Sri Lanka’s thousands of destitute war widows pin hopes on new president
Official figures show 27,000 widows head households in Jaffna, where the conflict was centred, while local politicians put the figure much higher.
Shunned, destitute and pushed into prostitution in some cases, Sri Lanka’s Tamil widows have returned to northern Jaffna since the end of the separatist war only to discover they are not welcome even in their homeland.
Now, six years after the war ended, the women who fled the fighting on the peninsula in their thousands are pinning their hopes on the nation’s new president for a better future for their families.
“Widows are despised in our society,” said Baskaran Jegathiswari, 50, fighting back tears at her home in Achchuveli village in Jaffna, heartland of Sri Lanka’s ethnic Tamil minority.
“People look down on us. They think we bring bad luck,” said Jegathiswari, who lost her husband to military shellfire just months before the war ended in 2009.
The women are closely watching President Maithripala Sirisena who took office in January pledging reconciliation to “heal broken hearts and minds”.
Official figures show 27,000 widows head households in Jaffna, where the conflict was centred, while local politicians put the figure much higher.
“I can’t think of rebuilding my life now,” said widow Evin Selvy who struggles to feed her family, earning 500 rupees ($3.80) a day as a farm labourer. “But I hope the new government will make it better for my three daughters.”