Socio-economic Conditions of War Widows in North-East Sri Lanka

Abstract

Sri Lanka had faced war for three decades. It affected people's lifestyles and created vulnerability in society, such as war widows, women-headed families, disabled, missing people, and displacements. The main objective of the research was to identify the socio-economic situations of the war widows, and the sub-objective was to find out the relations between war and widows in the Northern and Eastern provinces of Sri Lanka. This study was used secondary data collection methods. There were 15 pieces of literature used for this research for data collection. SPSS and thematic analysis were used for data analysis, and the women in development (WID) theory was applied. War widows face problems every day, as well as socio-economic conditions in society. Poverty, young age and fewer experience women, lack of safety, children's educational related issues, health issues, future generation issues, gender inequality, socio-cultural problems and disrespect, remarriage, double day employment or work, no employment, risk work, no land ownership, lack of income and savings, lack of loan facilities, basic needs issue, illegal sexual relationships were findings of the research. War widows face a double burden in the society where they have responsibilities to care for the family. Giving educational opportunities to their children, empowering war widows, improving their personalities, implementing model planning, and motivating them are recommendations for reducing the socioeconomic conditions of the war widows in the North East, Sri Lanka.