Dr. Murali Vallipuranathan
As speaker of the popular talk titled “Future of Tamils: A demographic perspective” I am thankful to Dr.Krishna Kalaichelvan for translating the media report and discussing under the title “Understanding the Demographic Decline of Tamils in Sri Lanka”. I however, wish to clarify the following:
- The media report published in GTN website and other media was prepared by a media personnel who attended my talk in Jaffna University on 26/06/14. That report was however, not comprehensive and in fact left out two other important aspects of my talk affecting the population growth: migration and mortality. Just because I had posted those links in my Facebook does not mean that I had agreed it as a complete report of my presentation. Please note that public officers are generally not allowed to publish media reports under the Sri Lankan Law and I am merely responding here to what was stated by Dr.Kalaichelvan without any political agenda. The main objective of my presentation in Jaffna was to create awareness among Tamils of their declining fertility and discuss ways to recover the population which suffered heavy losses due to war.
- Although part of the Youtube clip Muslim demographics was shown during my presentation neither that part of the clip nor I made any derogatory statements against Islamic brothers. I have in fact appreciated some of their ways and suggested Tamils to follow those during my presentation.
- I do agree that the abovementioned clip released in 2008 made some exaggerations on forecasting though that was due to the inherent weakness of any projection where the assumptions were made that the trends in the past would continue without any change. As reported by Dr.Kalaichelvan with several references the author of that clip had failed to take note of the recent declining fertility trend of Muslims. On the other hand the reports used by Dr.Kalaichelvan also contain errors due to the same inherent weakness and underestimate the growth of Muslim population in several countries. For example the report of the US based PEW Forum forecasted the percentage of Muslims in Sri Lanka as 8.5% and it would not increase between 2010 and 2030, estimated Muslim population in 2010 as 1,725,000 and projected Muslim population in 2030 as 1,876,000 (1). After the 2012 Census in Sri Lanka we now know the figures of the PEW Forum was an underestimate and the Muslim population in Sri Lanka has been expanding in percentage as well as in numbers more than their estimates. The fact that the fertility of Muslims is higher than other races cannot be disputed and consequently the world will be dominated by Muslims in future though the time frame for that change can be disputed.
- I do not agree with Dr.Kalaichelvan’s claim “whether the women from rural Kilinochchi or rural Moneragala or rural Anuradhapura, they are all facing the same predicament of powerlessness: doctors and health service know what is best for them. Whatever the level of coercion applied in Kilinochchi is prevalent in the rural clinics in the Sinhala South as well.” There was not even a single report on coercion in birth control in rural Sinhala areas while the Kilinochchi incident is one of the several incidents reported in Tamil areas (2) where I had visited personally and confirmed. Even Bodu Bala Sena the extreme Sinhala group campaigning to increase the fertility of Sinhala alleged accusations only against two non-governmental organizations and not on the government health service in the South (3), (4). I am also surprised by the tolerance of Dr.Kalaichelvan towards the coercion in contraceptive use by health professionals and lack of privacy to the patient both of which had seriously violated the fundamental principles of medical ethics. Long term implants such as Jadelle that used in Kilinochchi had already raised the concern of the freedom of choice and reported to target certain groups of women and coercive use of it had been already reported even in West (5). Under these circumstances, comment by Dr.Kalaichelvan from UK “this was a case of medical malpractice and not part of an elaborate genocidal scheme operated by the Sri Lankan government to reduce the Tamil population in Sri Lanka, as propagandized by the Tamil nationalists” raises serious suspicions. For reasons best known to him, he chose to overlook the maternal death resulted by inserting implant on a pregnant woman. Pregnancy should be reliably excluded before insertion of Jadelle (6) as it is known to cause complications. In this juncture one need to consider the following facts before arriving at a conclusion: a) Essential medicines including antimalarials were disallowed to citizens living in the areas not controlled by the government during the civil war for several years and there were increased deaths due to malaria at that time (7) b) During 2008 and 2009 It was claimed that only 70,000 people were living in Vanni and provisions were sent only to cover that population. That resulted in severe malnutrition and deaths due to starvation leaving aside the disputed figure of deaths directly due to the last phase of the war. Finally truth came out when more than 285,000 came alive to be held in the forced detention camps for more than a year.
