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Ms. R. Komathy |
| Puttur, Jaffna. |
Vice-Secretary - Federation for RDSs and WRDSs.
Co-ordinator - Children's Societies,
Member - Health and institutional communication group at district level
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Mrs. R. Sugunadevi |
| Thillayady, Puttalam. |
President - WRDS.
Co-ordinator - Youth and Children's Societies,
Co-ordinator - Women's Network of WRDSs
Member – Union of the Multi Purpose Cooperative Societies
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The WRDS of Paalavi in the Putalam District, at the inception had convened their meeting under a banyan tree and through their concerted efforts gradually acquired a common land and constructed a temporary structure in the common land. The common land has been acquired with the help of the peoples' representative Mr. Priyashantha. The temporary structure constructed in the village is being used to conduct a pre-school, evening classes and their meetings. The Grama Niladhari, Mr. G. Roshan has appreciated their hard work in relation to community development. Mr. Roshan together with the Member of the Pradeshiya Saba - Mr. Priyashantha and one of the ex-members of the Pradeshiya Saba -Mr. Niyas , were able to recommend to the higher ranking officials of the Government, to include the construction of a permanent building under the government's scheme. This has resulted in allocating around Rupees one million for the proposed building in this village and the foundation stone has already been laid down.
Viluthu has been working in Kattankudi since 2010 through a local Muslim organization called OPED. This relationship was rocky because the field workers fell short of expectations and also lacked commitment. In March 2011 Viluthu severed its links with OPED and decided to work alone.
The relationship between Tamils and Muslims in Batticaloa district is such, that the existing Tamil field officers were reluctant to start work there. Inthumathy, the Coordinator of Viluthu invited some of the members of the Women's Rural Development Societies (WRDS), for a meeting in the Batticaloa town in April 2011. It was a pathetic situation as none of them were functioning in the proper sense. Explaining what Viluthu's vision was, she, on the spur of the moment , took all of them to Kavathamunai WRDS in Oddumavadi, to meet with a leader called Jezeema. This meeting turned out to be inspirational for the Kattankudi women. They immediately resolved to build up their society just as Jezeema had done hers. Viluthu selected Kattankudi 164 A, as a pilot programme (because everyone told us that one cannot work in Kattankudi and that members are not keen and so on). Thereafter, training in accounts keeping, documentation and proposal writing were given for the members of this society. They were also advised as to how to write letters and also conducting training in gender issues. Study circle sessions too were held on topics such as 'local authority', 'participating in public events', 'parents and their children's education', 'leadership', and 'CEDAW'.
They started maintaining proper documentation and focussed on effective administration. They Started savings and credit too. They even opened a facebook account for themselves and posted all their activities on facebook. They designed an identity card for their members and introduced a policy as regards to the dress-code for their members. The first issue they took up after completing a discussion on 'Kutti Arasaangam' was the issue of dumping of solid waste along the coastal belt of the lagoon in their village. They appealed to the Chairman on this longstanding problem but to no avail. So when the lorry came the next time to dump the waste all the women stood on the middle of the road blocking it. On hearing this the chairman was so shocked that he called them for a discussion with him at the end of which he assured that waste will never be dumped there. This was such a success for the whole area and a big impetus for the society to go forward
Nayanmarthidal is a village within the Thambalakama D.S. division in the district of Trincomalee. Viluthu’s intervention in this village has led to the organization of a study circle in April 2011. ‘Social Accountability’ was one of the themes discussed by this study circle. One section of this theme was that of Public Expenditure tracking. The participants began to reminisce on the various projects undertaken by their Pradeshiya Sabha. One particular project taken up for discussion was the Thampalakamam Kinniya road.
This road is about 4.5 km long and being a main thoroughfare, it connected the villages of Nayanmarthidal, Kunjidappanthidal, Mulliyadi, Koviladi, Naduppirabanthidal, Maakkaithidal, and Varnamedhu on its course. The local population itself total to 1028 famlies. This road was mainly used by farmers and students. Unfortunately, for 6 years this road has been in a state of part construction. Only gravel and stones were laid but tar had not been poured. People using this road had to endure gravel dust which aggravated asthma and other respiratory condition. It is reported that the children’s school uniforms turned red by the time they reached home. It was especially difficult for the houses situated along the road. The dust was so much that they couldn’t keep food stuff clean.
