By Hemantha Withanage, Centre for Environmental Justice, Sri Lanka Manoja is a 50-year-old woman with one son and two daughters and lives in Pitipana village. Her husband is a fisherman and she sells the fish he catches at a road-side market. Fishing is their only source of income and her husband earned Rs1500 (around US$8)
MADHUSHANI SENDHANAYAKE Since 1931, where Sri Lanka gained the ‘Universal Suffrage’ which allowed all Sri Lankan citizens to participate in the democratic process, women had the constitutional freedom and right to vote and participate in political activities. The country elected Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranayake as the world’s first female prime minister in 1960 and elected Mrs.