Seeds, Stories & Solidarity (Fall 2025) - Magazine - Page 40
Anuka Vimukthi De Silva, Sri Lanka
Movement for Land and Agricultural
Reform of Sri Lanka (MONLAR)
Women are the main economy in our country. We are the
tea pluckers. Everyone knows ‘Ceylon tea’ is the best brand,
but they don’t have any rights—no sanitary, no education.
They’re living in the same houses the British built. [Or]
women go into cross-country migration, like Middle East,
as unskilled house maids; a lot of women are dying there.
And a lot of young women migrate to the cities as factory
workers without any good condition. They don’t have any
workers’ rights, nothing. That’s why I believe we need to
bring back this big power, human power to the land.
In 2018 in Sri Lanka, 204 women committed suicide
because of the micro-economy. That is [why] I started
working with microfinance. They started a big campaign
against that, because they took the loan and they cannot
pay back. We started demanding “Don’t pay! Cannot pay!”
a kind of campaign, because interest is very high. It’s like
vultures. We fight against the companies and we make
some law reforms also.
In 2021 is the first time in the country we had a huge
women protest, like a sit-in protest. We occupied 55 days
the presidential house. We demanded law reforms. And we
did it! That’s how I believe women can change the society.
On July 9 [2022] in Sri Lanka, we kicked out our president.
I believe in the social movements, because if [we] really
work, we can change something.
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