriers.
Schools closed due to fuel shortages. This also leaving students and teachers unable to access public or private transport. Lectures in universities have been suspended. Online lectures have faced some problems due to daily power cuts. Also problems with internet service providers. But regardless of social class, many people got used to cycling due to the fuel problem.
Cycling became popular once again among many school students and university students. Sometimes even the medical staff of Jaffna General Hospital used to go to the hospital daily by bicycle. Horse-drawn carts were used to transport goods around the city and exchange patients. With the support of the Jaffna University teaching staff, the continuous provision of lunch to university students was also started.
In this manner, the South as well as the North experienced this economic crisis. The structural, political and economic weaknesses are deep rooted in Sri Lanka’s economic crisis. Sri Lanka is facing its worst economic crisis after independence. Public trying to raise their opposition by asking the reasons for Sri Lanka’s political failure. We feel that this is the right time for the entire world to reflect on how the country got here.
Economic origins of the crisis
Make sense of the current political and governance crisis. Examine the economic origins of the crisis.The immediate crisis is the shortage of fuel, gas and other essentials. Sri Lanka due to a shortage of foreign exchange. The country and its people have little option to solve the problem. Inadequate currency swaps with India and China have necessitated going to the IMF to ease the foreign exchange crisis. But the IMF will set tough conditions, including a compromise from creditors, on debt restructuring.
At the moment one of the government’s major bondholders filing a lawsuit. Sri Lanka cannot get more foreign exchange or more debt relief. Thus the current economic crisis is twofold. The first was the foreign exchange crisis. The Sri Lankan economy’s foreign reserves were decimated by the ongoing pandemic and travel restrictions. But there was also considerable uncertainty about consumer confidence and the state of the economy. The second is the debt crisis . The state of Sri Lanka is fundamentally unable to repay the huge loans. This from the international market, including China.. So how did Sri Lanka get here?
Viduni Basnayaka