Social Sciences
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Item Sociological Study on Impact of the Ethnic Conflict on Poverty: A Case Study from War Affected Environment(University of Kelaniya, 2005) Ekanayake, E.M.S.At present number of scholars consider the ethnic conflict and poverty assuming that the war might be key issue for the problems related to poverty. Sri Lanka is a developing county with an annual per capita income of about 820 dollars (World Bank Report 2000). One out of five Sri Lankan households subsists below the poverty line. After achieving 6.0% growths in GDP in 2000, Sri Lanka faced negative economic growth of 1.3% in 2001. The decline was largely due to the LTTE attack on Sri Lanka’s International Airport that adversely affected tourism and shipping. The impact of ethnic conflict on poverty can be examined at micro and macro levels. But most scholar’s and institutes have their studies at macro level. So this paper attempts to understand, how conflict has impacted peoples poverty in war affected areas. By examining the ethnic conflict and poverty, we can build two hypotheses. Conflict leads to poverty and Poverty leads to hopelessness. This study attempts to examine how conflict causes poverty. This research was carried out in three communities in the Seruvila Divisional Secretariat Division in the Trincomalee district. The main objective of this study is to understand the impact of the war on the poor and the poverty dynamics in the war affected regions focusing on the three ethnic communities. Data for the study were collected from three selected villages in Seruwila Divisional Secretariat Division representing all three ethnic groups, Sinhala, Tamils and Muslims. Quantitative and qualitative data collection methods were employed to collect information. A survey of records and literature was done to gather secondary data, and it was followed by primary data collections in the field. For the collection of the primary data, case studies, interviews, group discussion and observation were the methods employed. The findings of the study reveal that the major factors that have contributed to poverty in the war torn areas are the physical damage to life and property, frustrations and hopelessness created by the war, the decline of other traditional livelihood activities, the decline of both public and private sector services, LTTE tax policies and the decline of support organizations at community level.Item Economic Development and National Defence in Sri Lanka(University of Kelaniya, 2005) Jayawardena, M.M.The discussion on national defence and economic growth/development goes back to the deep roots of history, despite the marginal academic interest. The accumulated studies in the literature of economics of defence show an ambiguity of the theoretical underpinning of the subject matter. But every country allocates a comparatively significant % of GDP on national defence. (Todd Sandler and Keirth Hartley 1996). Until 1970s, defence services in Sri Lanka had been almost purely ceremonial. The size of defence was merely less than 1% of GDP with the bottom line objectives. Thereafter, it has increased up to 7% in certain years (e.g.1987, 1995). The national defence in Sri Lanka holds a crucial responsibility under the prevailing conflict ridden atmosphere and the geo-political position of the island nation in the face of economic growth and development. Here, the expected contributions of national defence is hypothetically identified as ‘product, ‘equality’, ‘employment’ ‘social transformation’, ‘self esteem’ and ‘stability’.(9th conference of S/L Studies, 2003).During the study period, from 1970 to 2004, the economic growth rate has been from -1.4 to 6% per annum with an average growth rate of 4.2%. The product contribution against the increase of the size of national defence is not sufficient. Secondly, through the recruitments to the armed forces, the rural sector/underprivileged population has been benefited directly and also through trickle down effects. Therefore, the equality contribution has been positive. Similar positive contribution can also be observed with respect to the employment contribution, because defence has become one of the major effective sources of employment. Fourthly, though it is too early to comment on its positive contribution to the social transformation, there is a tendency towards a new ‘social contract’ as the extreme parties of the society have begun to moderate their views and move towards coexistence. However, with respect to the social transformation the legitimate forces are still to contribute to prevent the exploitation by the extreme elements like the LTTE. Fifthly, during the last thirty years or so the self-esteem of the nation has been severely affected mainly because of the setback in the discipline and the goal directed behaviour of both the individuals and the nation under conflict ridden atmosphere. Finally the failure to compensate the opportunity cost created by heavy defence on health, education and other infrastructure investment has negatively affected on the stability as well as the progress of the country. This has been further aggravated by the continuous inflation mainly resulted from the defence burden. The study shows firstly that the hypothesized contributions cannot be cardinally measured and secondly, that in the Sri Lankan context in particular, those hypothesized contributions are insufficient for the economic growth and development. Thus, it is important to study whether it is a problem of the identified theoretical frame or a possible inefficiency and/or other limitations of the functioning of national defence in Sri Lanka towards the set objectives.