Due to the increasing economic pressure, social relations in the family and the workplace are breaking down, and due to the incompetence of the rulers who have destroyed the social security system for a long time, these have become severe problems, says Dr Harini Amarasuriya, Member of the Executive Committee of the National People’s Power.
She made this observation on the 16th while addressing a press conference held at the JVP head office at Pelawatta.
Dr Harini Amarasuriya said, “When talking about the current social crisis, many people pay more attention to the current crisis and the measures to be taken to deal with it. In the same way, we can see the society’s collapse and the society’s insecurity in relation to our economy. We should also especially raise the issue of the growing violence against women and children. Due to the increasing economic pressure, all the social relationships that need to be maintained in the family and the workplace are under pressure. Due to the collapse of social relations, all the traditional ties are weakening. As a result, the weak groups in the society, who have less power, have to face violence. It is growing day by day. It is mainly women, children and senior citizens who face this problem.
The economic crisis has started to affect all sectors of society. It seems that all sections of the society are being destroyed. The current government does not have any sensitivity or sympathy regarding this. People have to bear these issues only as families or as individuals. The society in crisis itself has been forced to find solutions for them.
The police, child protection authority, probation department and women’s ministry are the institutions that should be empowered to oversee these. However, these institutions have also come under severe pressure.These institutions have been made weaker and weaker due to not getting the resources, technical resources and human resources needed to intervene in such issues. They have not happened suddenly. These have become severe problems today due to the incompetence of the rulers who have destroyed the social security system for a long time.
Last week, the National People’s Power met a group of senior citizens. We discussed this with the group of retirees. They brought many questions to our attention. Since 1997, they have been very helpless due to their existing problems. They have been greatly affected by the problems arising from the non-increasing of their pensions and the due pension needing to be received on time. Senior citizens face a lot of health problems. Lack of medicine and the collapse of the health sector have made the problems they face serious.
The increase in interest on the loans they have taken has caused another crisis. These people are a group of people who can live without burdening their children. Nevertheless, today, the burden of these people has to be borne by their children. More and more questions have arisen in the families due to that. We cannot believe that these problems will be solved in the budget to be presented by the government. However, when the budget is to be presented, we remind the government that senior citizens’ questions should be answered.”
