‘I Want to Have My Future, I Have a Dialogue’: Social Work in Sri Lanka between Neo-capitalism and Human Rights

Abstract

Sri Lanka is one of many developing countries where poverty, neo-liberal economic exploitation, economic migration and traditional long-term injustice towards ethnic minorities, children, people with disabilities and women, have created difficult conditions for social work to truly become a human rights profession. This article links poverty issues with some social work issues such as the child's perspective and disability issues, both being important parts of universal human rights. Despite a long social work tradition—early social work training was established in 1952—social work is still a developing profession. The article gives a descriptive overview of the development of social work education since 1952 and provides an example of a successful international collaboration between the University of Colombo and the University of Ljubljana in order to develop social work education at the university level and to establish it as an academic discipline. It gives a case study analysis of the absence of the child's perspective in children's institutions and presents an example of good practice in working with children with disabilities. Both analyses show a need for more professional social workers in the country.

Keywords:

• Social Work in Sri Lanka
• Child's Perspective in Sri Lanka
• Children with Disabilities in Sri Lanka
• Academisation of Social Work in Sri Lanka

Notes

^[1] The first Sri Lankan Free Trade Zone was opened in Katunayake in June 1978, followed by one in Biyagama in 1982. By 1992, the whole of Sri Lanka was considered to be a single free trade zone. See Sri Lanka and the Free Trade Zones, Transnational Information Exchange [online]. Available at: http://www.tie-germany.org/what_we_do/new_organising_-_exchains_-_sri_lanka.html, accessed 29 July 2010.

^[4] I am grateful to the students of the Theories and Methods in Social Work module from the University of Colombo, Department of Sociology, whom I taught in winter 2010 for many thoughtful discussions.

^[2] See http://hdrstats.undp.org/en/countries/country_fact_sheets/cty_fs_LKA.html, accessed 28 July 2010.

^[3] See http://hdrstats.undp.org/en/countries/country_fact_sheets/cty_fs_LKA.html, accessed 28 July 2010.

^[5] See http://hdrstats.undp.org/en/countries/country_fact_sheets/cty_fs_LKA.html, accessed 28 July 2010.

^[6] See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_literacy_rate, accessed 28 July 2010.

^[7] See http://hdrstats.undp.org/en/countries/country_fact_sheets/cty_fs_LKA.html, accessed 28 July 2010.

^[8] YWCA was established in 1882 in Colombo and it is considered to be the first NGO in the country.

^[9] See http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q = cache:aVJzDZ07qKkJ:www.ywcaindia.org/vol.asp+dr+dorothy+moses,+YWCA,+india&cd = 1&hl = sl&ct = clnk&gl = si.

^[10] ‘Impact of Tsunami—9.0/2004—Sri Lanka’ [online]. Available at: http://www.statistics.gov.lk/Tsunami/sunami.htm, accessed 31 July 2010.

^[11] The Island, 16 February 2010, p. 5; K.J. Jayaruk, Daily Mirror, 7 December 2009, p. 6.

^[12] K. Gamage, Diwaina, 25 November 2009, p. 19.

^[13] K. Jayakodi, Diwaina, 11 January 2010, p. 22.

^[14] In this case the perpetrator had only to pay a fine for the rape of an intellectually disabled woman (W. Keerthi, Diwaina, 18 February 2010, p. 23).

^[15] J. Samantha, Diwaina, 5 October 2010, p. 13.

^[16] H. P. Karunarathne, Lakbima, 7 April 2010, p. 19.