What type of people are we really? Behind the smiles and the Ayubowans hide a tale of darkness that Sri Lankans try to ignore. But when urgent meetings are held at Temple Trees to discuss how to stop street gangs from sexually assaulting women in broad daylight on main roads in Seeduwa, it tells a sorry tale of who Sri Lankans really are.
A new Ministry for Community Policing was created a few days ago. It came hard on the heels of an uproar over social media after a female student Tweeted a cry for help, drawing attention to the horrendous sexual harassment in public in Seeduwa, a suburb of Colombo adjacent to the international airport.
The Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports took immediate action, reportedly arranging a meeting at Temple Trees that was attended by the Minister for Public Security, Minister for Women’s Affairs, and relevant law enforcement officials.
But the problem goes far deeper than just Seeduwa. In fact it’s a nationwide issue of a perverse culture where only the strong are safe, and predators publicly prey on women and children at will with little fear of retribution.
Why couldn’t this be handled locally?
The sad fact is that the Sri Lanka Police do not consider sexual harassment in public to be a serious issue; not surprising in an institution known for its misogyny and patriarchal attitude. Murders and bank robberies are considered serious crimes, but having more than half the population living in fear is not.
This is clearly evident in many official police reports, in which sexual harassment is barely mentioned at all. Fig. 1 shows the top seven grave crimes reported in 2019.
This one incident is an eye opener as to the extent the Police have lost control and also the depths to which Sri Lankan society has fallen. This wasn’t a girl being attacked in a dark alley in the middle of the night. It’s happening every day to large numbers of women, young and not so young, on the main roads.
It is quite incredible that a routine issue of public safety should need to be elevated all the way up to Temple Trees for multiple ministers to discuss. This is a matter that should have been handled at the local police level. Where are the police street patrols? Has the Seeduwa Police completely lost control over their area?
If the Seeduwa Officer in Charge (OIC) was incapable, then it should have been sorted out by the regional Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), the Superintendent of Police (SP), the SSP Senior Superintendent of Police), or even the Deputy Inspector General (DIG).
A nation of perverts, paedophiles, and predators
There are incidents and research statistics galore with regard to the depravity that has overtaken Sri Lankan society, including the official statistics of the Sri Lanka Police. Judges, lawyers, police, political leaders, academics… we are all well aware of it. In fact all Sri Lankans know it.
Yet, little or nothing is ever done about it, least of all by the Police themselves. The appointment of a Minister for Community Policing is akin to putting a piece of sticking plaster on a cancer patient.
Not safe at home; not safe on the street
Women form the majority of the population, but police statistics show that they are not safe at home or in public. Huge numbers of assault, rape, and sexual assault are carried out by family members and neighbours – and that’s only counting the reported cases, in a nation where the vast majority of crimes go unreported due to Sri Lankan society’s shameful habit of victim blaming and victim shaming.
Underreporting of sexual harassment
In an article on 21 September 2020, this column raised this issue as follows (http://www.themorning.lk/how-sexual-predators-hurt-the-economy/). “A 2017 poll of Sri Lankan women by Yamu.lk found 85% had been sexually harassed, with an astounding 55% having been physically harassed. Harassment took place at all times of day and night, by men acting alone and in groups, to girls and women of all ages, from under-12 years to over-65 years. Less than 1% reported to the Police, while 68% walked away in silence and 24% confronted the harassers verbally. Locations were mainly the streets and on public transport. A 2004 study by Amarasinghe et al found 94% of women had experienced harassment in public transport.
“This betrays not only a distracting lack of understanding of where, why, and how the rape occurs, but also the blame for rape survivors who can, as it should be known by the Government, range from young children to victims of honour crimes.
“Sri Lanka is a very conservative country, often viewed with suspicion, and criminal complaints are rarely being seriously investigated by victims of sexual abuse. Much of the country lives under a code of ‘honour’ which can lead to violence or assassination for women who bring ‘shame’ into the family. It is regularly one of the world's worst places for equality between the sexes.”
When police statistics don’t tell the true story
It is high time that the Sri Lanka Police carries out a major sustained drive to make our streets safer for women. For this to be done, the Police need to take this pandemic of public sexual harassment seriously and a complete change in attitude is required within the Police Department.
Sexual harassment needs to be considered a grave crime and steps need to be taken to obtain realistic statistics of the situation on the ground, in order to plan out a sustained and immediate response.
The ‘grave crimes’ recognised by the Police are shown in Fig. 2, and do not contain any reference to sexual harassment.
The apparel industry: Responsibility of employing institutions
It is a matter of shameful significance that Sri Lanka’s most economically and politically powerful industry – apparels – is at the heart of the public security problem concerning women. The focal areas of street harassment are in fact in the economic zones that are dominated by the apparel industry – Seeduwa, Katunayake, Ekala, Biyagama, etc. The misogynistic culture that pervades many of Sri Lanka’s major garment firms is a matter of public knowledge, with the vast majority of senior management being dominated by men, with the workforce being overwhelmingly women.
It is no coincidence that much of the harassment occurs right at the gates of the garment factories, where gangs of men lie in wait on motorcycles and bicycles at the time a shift ends in a factory. What starts as harassment and verbal abuse degenerates into sexual assault, rape, and sometimes human trafficking into involuntary or pressurised prostitution.
The Seeduwa situation, which no one denies, is the stark reality and demonstrates that little is done by many of these firms to prevent this crisis which takes place literally on their doorsteps or to pressure the Police into taking action.
Anti-harassment committees
While many garment firms have anti-harassment committees, counsellors, etc., the misogynistic culture that has been built up in the industry over many decades effectively prevents many of these from actively working to resolve the issues, as the counsellors and committees report to managers who are themselves often involved in the harassment of women.
Role of education
One of the most significant challenges would be to reverse the patriarchal attitudes of Sri Lanka’s misogynistic culture, in the long term. While law enforcement will play an immediate role, it is vital that the education sector plays a major role in transforming Sri Lanka into a society where gender equality can be achieved and women’s safety would become an issue in which men would play a key role.
Way forward
- National targets need to be set on how this epidemic of harassment is to be wiped out, with annual sub-targets
- The manner in which the Sri Lanka Police virtually ignores this critical issue needs to be sorted out
- Hotlines need to be set up to report sexual harassment issues
- A system that would encourage anonymous complaints needs to be set up
- The Ministry of Women’s Affairs, the National Child Protection Authority (NCPA), and other specialised statutory authorities need to become more active
- The Ministry of Law and Order, the Attorney General’s Department, the Judicial Service Commission, the Bar Association, etc. need to pay more attention to this crisis
- Awareness of sexual harassment needs to be covered more comprehensively in the country’s educational curriculum
- National, regional, and local chambers of commerce and industry need to take up this matter as a priority to pressurise the Government and the Police
- Women’s organisations, including the Women’s Chamber of Industry and Commerce, need to raise this issue far more
- Sri Lanka’s universities need to get involved and academics and researchers need to address the issue as a sociological and legal crisis and publish research literature to create more awareness
- Community organisations and large businesses need to become actively involved in ensuring the safety of their neighbourhoods and workforces