After the discussion, the study circle members approached the members of the Thampalakamam Pradeshiya Sabha to demand explanation as to why this road was not constructed for so long. As no credible explanation was offered, they organized the people for a protest action along the road from Thampalakamam junction to Soorankal on the 14th June 2011. Immediately, Tar was poured and the road completed from Thampalakamam junction up to Nayanmarthidal. Ms Anoja, who was the facilitator for this study circle was jubilant when she shared her experience with the women from Puttalam district during the exchange program. “ We couldn’t believe that we were able to achieve this so quickly… Our study circle now has made so many other plans.. We have formed a children’s club to encourage extra curricular activities for them after reading about holistic education..We conduct now examination seminars for the students in our village.. We women can do it..”
Thirumaalpuram is a resettled village in the Kuchchaveli A.G.A’s Division of the Trincomalee district. This remote village which is located 3 Km away from Periyakulam in the Nilavely division and close to the jungle. Although the Trincomalee District Development Association constructed 62 houses in Thirumaalpuram for the Tsunami affected families only 46 families have settled in so far. Though these houses had been built with basic facilities, there were neither roads nor electricity provided. As a result the resettled faced severe hardships when they need to travel even to get medical facilities. The tanks in this area are in the close vicinity of the Jungle and therefore the people are exposed to dangerous situations caused by the presence of elephants, wild animals and poisonous snakes which are attracted by the tanks in the area as the area is close to the jungle.
Viluthu conducted a discussion on ‘Kutty Arasangam” (means “miniature government”), one of the subjects chosen for the study circle discussions, to raise awareness on the local government institutions in the Kuchchaveli area. The president and members of the Kuchchaveli Pradeshiya Sabah and representatives of community based organizations within the area from Periyakulam to Kumburupity, participated in this discussion. Mrs Pushparani, the president of the Women’s Rural Development Society of Thirumaalpuram also participated in this discussion and revealed the status of their village in the presence of the President and the members of the Pradeshiya Sabah.
The President of the Pradeshiya Sabah after listening to the plight of the villagers, assured that he would do the needful to expedite at least the electricity supply to this village very soon. Electricity supply to the village was completed within three months from the date of this discussion at a cost of Rupees 3.5 million. The villagers are happy and thanked Viluthu for conducting the Study Circle programme which has led to the provision of electricity supply within such a short period.
It all began with the Box Office hit movie of Actor Vijay called “Thamilan”. This film depicts the life of a lawyer dedicated to raising legal awareness of the common masses. As a result of his seminars in the slums of the Tamil Nadu cities, people begin to question the authorities and even the Police on every count. “Knowing the Law is power” is the rallying cry of this movie.
When some members of the Puttalam WRDSs watched this movie and discussed its contents, they began to dissect the various rights that were abused in their lives. Foremost of these was the language rights. Although a majority of the inhabitants and all of the displaced community in Puttalam spoke Tamil, none of the government administration offices transacted in Tamil. Official letters were delivered in Sinhala, public meetings in DS offices were held in Sinhala, the doctors at the hospitals spoke only Sinhala and the bus sign boards were written in Sinhala. The women decided to do something about it and started with their local bus depot.
While they were negotiating with the Manager of the local bus depots, Viluthu organized a seminar for a cluster of the WRDS members on how to advocate for language rights. Mr. Muthukumar from the Foundation for Co-Existence conducted the seminar explaining about the commissions and institutions that are set up to work on this issue and how to create a paper trail for taking up a case at a future date.
The women began to keep a schedule of buses running without boards in Tamil in response to the denials of the depot manager. They went and met the Medical Officer of Health and explained their predicament in trying to make a Sinhala speaking doctor understand their illnesses at the District Hospital. They showed instances where wrong treatment being prescribed all due to language problem. They made an appeal to their respective DS offices to conduct their monthly CBO meetings in two languages.
