Sri Lanka to decide on late working hours for women

The government will be closely examining the working hours of women in the workplace with prospects of reforms, State Minister for Finance Eran Wickramaratne said today.

Addressing the Women's Chamber of Industry and Commerce (WCIC) at the Galadari Hotel in Colombo he said that the women's working hours would be studied in detail.
"Another law that has not surfaced is working late," the minister said adding that it is also another aspect to be looked at to protect women. "It needs to be closely looked at," he said.
Inspite of the need for parity among the different sexes, Minister Wickramaratne pointed out that there were different cultural contexts in which these matters could be worked out.
"Culture is built over time and we frame our laws based on the principles," the minister said.
The Minister noted that with women today in the forefront in secondary education their entry into state universities also showed their marked dominance like in the fields of Art (81 per cent), Law (84 per cent), Management and Commerce (61 per cent) and in Medicine, Dental Veterinary and Indigenous Medicine (68 per cent). However they were remarkably low at below 40 per cent in Science, Engineering and Computer Science streams.
Minister Wickramaratne explained that the paradox in Sri Lanka was that women were in the forefront in a number of aspects but this was not translated into the economics and political mainstream. (Sunimalee)