{"id":42388,"date":"2012-05-22T06:59:39","date_gmt":"2012-05-22T06:59:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=42388"},"modified":"2012-05-22T06:59:39","modified_gmt":"2012-05-22T06:59:39","slug":"sri-lanka-legacy-of-war-unemployment-and-homelessness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sri-lanka-legacy-of-war-unemployment-and-homelessness\/","title":{"rendered":"SRI LANKA: Legacy Of War – Unemployment And Homelessness"},"content":{"rendered":"

COLOMBO, \u00a0(IRIN) – Life is slowly returning to normal in northern Sri Lanka, but three years after a decades-long conflict was officially declared over, jobs and housing are the prevailing concerns of returnees.<\/p>\n

Most of the estimated 448,000 people displaced before or during 2008 by fighting between government forces and rebels wanting an independent Tamil state have returned to the Northern Province, according to the\u00a0latest figures<\/a>\u00a0from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Damaged water infrastructure in the Vanni, Sri Lanka's northern former zone of conflict \/ Photo Amantha Perera\/IRIN<\/p><\/div>\n

Some 13,000 are still living in\u00a0temporary camps\u00a0<\/a>– mostly from areas infested with\u00a0land mines<\/a>, which may take a decade or more to clear due to lack of funding.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, the worst seems to be over. \u201cIt is hard to believe it has been three years, life has changed so much. During the war, our sole focus was how we were going to survive the next day or the next hour,\u201d said Nishanthan, an orphan in the town of Kilinochchi, which was once an LTTE base.<\/p>\n

Nishanthan, who goes by one name – a common practice in parts of the island – grew up in a foster-care home and was forced to postpone his university entrance exam in August 2009 by heavy fighting. At the age of 19 he fled to his home village, returning to Kilinochchi in 2010 where he has since resumed his studies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThings have improved, but there is still a lot more to do,\u201d said Saroja Sivachandran, director of the\u00a0Centre for Women’s Development<\/a>\u00a0(CWD), an NGO\u00a0 in the northern district of Jaffna.<\/p>\n

Unemployment
\n<\/strong>
\nThere are no official unemployment figures for the region but experts say\u00a0joblessness<\/a>, especially among returnees, is likely to be widespread because work is scarce.<\/p>\n

Anushka Wijesingha, an economist at the Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka, a national think-tank, [ http:\/\/www.ips.lk\/ ] told IRIN there were two factors hampering job creation in the north:\u00a0lack of capital investment\u00a0<\/a>and residents’ inadequate skills. As a result, whatever jobs have been created are often filled by more qualified southerners.<\/p>\n

An estimated 40,000\u00a0war widows\u00a0<\/a>are particularly hard hit and need more targeted programmes, Sivachandran said.<\/p>\n

Despite pockets of positive news in the north, like the booming district of Vavuniya and the\u00a0fledgling cottage industries<\/a>\u00a0launched by returnees with government grants, the overall needs are still \u201coverwhelming\u201d, Sivachandran noted.<\/p>\n

While Vavuniya District has an\u00a0average household income\u00a0<\/a>comparable to more developed districts untouched by war, such as Colombo, where the capital is located, Vavuniya\u2019s boom may be fuelled by post-conflict reconstruction, said Muttukrishna Sarvananthan at the Point Pedro Institute of Development in Jaffna.<\/p>\n

But such affluence escapes the tens of thousands waiting for permanent shelter. As of early March, less than 17,000 of the more than 100,000 homes required were under construction,\u00a0OCHA<\/a>\u00a0said.<\/p>\n

The Indian government has\u00a0pledged to build over 40,000 houses<\/a>, with construction expected to begin by mid-2012, according to diplomats.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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