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Factors affecting poverty incidence among Vedda community

31 May 2022

BY Ruwan Laknath Jayakody The incidence of poverty among the traditional Vedda community is caused by the size and income of the household, the number of livelihood means per household, the level of education of the head of the household, and the extent of cultivable lands owned by the household. Since these factors are inversely related to the incidence of poverty, the improvement of each factor positively affects reducing the incidence of poverty, and therefore, policymakers should pay attention to introducing policy measures to improve these factors appropriately. These findings and recommendations were made in an original article on “An inquiry into the causes of poverty among the Vedda people: Special to the Dambana Vedda community” which was authored by W.M. Semasinghe (attached to the Kelaniya University’s Economics Department) and published in the Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities Review 6 (4) in December, 2021. “The indigenous Vedda community is one of the primitive groups of human beings that inherited distinct socio-economic and cultural traits,” Semasinghe observed. As noted in N. Gankanda and A. Abayakoon’s “Indigenous communities in Sri Lanka, the Veddahs”, the present Vedda people are the linear descendants of the prehistoric neolithic people of Sri Lanka.  “According to historical factors, they are the first ethnic group that inhabited this country. They called themselves the ‘Wanniyala aththo’, which means the forest dwellers. “In ancient times, they lived in caves and the hollows of trees in the forests. They dressed in foliage and the barks of trees. They had their own language known as the Vedda language and their own faith. In ancient times, there were different groups of Veddas on the island.” In an interview conducted by Semasinghe in late June, 2019, in Dambana with the Chief of the Veddas, Uruwarige Wanniya, the latter said: “Since no one has made a separate enumeration on the Vedda community, it is difficult to disclose the exact number of Veddas at present. Nevertheless, it is supposed that the number is around 500,000. However, if the Veddas are defined as hunter-gatherers, there may be no Veddas in the country.” “During the past centuries, the lifestyles of the Vedda communities have largely changed. They have extensively interacted with the dominant societies. Now, they are living in formal houses in organised villages. They are dressing as their village counterparts. Information communication technology is spreading throughout, and mobile phones have become a part of their lives, mainly of the youths. The Vedda language is disappearing in many settlements. Only old-aged Veddas are speaking the Vedda language. All others use the Sinhala or Tamil languages. With these changes, the Veddas cultural traditions are also vanishing gradually. In ancient times, they worshipped yakku (devils). But now, the majority are Buddhist ,while some follow Christianity or Hinduism.” “The most striking incidence relating to the Vedda communities is the diversification of the livelihood practices of the Veddas from hunter-gathering, harvesting non-timber forest products, and sometimes shifting (chena) cultivation and fishing, to agriculture and related activities, mostly practised by non-Veddas in rural villages. During ancient times, they worked for themselves in order to find their sustenance. The lifestyle was simple, and they produced what they needed. The items that they could not produce such as arrows, cloths, and salt were exchanged with neighbouring villagers or mobile vendors. However, now, the Vedda people have entered the formal commodity and labour markets. They buy their needs from the commodity market. Some Vedda people are working in the informal sector as daily wage labourers. Meanwhile, some Vedda people are employed in private and public sector institutions for a monthly salary. Their linkage with the modern market system has increased with the interaction with neighbouring societies and the development of the road network and the increasing transport facilities. The children of Vedda families are attending the schools of the formal education system. Furthermore, they are keen on modern politics too.” Semasinghe sought to trace the causes of poverty among the Vedda people living in traditional Vedda villages. The main study area is Dambana, the well-known traditional Vedda village. This study was based on the mixed method approach. In the process of data collection, the questionnaire survey method was supplemented by key informant interviews and the direct observation method. The descriptive approach and analytical approach were used in the analysis of the data. The geographical location of the study is the Dambana Grama Niladhari (GN) Division, which is one of the traditional Vedda settlements located 18 kilometres away from the Mahiyanganaya Town and adjacent to the Maduru Oya Wildlife Sanctuary. The Dambana GN Division comprises five villages, namely Kotabakiniya, Dambana, Wathuyaya, Gurukumbura,and Welpallewela. The total number of families living in this division is around 780 and the total population is about 3,500. From among these villages, in the first four villages, only Vedda families live, while in Welpallewela, both Vedda families and mainstream Sinhala families as well as mixed families live. From among the first four villages, Gurukumbura and Kotabakiniya were selected randomly to carry out the survey. The Vedda community living in Dambana is known as the Bintanne Vedda. Dambana is acknowledged nationally as well as internationally as the sole haven of the Vedda people. The Vedda people in Dambana belong to different clans. Those clans are Uru varige, Morana varige, Nabudana varige and Thala varige. There had been two other clans, namely Ambala varige and Unapan varige which cannot be seen now. The Chief of the Vedda is Uruwarige Wanniyaleththo who is the son of the former Chief of the Vedda, Thisahamy. His official residence is located in Kotabakiniya. The indigenous information centre is situated close to this official residence. From among the five villages in the Dambana GN Division, two villages, namely Kotabakiniya and Gurukumbura were selected randomly for the study. The total population of these two villages is around 3,200, which belong to 920 families. Among them, 30 households were selected randomly using the list of households maintained by the GN for the sample survey. The primary data were collected by administering a pre-tested questionnaire, which included close-ended and open-ended questions. In addition to the Chief of the Vedda, three key informant interviews were conducted with the GN, the Samurdhi Niyamaka, and the Vedda community's first graduate T.M. Gunawardhana who is a teacher in the Gurukumbura Primary School. In order to determine the causes of poverty of the Vedda people, first, the existing level of poverty at the level of the household should be identified, and a poverty index should be developed. By departing from the money metric basis, in this study, poverty is identified as the deprivation of certain basic needs, namely food security (food stock – one week or more, number of meals per day, and number of hungry seasons during the last 12 months), shelter/housing (type of housing [permanent], electricity [availability], and kitchen [permanent]), sanitation (improved latrine [accessibility]), drinking water (protected sources [accessibility] and sufficiency [accessibility]), health (members without chronic diseases and disabled) and non-discrimination (not feeling discriminated). After separating the poor from the non-poor, few demographic and economic factors which were filtered based on the literature were tested to identify the determinants of poverty. These factors include the household size, the income of the household measured on a monthly basis, the number of livelihood means practised by each household, the gender, age, and level of education (measured by the years of schooling) of the head of the household, the main livelihood practice of the household and the extent of cultivable lands owned by each household. From among the eight explanatory variables which were tested, only five variables, namely the household size, the income of the household, the number of livelihood means, the level of education of the head of the household, and the extent of cultivable lands entitled to by the households, are statistically significant. Hence, these factors can be identified as the causes of poverty in the Vedda community. Meanwhile, all these factors are negatively related to poverty. “This implies that the improvement of each of these factors leads to the reduction of the probability of a household falling into poverty. This is obvious because all these factors contribute to improving the level of achievement of the dimensions which were used to measure the level of poverty.” At the factor level, the highest contribution is given by the number of livelihood means practised by the Vedda households. When the number of livelihood practices increases, the probability of the household falling into poverty decreases. The second-highest probability is reported from the household size followed by the entitlement of cultivable lands and the level of education of the head of the household. Although the income of the household is identified as a significant factor, its contribution to reducing poverty is minimal. “The lifestyle of the Vedda community has changed drastically during the past few decades. Now, they are practising more or less the livelihood means exercised by non-Vedda villages. However, their living standard is well below when compared with their village counterparts. The households which engage in one or very few livelihood activities are poorer than the households that follow salaried jobs and practice multiple income-generating activities,” Semasinghe reiterated.  


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