All they need to know about sex

There has been a welcome shift in Sri Lankan attitudes to "telling it like it is" to children where sex education is concerned. The veil and the silence are both being lifted today and it is much more widely recognized that there is a vital need for young people to understand the changes that take place in their bodies during adolescence and the sometimes - bewildering emotions that accompany these changes. 

Some years ago, the Wesley Press of the Sri Lanka Methodist Church took the initiative to bring out a very useful book entitled "Love, Sex and Marriage," written specially for the young Sri Lankan reader. Now, the Anglican Church has published another very welcome book on human sexuality, well-illustrated and dealing simply and clearly with all the implications of what it means to step into the new world of the adolescent. 

The physical changes that take place in girls and boys during puberty as a result of the endocrine glands being activated, are described in short, simple sentences and accompanied by an appropriate illustration of the positioning of these glands in our bodies. The reproductive organs in male and female are shown and their functions explained before the actual reproductive process is given. The section on marriage, pregnancy and birth is very well presented, with valuable inputs on marriage that young people would do well to consider beforehand. Family planning and the better-known methods of contraception are explained. 

The Christian attitude to the sanctity of life is stressed in dealing with the issue of abortion, but it is important, I think, that instead of a dogmatic pronouncement, the reader is encouraged to think about and discuss what the right stance should be in cases involving rape and incest where pregnant victims request abortion. 

We are told in the preface that different people have contributed in the writing of this book which has been put together by Malini Devananda. There is an enlightened approach to controversial matters that is refreshing. Care has been taken, for instance, in dealing with homosexuality, to avoid condemnation and, instead, to refer to the fact that medical findings point to homosexuality being "a personal condition and not a kind of behaviour." 

Sexually transmitted diseases have been dealt with and full information on AIDS is briefly but clearly provided. The piece of writing under the heading, "Boy-Girl Relationship" is particularly commendable, containing as it does, observations and insights that should be most helpful to young people. (My only quarrel with the compiler of this excellent book is about the material on its last page - those unpleasant pictures of syphilis and gonorrhoea. Hardly a happy note to close on.) 

It is to be earnestly hoped that this book will find its way into the hands of our young ones who live in a world that gives them mixed messages and misinformation on many things, not the least among them being sex. "Stepping Into a New World" is also a very useful tool for parents, teachers, youth leaders and pastors in arranging programmes and discussions. The Church of Ceylon Board of Christian Education is to be congratulated on having produced a book that so well meets a long-felt need. 

Women vie for independent status

How do you provide a cash-acknowledgement slip from a receipt book that doesn't recognise women contestants? "The receipt book had only - Received with thanks from Mr ... - there was no Ms or Mrs and the clerk was scrambling for a way out of this crisis," laughed Ms. Fernando.

A helpful superior then quickly asked the clerk to replace the Mr with Ms/Mrs and issue a receipt before the "prickly issue is splashed on television and the media."

Discriminatory attitudes against women like this are commonplace even though 51 percent of Sri Lanka's 19 million population are women. "It's nothing new. You find this all over even though we outnumber men in terms of population and contribute much more than them to the economy," Ms. Fernando said reflecting on the reasons why a women's group is contesting the poll.

In the economic sphere, women dominate but are hardly recognized. They account for close to 600,000 of the near one million migrant workers in the Middle East - the country's biggest foreign exchange earner, the bulk of tea and rubber plantations workers - the two main agriculture exports, and number approximately 200,000 or more than 90 percent of the workforce in the garment industry, which is now the biggest export earner.

These are valid reasons why women should receive their share of responsibility in the political, administration, judiciary and media fields. "The judiciary and media don't have enough women in leadership roles," said Ms. Fernando.

Local government elections will be staggered across the island with some dates yet to be announced.

Ms. Fernando's group of 59 women is contesting the Colombo Municipal Council poll as an independent group and is one of two women's groups contesting the islandwide poll. The other group representing a former Tamil militant group is contesting in the eastern district of Batticaloa. The eastern group, comprising mostly wives of party activists, couldn't be reached for comment.

This is not the first time a women's group is contesting an election and exclusively dealing with women's issues. During provincial council elections in 1999, a women's group contested for the first time from the central region of Nuwara Eliya but fared badly.

