Public Awareness Key to Ending Gender Based Violence
On the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women I want to take a look at what progress has been made in raising our awareness as a community about the…
Advocacy
The Joyful Activist: The Lasting Legacy of Kamla Bhasin
We mourn the loss of Kamla Bhasin, feminist activist, writer, poet, mentor and friend who left us on September 25. Kamla has been a core part of influencing and collaborating with feminist…
Adding Fuel to the Fire: The Dramatic Rise in Domestic Violence During COVID-19
A global rise in the cases of domestic violence (DV) has been observed during the COVID-19 pandemic and sustained periods of lockdown owing to the pandemic. Several factors including tension created by…
Who Wants the Death Penalty?
In 2018 the former President of Sri Lanka, influenced by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s ‘war on drugs’ policy, attempted to resume executions for people convicted of drug trafficking. The President’s move reignited…
Learning Sri Lankan Sign Language
Raise your right hand (or your left if you are left-handed), with the palm facing forward and the fingers spread out. Now form an O with your thumb and your middle finger…
Has the Animal Welfare Bill Fallen by the Wayside?
The images are harrowing and all too familiar – an electrocuted baby elephant, a caged dog, a leopard caught in a trap, a butchered dolphin; accounts of animals suffering due to neglect,…
Why Language Matters
Sri Lanka’s post-colonial language policy was neither fair not desirable. A largely non-English speaking population was governed by a small class of English-speaking elite. Weary of being excluded from governance and public…
Celebrating Inspiring Women: A Message from Jayathma Wickramanayake
There is a social experiment that has been doing rounds close to Women’s Day this year. To help understand the human mind, participants are asked to solve a riddle and their responses…
The Strength of Disability
To mark International Day for Persons with Disabilities, Groundviews interviewed Dharini de Mel, a friend and philanthropist for persons with disabilities. Dharini’s introduction to supporting the disabled came quite by chance. Although…
Eliminating Violence Against Women with Community Support
There have been a lot of politicians all over the world telling us that a nation’s security and economic prosperity are the most important factors in making a country great. Freedom from…
Stemming the Tide of Child Sexual Abuse
World Children’s Day falls on November 20. Sri Lanka commemorated Children’s Day on October 1 and September 2 marked 30 years since the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child…
Do We Understand Mental Health?
Mental illness is not uncommon in Sri Lanka. Most often, mental illness and disorders go undetected due to social and cultural taboos, severely damaging a person’s level of happiness, productivity, and his…
The Colombo Declaration
Image Samya Arif/Medium Read the full article on The Hindu. Click here to access the full text of the Colombo Declaration, an excerpt of which is below: Whereas on the occasion of…
Mental Health and Stigma in Sri Lanka
“I was taken to hospital without my consent. They restrained me when I refused to be medicated, and gave me an injection to sedate me. I had a full-time job, supporting my…
Let Women Decide: Some Feminist Perspectives on the ‘Abortion Debate’
At this moment in Sri Lanka, ‘the abortion debate’ has sprung up once again; with the cabinet purportedly attempting to pass a bill which would legalize abortions for women under two circumstances[1]…