- I do agree with Dr.Kalaichelvan that husband’s consent is needed only for permanent sterilization. But here the women who went to the nutrition clinic wanted to discuss with their husbands to make a decision when they were unexpectedly coerced to take the long term (5 years) contraceptive implants. They were however, compelled to take the implants without providing an opportunity to come back to the clinic after discussion with their husbands. In fact one woman informed us that her husband chased her away from home demanding that she could come home only after removing the implant.
- Historically Tamils had been practicing polygamy especially in post-war periods by marrying war widows and having children. They are unable to do the same now to recover the population lost in war because in 1907 they had agreed to the General Marriage Law instead of resorting to an own marriage law based on their culture like Muslims. It is the bounden duty of Tamil leaders and other human rights activists to find feasible solutions for the large number of war widows and half widows and make them contributing to recover the population loss due to war.
References:
- http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2011/jan/28/muslim-population-country-projection-2030
- https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/forced-sterilization-and-northern-tamils/
- http://dbsjeyaraj.com/dbsj/archives/19175
- http://www.ceylontoday.lk/51-28348-news-detail-bodu-bala-sena-population-control-and-reproductive-rights.html
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2352934/pdf/bmj00570-0055.pdf
- http://apps.who.int/prequal/whopar/whoparproducts/RH017Part4v1.pdf
- http://llrclk.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/submission-murali-vallipuranathan.pdf
Dr Sulaiman Lebbe / July 30, 2014
It is true that Tamil migration has gone down in Sri Lankan and yet, it can be said that Tamils are internally and externally displaced rather than dramatic changes in the birth and death rate. It is true that due to war they was lit bit of decline and yet’ it is not dramatical one . More Tamils have moved to Colombo and abroad. Yet’ no scientific research had been done in one this. All assumptions and some add hoc findings. Who could trust Sri Lankan consus. How many thousands were killed in war? How many went out from Sri Lanka? All these figures are not scientific.
Yet it can be said Sinhalese population has gone up. Many factors countributed. There is nationalistic feeling in them to increase their population. Buddhist temples and monks encourage them? Moreover, employment rate is high among them now than before, income of Sinhalse are high now than before, that is why we see their population increases now than before.
Muslim population increase is related their faith: abortion is haram, killing female foetuses in wombs is haram and Muslims believe that God give provision not man and they do not like to do planned family plan or brith control. Yet, polygomy is not widespread as it is wrong said.
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aratai / July 30, 2014
.
So what’s the reason for population increase of : mosquitoes, rats, dogs,….etc. in Srilanka.
:-)
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Vibhushana / July 30, 2014
Although clarifications and aside you did raise an alarm Moslems are propagating faster than Tamils.
I cannot imagine this kind of work being endorsed by the Ministry of Health or University of Jaffna.
What is the difference between “Sri Lankan Tamil” and “Indian Tamil”? I suspect its very marginal. When you combine these 2 you overtake Moslems don’t you?
One way or the other there is no need to feel precious when there are 70 million Tamils around the globe. If anything I’d say Tamils are too common.
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Burning_Issue / July 30, 2014
“If anything I’d say Tamils are too common.”
Yes I completely agree that the “Tamils are too common” but you are inimitable that you manifest on these forums very well. You have elevated yourself to such a degree that the Tamil language and culture have become inferior and under-developed. There is no end to your pompous stupidity.
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Amarasiri / July 30, 2014
Murali Vallipuranathan –
“Historically Tamils had been practicing polygamy especially in post-war periods by marrying war widows and having children. They are unable to do the same now to recover the population lost in war because in 1907 they had agreed to the General Marriage Law instead of resorting to an own marriage law based on their culture like Muslims. It is the bounden duty of Tamil leaders and other human rights activists to find feasible solutions for the large number of war widows and half widows and make them contributing to recover the population loss due to war.”
