• Women MPs’ Caucus discusses with stakeholders, initiation proposed from P’ment and thereafter to teaching service 
• Lack of support services hinders women’s employment
• Discussions to initiate flexi-hours of work

Women Parliamentarians are presently conducting stakeholder discussions with a view to providing crèches/day-care centres for the public sector workforce, The Daily Morning learnt. According to the Women Parliamentarians’ Caucus, it is proposed to initiate the same with the Parliament for its staff and then expand the same to the public service, especially for teachers. 

These plans come in the wake of it being established that the lack of such support services also hinders women’s employment and their productivity in the workplace and in turn-related contributions to the economy.   

Speaking to The Daily Morning yesterday (27), the Deputy Co-Chairperson of the Caucus, MP Chamindranee Kiriella said: “We hope to introduce day-care facilities and then eventually expand these facilities to be available to public sector employees, including teachers. Of course, these are still in discussion.”

Kiriella also stated that discussions have been held to introduce flexible working hours in order to allow more women to enter the workplace. “A lot of women still manage care work and therefore do not have opportunities to enter the workforce,” Kiriella said.

According to World Bank data in 2023, Sri Lanka’s women labour force participation is 32.1%. A report published by the International Labour Organisation stated that being engaged in housework is the most common reason why women stay out of workforce participation. Hence, Kiriella said that the introduction of flexible working hours would help more women enter the workforce.

She further stated that the Caucus had discussed the introduction of sanitary facilities, such as toilets, to the women in the estate sector. “Many women in the estate sector go without having the basic sanitary facilities including lack of toilets,” Kiriella said. “The Caucus had discussed looking into this.”

It was reported that plantation estate sector unions allege that many women often go an entire day without using the bathroom or changing their sanitary napkins due to fear of being sexually assaulted by males. Unions stated that many estates lack toilets and that many women use the surrounding forests for the purpose. Further, the former Minister of Estate Infrastructure, Jeevan Thondaman claimed that many estates do not build toilets for their staff.