Winning elections is however not the main agenda of female politicians. "Yes, we would love to win but we also need to keep raising women's issues over and over again and put pressure on politicians to give us our rights," said Ms. Fernando, a lawyer and well-known women's activist here and abroad. She has herself failed thrice before in a bid to enter Parliament or local government bodies.

Women's representation in the Cabinet or Parliament is poor and in decline. According to latest available figures, the number of female Parliamentarians in 2000 was just 4.3 percent versus 5.3 percent in 1994 while the number of women in the Cabinet was 8.8 percent versus 13.1 percent in the same years.

The number of women contestants at Parliamentary elections also dropped to 2.3 percent in 2000 from 3.6 percent in 1994.

There was a slight improvement in provincial councils and other local government councils. Provincial councils saw a representation of 3.4 percent women in 1999, up from 3.1 percent in 1993 while other councils also reflected similar changes.

Ironically these figures come during a time when women's groups have began actively canvassing for more representation in politics and the administration, urging political parties to select more women candidates and implement a 30 percent reservation policy for women in parliament. Huge advertisements were taken in the media canvassing support for women's issues and a women's manifesto has even been announced.

"We can carry 100 advertisements or picket for 1,000 days promoting our cause, but still it gets us nowhere. We have to create a stir within Parliament and local councils. We have to fight for our rights within and outside. These are parallel struggles," said Ms. Fernando.

Activists say the struggle to develop a feminist consciousness and a women's dimension in the political process will take many years and means taking up the issues at all elections and trying to persuade political parties to change their discriminatory attitudes towards women.

The Colombo group of women candidates comprises lawyers, women's activists, former migrant workers, housewives, teachers, hired labour, housemaids, printers, social workers, a cricketer, plantation workers, traders, an engineer, a company director, a trainee accountant and a dress designer among others. For the first time, probably, the group also has two candidates living in shanties. 

Most are entering politics for the first time, have little political background but are keen to raise the independent status of women. 

"That's one of the problems with women politicians in the past. They are either political widows or came from political families," noted Sharmila Daluwatte, a lawyer and candidate. She said there was a need for independent women to come into the political mainstream.

Shanti Silva, another lawyer-candidate, said it was unfortunate that women who successfully completed their primary and secondary education had to stay at home and look after the children after marriage.

"All the knowledge we gained in school is worthless if we are forced to stay at home. The government should look at providing effective and safe day-care centres so that we could keep our children in a safe place and go to work," she said.

Sonnan Panjawarnam lives in a small hut in a shantytown called "Hatte (60) watte" in Colombo which has about 200 families. Depressed over living conditions that took their toll on her family's health and that of her neighbours and the failure of local authorities to solve their problems, she has come forward to contest the poll.

"Our drains are never cleaned. We have overflowing dengue-infested drains running right in front of our homes. Municipal authorities turn a blind eye to our problems probably because we don't own these makeshift houses. We are forced to pay bribes to local power officials and get illegal power connections," she said.

The contesting symbol of the Colombo women's group - a lime - also drew rude remarks from males, some even professionals. "There were abusive remarks made over our symbol," said Ms. Fernando, saying they had very few choices in the selection of a group symbol. All parties and independent groups are required to select a symbol from a list provided by the Elections Department.

Ms. Fernando's group preferred a dignified symbol like the pigeon, the dove for peace or flowers but these symbols were already in use. They had to choose from symbols like the coconut-scraper, coconut, the snail, bucket and some types of fruits including lime. 

She says their foray into politics is a symbolic gesture to pave the way for more women to enter the fray in future. "Even if we don't succeed and other parties solve the problems of women like Sonnan's in the shanties, then that's fine. Ultimately we need solutions to women's issues ...it doesn't matter who helps."

What they want

Among the issues the Colombo women's group is campaigning for are voting rights for Sri Lankan women workers in the Middle East, opposing proposed changes in labour laws in free trade zones to increase night work and overtime for women without proper facilities and a need for laws against domestic violence against women. The group is also seeking redress for local issues like cleaning up drains in shanties and increasing welfare for women.