The Hon. M. Nizam Kariapper, PC

¶ 01 Hon. Presiding Member, first of all I thank the Hon. Chandima Hettiaarachchi, Member of Parliament for Kalutara District, for bringing this motion.

¶ 02 I have come from quite a distance, keeping the fast and even breaking fast with water here, thinking I must speak. I do not like the term “housemaid.” The training centre for them was once called the Housemaid Training Centre. I have a small personal connection to that centre. It was the late Monty Gopallawa, former Deputy Minister of Labour, who first established a training centre for citizen domestic workers.

¶ 03 From the coastal belt of the Eastern Province, many Tamil-speaking Tamil and Muslim women went to the Middle East. One deeply sensitive incident in my life that I still cannot bear is the beheading of the girl Rizana Nafeek, according to the law there. There were various reasons for it. I voiced my emotion then as well and faced much criticism. That is fine.

¶ 04 Hon. Presiding Member, Tamil-speaking women from the Eastern Province who go for domestic service often have no minimum educational knowledge. That is why the late Deputy Minister Monty Gopallawa established a centre to train them. They needed to find a house or place in an area where Tamil-speaking people live to set up that centre. At that time, a large rent had to be paid, and the Government was not ready to pay that much. My leader, A. H. M. Ashraff, was there then. I too was at his main residence in Colombo. He told me, since we are in Colombo, let us rent out the house for a small amount. We did so, and several good activities were carried out from it.

¶ 05 However, Hon. Presiding Member, there are enough laws to regulate these activities. That is not the issue. The issue is that whatever the law, people find ways around it. Let us set law aside for a moment. We must first ask why our women are being sent for such work. I do not like even the term “housemaid,” Hon. Presiding Member. Why cannot it be “domestic worker”? I personally like doing housework. Domestic work is a skilled job. It must be carried out with proper training and with special protections. It can earn high remuneration, and there are strong protections in Western countries that provide high remuneration. Whether in Saudi Arabia or Cyprus, the country or their religion is not the issue. What happens is that they have developed an attitude of superiority towards these workers. It is our own people who send them there.

¶ 06 Another matter is that we send mothers abroad. Speaking of husbands, the Hon. Lakshman Nipunarachchi—subject to correction—said “Do not drink the Buddha’s offering,” meaning that when the mothers go and struggle to earn money, the fathers here drink it away. I heard that live, though I could not attend this House that day as, being Party Secretary at the time, I had to travel around the country to get nomination papers countersigned. While listening, a deeper line came to my mind: “You, who offered calm affection to an agitated world, waving from near as the sage of love.” Hon. Presiding Member, do not worry, I am not going to sing a song. Referring to a woman as the “sage of love” carries profound meaning; it is a Sinhala song with deep meaning. There are many songs about mothers, but I have not heard a Sinhala song with such beautiful depth; even among Tamil songs they are few. Therefore, in Sri Lanka, we must raise the question why we are sending women—mothers—into domestic service. We should not be in a situation where a mother must go abroad to earn money. Yes, we have major economic problems. But when we revere a mother as the “sage of love,” it is not right that ultimately she becomes a servant seeking foreign exchange. Seeing the word “regulation” in this motion made me think I should speak. I also saw the Hon. Leader of the House and Hon. Minister Saroja Sachchithanandam Polraj speak sensitively, referencing a mother. We all have that sensitivity.

¶ 07 We have the right to critique what the Hon. Minister does in her ministerial role—beyond whether she is a woman or a man. But regarding our women, what is required is not mere regulation, but law. That is what I was trying to tell my Hon. colleague. For a long period, sending any untrained domestic worker abroad—to countries where we have had many issues—was subject to severe restrictions. But due to the economic crisis, these problems have arisen.

¶ 08 Though I have more time, I will make one more point and conclude, as I too must break fast. Hon. Presiding Member, those who face the gravest problems are poor women from the Eastern Province who have limited proficiency in the language, and who do not have proper understanding of using electrical appliances common in those countries. I visited when the training was being conducted. During training, they are not given practice with the more sophisticated luxury appliances used there. When they say “washing machine,” at most they are shown an automatic washing machine and taught how to operate it. But in those countries there are more modern brands and devices. Then these women cannot use them; when they misuse them, the blame is placed on them, and attempts are made to recover the resulting losses from them.

¶ 09 The Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment decided to relocate the Kalmunai domestic worker training centre because a very high rent was being asked for the existing premises, and they could not pay it. They said there was no state land in that area to build an office or building, and as they lacked funds, they shifted it to Ampara. But women from Trincomalee, Kinniya, Muttur, Pottuvil and other distant areas cannot go to Ampara, Hon. Presiding Member. Those presenting themselves for these jobs often lack good knowledge of Sinhala. When they go to such centres, an in-house training of about two weeks is conducted. They go in fear. Therefore, regulating these activities is very good. I earnestly request that a training centre be established in the Eastern Province for domestic workers. At the same time, I also say it is good to bring a law so that our Sri Lankan women are not sent to those countries for jobs categorized as housemaids.

¶ 10 Hon. Presiding Member, I thank you for the opportunity to speak, and I thank the Hon. Member who brought this motion.