Viluthu helped them to collate all these information and prepare a submission to the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) in early 2011. They made representations both in Colombo sittings as well as in Puttalam. The representations were sent to the respective commissions and line Ministries by the LLRC for immediate action. Finally it was taken up by the newly formed Ministry of National languages and Social Integration. It wrote to all the DS divisional offices in Puttalam inquiring after their arrangements for the reasonable use of Tamil language. Since the responses were inadequate, the Ministry went ahead with plans to conduct a language audit on all the offices of that district. At present, tenders have been called from organizations to conduct a language audit.
The women of Puttalam achieved the feat of taking their problems to the national level.
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Viluthu has provided an opportunity to Mr. V. Rajasekar, who is one of Viluthu's external resource personnel, to participate in the Review of the Achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, which was conducted in Kaulalumpoor in Malaysia. Representatives of 120 NGOs from 29 countries within the Asia and Pacific regions, which have been working for issues related to women, Resident representatives of the UN, International level funding organizations, Members of Parliament of Bangladesh and the opposition leader of the Government of Malaysia were among the participants of this programme.
Dr. Joyce Neu, a conflict resolution specialist with expertise in conflict assessment, facilitation, mediation, the design and management of peace processes and gender mainstreaming in peacemaking and peace building and who had recently been a Team Leader of a new UN Standby Team of Mediation Experts, visited Jaffna from the 11th to 13th December 2011.
She was invited by Viluthu to address at a meeting organized at our Jaffna Office premises at No. 23, Adiapatham Veethi, Thirunelveli, Jaffna, on the 12/12/2011. Dr. Joyce Nue spoke on the subject 'How to face ethnic conflicts in a Multi-Cultural Society', at the meeting on the 12th December where a total number of 20, University students and professionals participated.
The activities of Viluthu in the Trincomalee district are implemented through the involvement of the Women’s Rural Development Societies (WRDSs) in 12 villages. The women members of these WRDSs belong to all three ethnic communities (Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim) and have been actively participating in resolving issues pertaining to women and as well as the community as a whole. As a measure to share the experiences and outcomes, the formation of a women’s network has been on the agenda of all these WRDSs. Subsequently a discussion as to the formation of a women’s network was held on the 30th June 2011, at the Viluthu Branch Office at Trincomalee where 19 members from 10 WRDSs participated. This would be a better platform to expose the activities and issues of the women’s societies to the outside world.
The president of one of the WRDSs opined that this would provide an opportunity to get to know each and every WRDSs and also to clearly understand our own strategies for improvement. The presidents of the Pulikkuddy Bazar and Nayanmarthidal WRDSs were elected as the President and the Secretary of this Women’s Network respectively.
A total of 46 women from 18 WRDSs in the Puttalam district visited the Batticaloa and Trincomalee WRDSs from the 7th to the 11th of July 2011. In Batticaloa they visited the villages of HIjiranagar, Kaluthawalai, Shanthipuram and Kirankulam and interacted with the members of the WRDSs. They also had the opportunity to visit the Trade Fair organized by the Batticaloa Chamber of Commerce from the 7th to 9th of July. Viluthu had opened a stall at this Trade Fair to market the products of the members of the Batticaloa WRDSs. It is significant that Viluthu brought in wares even from as far as Vakarai D.S. Division.
Thereafter the Puttalam women visited Trincomalee. In Trincomalee meetings were organized as a one-day seminar where they were given the opportunity to exchange views with the Trincomalee WRDS members. A total of 75 women participated in this event. Each presentation was how the particular WRDS surmounted one selected problem. A few women who contested in the Local Government Elections also spoke about their unique experiences.
At the end of the exchange visit in Trincomalee, an evaluation brought out the women’s feelings. “We realized that there is no problem that is too large for us to solve. When we saw the way Puttalam women took the Language issue to National levels, we think we also can achieve equally ...”
The Puttalam women returned to their district full of awe at the achievements of the WRDSs in Batticaloa and Trincomalee. The WRDSs from Batticaloa and Trincomalee also were equally impressed by the articulate and alert members from Puttalam. This exchange visit was the beginning of building a network of women for social and political transformation.
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