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SLYO hosts discussion on domestic violence
The Sri Lanka Youth Organisation (SLYO) is a leading youth welfare organisation in the world, whose goal is to provide young people with an empowering environment where they can fully embrace their identity and attain the skills they need, to be leaders in their community.
Their initiative, Voice it With SLYO, focuses on issues faced by the youth. The series is currently on its second season, of which the second episode was aired on 24 April. For that particular session, which focuses on the topic of domestic abuse, they invited Yeheliya Director and Attorney-at-Law Tarangee Mutucumarana to join them on #voiceitwithslyo.
She began the discussion by talking about the lack of awareness on domestic abuse in Sri Lanka, which has made it possible for perpetrators to keep inducting such violence. She also discussed how we can come together and prevent such vile acts from happening.
Talking about her background, Mutucumarana explained that she spent many years working in criminal law, and has also worked with many other organisations, adding that when it comes to non-profit organisations, the world centres mainly around women and children.
Explaining what her organisation, Yeheliya Foundation, does, she added that it is a charitable foundation that strives to create a space for young girls and women from different walks of life to strive towards creating an equal platform for their female counterparts.
They also aim to increase female leadership in Parliament because they believe that the 11 or 12 female MPs we have are not sufficient to be a voice for 52% of the population.
Going on to discuss the topic of sexual gender-based violence, she explained: “It is where we refer to physical, emotional, or sexual acts which are based on your sex or gender. There is a lot of this happening in one’s private life, especially in a woman’s own home where it’s supposed to be the safest.”
She added that in our country, violence runs rampant, but unfortunately, there are only a very few reported cases, so the statistics don’t show what’s really happening in Sri Lanka because of the stigma attached to it.
The patriarchy is such that in our country, the Police don’t trust or believe what you say when one tries to report violence. Oftentimes, women who undergo such severe mistreatment are made to go back to their homes, where the violence prevails, or even gets worse, Mutucumarana commented. “Even though we have the Penal Code and laws against domestic violence, there is no point, unless these laws are implemented and enforced against the perpetrator.”
On the question of how prevalent domestic abuse is in our country, Mutucumarana stated that the statistics are very limited, but at least one in three women are violated around the world, adding that in Sri Lanka, it’s probably worse. “Around 38% of murders of women happen due to intimate partner violence, and that’s a huge proportion of women being murdered. Only 30% of women actually lodge a complaint against their perpetrator, and only a small portion of them find justice.”
Mutucumarana commented that when perpetrators are asked why they did it, the common answer is that they were bored, because they aren’t afraid of being arrested due to the lack of evidence. “Witnesses are unlikely to come forward, again because of the stigma around this subject. It’s really sad, especially at this time, because we are all advised to stay indoors due to the pandemic, which adds to the risk to their life. Factors such as alcoholism add to these issues as well, all of which have increased because of the pandemic.”
The other problem in our country, when you take issues like rape, is that we had very few convictions of the last few years, which is ridiculous when you look at the actual number of instances of of rape that have happened. “As lawyers, it’s very difficult to prove these kinds of cases, so we need to ask ourselves if lawyers and judges are doing their jobs.”
She concluded that it is important for us to rise above the stigma and come together as women to bring an end to such violence.
