COLOMBO – About 75% of students at the law faculty are female but there are hardly any female President’s Counsel, opposition legislator Eran Wickremaratne noted.
Addressing Parliament during the debate on the Women’s Empowerment Bill, he questioned the dearth of female President’s Counsel and attributed it on an attitude problem.
“We have to accept this. We cannot run away from this,” he said noting, “We did not choose to be a woman or man at birth. So we cannot be made to pay for things which are not of our choice.”
The Women’s Empowerment Bill was an admirable effort by the government and the Women’s Caucus in Parliament he said, pointing out that the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women was adopted by the United Nations in 1979 but it has still not been made into law in Sri Lanka.
There were also other cultural practices which seemed to go against equal treatment of women, he said, noting, “When I looked student’s associations in mixed schools, I found that the President’s position was given to a boy and the position of Secretary was given to a girl. Why is that?”
There were cases where the parents had to make a decision whether to leave the house to the male or female child or divide it.
Women were sometimes made to stay at home and look after children and were not allowed to work.
“It is good that children are looked after but we have to look at who makes the choice,” Wickramaratne said, explaining practical and cultural factors have to be looked into.
The Women and Children Bureau was understaffed and lacked a training budget, he said, noting that there was no separate budget line for the Police Women and Children Bureau.
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