Yamuna Jeevanthi is a 12-year-old girl living in a low-income suburb outside the Sri Lankan capital. Like thousands of other Sri Lankan women, her mother works as a housemaid in the Middle-East. After Yamuna's mother went abroad, her father grew increasingly depressed and once, in a drunken rage, tried to cut off her younger brother's hands. The incident pushed Yamuna, deaf-mute from birth, further into her shell. Her parents are now divorced and she and her brother are now being brought up by their grandmother.Every little place has its own stories about families of women who, haunted by poverty, went abroad to work about children who dropped out of school, of husbands who married again, of a father who sexually abused the children left behind in his care and in extreme cases, of suicide. After nearly 20 years of a government policy encouraging Sri Lanka's female workforce to seek employment abroad, sociologists and welfare organisations are increasingly concerned that the prolonged separation from awife or mother away working in another country may be the reason behind many instances of broken or dysfunctional families in Sri Lanka.``It has already had a major impact on the institutions of marriage and family but it is in the long run that the actual implications will become clear,'' said S.T. Hettige, head of Colombo University's sociology department.The government too has suddenly woken up to the social implications of its policy. Women's Affairs minister Hema Ratnayake recently appealed to women not to ``desert'' their children for jobs abroad.``The money earned by mothers working in foreign countries will in no way compensate for the calamities that follow due to their long term separation from their homes,'' she was reported as saying at a gathering of women in central Sri Lanka last month.Reflecting the concern, the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) recently started offering incentives to job agents who find employment abroad for men rather than women. But as long as thedemand for unskilled female domestic labour is high, and that for male labour from Sri Lanka is low, nothing can be done. At last count, nearly 6 lakh Sri Lankan women were employed abroad, mostly as housemaids in the Middle-East. From the point of view of the government, this female army is among the top three foreign exchange earners for the country, and keeps unemployment figures at home under control.Driven by poverty, these gutsy women leave to cook and clean for absolute strangers thousands of miles away from home. It's a long way to go for 6,000 to 7,000 Sri Lankan rupees a month, but it is still six times the wage paid here for the same work. Now, many are asking if this money is worth the social costs.``A woman goes abroad so that her children can get a decent education, to be able to build a house for her family. But in many cases, by the time she comes back, there is no family,'' said Anthony Manchanayake, president of the Solidarity of Foreign Employees.According to Manchanayake, thewoman is the ``first member of the family''. ``When she goes away, even for a short while, it has a great effect on the family. These women are going away for two, five or even eiht years,'' he said. SOFE aims to discourage women from taking jobs abroad, but realising that such a strategy could prove counter-productive in the absence of employment opportunities at home, has instead started counselling services for ``dependent'' families and vocational training for the children.As an organisation backed by the Roman Catholic church, SOFE is particularly concerned about broken families, and in order to widen its appeal, has roped in Buddhist clergy and other community leaders in its work.Women's organisations too are concerned about the social impact of women working away from home, but are against any move that will prevent them from seeking greener pastures abroad.``As long as our society refuses to accept that fathers too have a criticial role in looking after and nurturing families, there will ofcourse be a vacuum when the mother goes away. If even 20 years after sending women abroad to work, there has been nothing from the government or society to encourage this, then we must reap the consequences,'' said Sepali Kottegoda of Women in Media Collective.According to her, the tendency is to pin the blame for dysfunctional families on the women, ``as if they have gone away to enjoy life''. ``It seems to be a case of women must slave and bring in the foreign exchange, and look after their husbands and children as well. We are refusing to accept it is impossible,'' she said.Kottegoda estimated that 98-per cent of women who go abroad to work do so after consulting their families. ``If the decision to take a job abroad is made jointly, then the responsibility of looking after home and children also rests jointly,'' she said. However, going by the experience of SOFE workers, it's hard work getting men to attend any sort of village-level discussion groups that deal with these issues. Officials at theSLBFE pointed out that the government could not engineer such a fundamental social change in men's attitudes all by itself. The bureau has taken some steps like scholarship schemes for the children of women workers employed abroad and financial assistance to their families. ``But what we need is a change in attitudes, and that has to come from within society itself,'' said Kanthi Yapa, a senior official at the SLBFE.While Sri Lanka waits for that change, and is in the meantime unable to offer its women no better alternatives for bettering their lives here, a social time-bomb is ticking away that may become apparent only in the generations to come.