Early in the development of Islam, due to the large number of widows, Islam allowed a man to have up to 4 wives. This solved an economic support problem for the widow, provided a social support for the widow and the children, and also allowed the population to recover. Of course it was an extra burden on the man, and the first wife had to share resources and affection with the additional wives.
Yes, it makes sense to go back to the traditional marriage customs of Tamils of an earlier era in order to solve social problems, the Western laws and customs cannot solve. however, the caste discrimination among Tamils complicates this situation.
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Jim softy / July 30, 2014
Fertility decline is happening every where in the world where people are chasing money or what is called economic growth.
Only the muslims are increasing. Because, they want their religion to be the prominent region in the world.
See, how whether it is western or Eastern or Asian or how developed countries have declining population. Those societies need both the husband and the wife to work in order to keep paying their bills and to achieve their economic goals.
births are declining because families want money and not children.
Why Tamils are migrating to greener pastures.
It is not any one’s problem.
It is simple greed.
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Sri Lankan Tamil / July 30, 2014
Thank you Dr. Vallipuranathan.
Krishna Kalaichelvam digresses with his half-baked anti-Hindu twists.
The only instance where I disagree with you is on your classification of Sri Lankan Tamil and Indian Tamil in Sri Lanka as distinct categories. You need to link the two.
Kind regards
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BBS Rep / July 30, 2014
Murali,
You are quite a mixed up man. I suggest that you see a psychiatrist soon.
You say, “The fact that the fertility of Muslims is higher than other races cannot be disputed and consequently the world will be dominated by Muslims in future though the time frame for that change can be disputed”. Seems like you are taking the rantings of thug Gnanasara at his word. When you make such claims you must follow it up with evidence – facts and figures in this case. Otherwise your claim will become bogus.
You state “I do agree with Dr.Kalaichelvan that husband’s consent is needed only for permanent sterilization.” If you make such a claim in any of the civilized countries of the world today, I assure you that your medical practice will not last too long.
And then to cap it all you are advocating polygamy for the Tamils. I wonder what the Tamil womenfolk will have to say about this. You better be careful, otherwise they may incise your ‘you know what’.
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Suresh Johnpillai / July 30, 2014
As Sri Lankan Tamil migrant for more than 25 years to a Western country I see the demographic facts through the article. By visiting Sri Lanka regularly last few years the fear of Muslim population take over Tamil population(both SL and Indian) has some real truth.
The solution to this is not to encourage Tamils and Singalese to get more children. It will increase stress and unbearable burden on Natural resourses and land in Sri Lanka when it’s already crowded and burdened with over polulation. The solution for this mixure of encouragement and compusary sterlization of Muslim women and menn.
The way of life of Muslim population should change dramatically as more Muslim women should participate in Labour market and increase the age to get married and children.
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BBS Rep / July 31, 2014
Suresh,
Read the Pew Research Publication. It debunks Vallipuranathan’s and BBS type hype that is purely based on the racially biased youtube video “Muslim Demographics’.
So you want to bring compulsory sterilization only for the Muslims.
I am surprised at how Tamils are buying into the bogus Muslim bogeyman of BBS. All minorities are under seige in Sri Lanka Suresh, if you did not notice it. At this time of hedious Sinhala Buddist anti minority activities the minorities must unite and not buy into any of Gnanasara’s tirades.
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Ram / July 31, 2014
The Chinese have shown us the way, and we should follow it. No adult to father/mother more than two children.
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Gihan / July 31, 2014
This is a very racist analysis never expected from a learned government doctor. [Edited out]
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xlntgson / July 31, 2014
Compulsory sterilization won’t solve problems rather suicide rate will increase. Death sentence to criminals would do the trick ethnic cleansing throuh forced termination is counter productive. Natural increase references radicalize muslims. Polygamy is not usu practised by majority of muslims a clear data is not available and highly prejudiced.
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