My first ganudenuwa[i] This Sinhala and Hindu New year was with a hungry man who rang the doorbell with his elbow at the auspicious hour for money transactions. He had had his fingers chopped off and stuck his hands through the grill of my gate. I didn’t ask him what happened I merely inserted currency… Continue reading New Year’s Day, Sri Lanka 2022 – Vivimarie VanderPoorten
Author: ssalanka
“Women Workers’ Health and Wellbeing Have Never Been a Concern of Plantation Companies” – An Interview with Menaha Kandasamy
Menaha Kandasamy is the first woman to serve as the President and General Secretary of the Ceylon Plantation Workers’ Union and a Founding Member of the Red Flag Women’s Movement. In this interview with Hasini Lecamwasam from Polity, Menaha talks about her history of activism within the plantation sector, plantation worker’s struggles for fair wages… Continue reading “Women Workers’ Health and Wellbeing Have Never Been a Concern of Plantation Companies” – An Interview with Menaha Kandasamy
Policy dialogue on Unpaid Care Work in Sri Lanka
A policy dialogue titled, “Recognizing, Reducing, and Redistributing Unpaid Care Work in Sri Lanka” organized by the Women and Media Collective was held on March 31st, 2023 at the Galle Face Hotel, Colombo from 9 am to 1.00 pm. The policy dialogue is an outcome of a research study conducted by the Women and Media… Continue reading Policy dialogue on Unpaid Care Work in Sri Lanka
Entangled Lives and the Crisis of Care
Linked Lives: Elder Care, Migration, and Kinship in Sri Lanka. Michele Ruth Gamburd. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2020- Reviewed by Asha L. Abeyasekera
Michelle Gamburd’s ethnographic monograph Linked Lives looks in depth at practices of care in a Southern Sinhala village, documenting the nexus between kinship relations, globalisation, and migration and its impacts on eldercare. At the heart of the book is the question “how to care for the elderly in times of (economic) crisis when migration is… Continue reading Entangled Lives and the Crisis of Care
Linked Lives: Elder Care, Migration, and Kinship in Sri Lanka. Michele Ruth Gamburd. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2020- Reviewed by Asha L. Abeyasekera
Seminar series on Critical Agrarian Studies 2023, Seminar 02- “Is the Agrarian Question Dead? Theory, Tendencies and Praxis”, a talk by Dr. Kalpa Rajapaksha
“Is the Agrarian Question Dead? Theory, Tendencies and Praxis” The Critical Agrarian Studies seminar series of the Social Scientists’ Association held its second meeting titled “Is the Agrarian Question Dead? Theory, Tendencies and Praxis”. The seminar series focuses on the contemporary agrarian political economy of Sri Lanka, aiming to map an agenda for critical agrarian studies… Continue reading Seminar series on Critical Agrarian Studies 2023, Seminar 02- “Is the Agrarian Question Dead? Theory, Tendencies and Praxis”, a talk by Dr. Kalpa Rajapaksha
International Women’s Day: Sri Lankan Women Demand Democracy, Economic Justice, and Freedom – Feminist Collective for Economic Justice
Working women are bearing the debt burden! In 1908, 15,000 working women marched through New York City demanding decent working hours, better pay, and voting rights. In 1910, at the Second International Conference of Working Women, Clara Zetkin proposed the idea of an International Women’s Day. On this 8 March 2023, we are moved by… Continue reading International Women’s Day: Sri Lankan Women Demand Democracy, Economic Justice, and Freedom – Feminist Collective for Economic Justice
Experts’ Panel to hear testimonies of Sex Workers from seven districts in Sri Lanka A brief report Sex Workers and Allies South Asia (SWASA), Sri Lanka
In a first ever effort jointly organized by the Sex Workers and Allies South Asia (SWASA), Sri Lanka and the Social Scientists Association, six experts across diverse relevant fields were brought together to listen to testimonies from thirty sex workers from across Sri Lanka. Hailing from Colombo, Gampaha, Jaffna, Kandy, Polonnaruwa, Puttalam and Vavuniya, this… Continue reading Experts’ Panel to hear testimonies of Sex Workers from seven districts in Sri Lanka A brief report Sex Workers and Allies South Asia (SWASA), Sri Lanka
Seminar series on Critical Agrarian Studies 2023, Seminar 01- Progressive policies and the state’s local practices: some thoughts on rural contexts in Sri Lanka, a talk by Dr. Urs Geiser
Social Scientists’ Association as part of its Critical Agrarian Studies seminar series held its first seminar-discussion titled – “Progressive policies and the state’s local practices: some thoughts on rural contexts in Sri Lanka” on 9th February 2023. The study series focuses on contemporary agrarian political economy, through mapping an agenda for critical agrarian studies in the 21st… Continue reading Seminar series on Critical Agrarian Studies 2023, Seminar 01- Progressive policies and the state’s local practices: some thoughts on rural contexts in Sri Lanka, a talk by Dr. Urs Geiser
The Left’s Choice: Revival or Surrender – Devaka Gunawardena
Two responses to my recent piece, “Resisting the Nationalist Right’s Framing of the Economic Alternative,” have appeared. One is by Uditha Devapriya and another, here in Polity, is by Shiran Illanperuma. Devapriya takes a sympathetic approach, raising underlying questions about industrialisation. Meanwhile, Illanperuma argues that my entire critique is misplaced. Rather than engage the latter… Continue reading The Left’s Choice: Revival or Surrender – Devaka Gunawardena
The Left’s Choice: Revival or Surrender – Devaka Gunawardena
Two responses to my recent piece, “Resisting the Nationalist Right’s Framing of the Economic Alternative,” have appeared. One is by Uditha Devapriya and another, here in Polity, is by Shiran Illanperuma. Devapriya takes a sympathetic approach, raising underlying questions about industrialisation. Meanwhile, Illanperuma argues that my entire critique is misplaced. Rather than engage the latter… Continue reading The Left’s Choice: Revival or Surrender – Devaka Gunawardena