Sri Lankan government sterilises Tamils
A program to systematically and radically reduce the Tamil population in Sri Lanka's plantation sector is secretly but effectively being carried out with state assistance and misdirected foreign aid.
The Tamils in the hills of Sri Lanka, where most tea and rubber is grown, are being subjected to large-scale sterilisation. The plantation Tamils have inhabited the central parts of the island for nearly 150 years.
The Sri Lankan Ministry of Plantations is directly involved in this forced sterilisation with assistance from the Ministry of Health. Activists allege that the Ministry of Plantations channels substantial foreign aid earmarked for improving the quality of life in the plantations. They also allege that an NGO called "Plantation Trust" plays a key role in implementing this program among young Tamil parents in the plantation industry.
This birth control program is the latest in a series of efforts by Sinhala majority governments to reduce the Tamil population in the plantation sector.
Sinhala leaders have been apprehensive about the political power of the large Tamil population from the time the British left the island in 1948. A large number were disfranchised in 1949. Later, under repatriation pacts with India and forcible evacuation programs sponsored by the Sri Lankan state, the Tamil population in the plantation sector was significantly reduced.
A Tamil activist in the hill country describes a typical scene (names and places have been deleted at his request): "Somewhere in the central hills in Sri Lanka, in a tea plantation shrouded in mist, some 25 poor Tamil plantation workers in their early 20s were herded into a dirty lorry which is normally used to transport manure for the tea saplings.
"They don't seem to be aware of what is awaiting them. The only thing that clogged their minds was the Rs. 500 ($11.50) the doctor promised them at the end of the treatment. Each had their own plan for the 500 rupee reward. Perhaps their next few meals seemed sure.
"The lorry winds through the serpentine road and stops at the make-shift clinic, another dirty dilapidated building. They are asked to get off the vehicle. One by one their names are called out. And there they all were sterilised, losing one of their basic rights — to procreate — without their fullest consent."
The method of sterilisation is called LRT — ligation and resection of the tube.
The Sri Lankan government preaches to the poor Tamil estate workers that prevention of pregnancy is good. "You can't support your family", it tells them. In fact, the government is running a politically motivated demographic control project under the cover of family planning.
The result is the changing demographic pattern in the central province of Sri Lanka. The growth rate of Tamils in the region has drastically fallen compared to other communities. This in turn is reflected in the estate school and creche registers. A senior Tamil journalist from the hill country said, "If this trend continues unchecked, there won't be any nurseries for Tamil children in five or six years".
A study of the population pattern during the last five to 10 years shows the trend clearly. Many child-care centres have been closed down because the number of children below five is fast decreasing. Even a brief glance at the figures shows that the main target is the Indian Tamils.
A recent survey in Haali-Ela, Rockkettanne estate, revealed that there are only 96 children below the age of five in that estate's primary school.
Another revealing fact is that all their mothers have had a hysterectomy. Ninety-one per cent of those who have had the LRT surgery are younger than 26. According to the law, sterilisation cannot be done if the person is younger than 26. In two cases the women were less than 19. Doctors don't brief the parents on the alternatives, nor on the laws and regulations.
Surveys in several other estates also clearly show the drastic decline in birth rates among the Tamils in the hill country.
Public health workers in the estates brainwash and inveigle mostly illiterate or semi-literate poor Tamil workers to undergo family planning surgeries instead of providing them with information about reproductive health. Well-informed sources say that these field officers are paid handsomely for recruiting people to undergo sterilisation.
Despite protests by many concerned people of the hill country, the Sri Lankan government seems to be achieving its goal of changing the demographic complexion of the plantation sector.
[Abridged from TamilNet, October 29.]