Rs. 700 million awarded to soldiers having their third child

Coercive Population Control in Kilinochchi

25 January 2014
Over Rs. 700 million has been cashed out to soldiers from the Sri Lankan Armed Forces in the past year, in the form of grants for those who have their third child, stated the Ministry of Defence.

The announcement was made in parliament as the government responded to questions on how to stop deserters from leaving the military.

The Ministry responded that benefits for members of the armed forces had to be increased, including those allocated in the last budget, which awarded Rs.100,000 at the birth of the third child of any member of the security forces, and to those who are serving in the Police force as well.

More than 7,000 soldiers had received the grant from the government.

See our earlier post: 2012 budget fosters militarisation (21 November 2011)

Below is an extract from our earlier post: Sri Lanka’s monoethnic military (27 June 2011)

Prof. Brian Blodgett, Director of the History and Military Studies Programs for the American Public University, published a study of Sri Lanka’s military in 2004. In it he notes how, “in 1962, a policy of recruiting only from the Sinhalese Buddhist community was instituted. This was the beginning of an ethnically pure army.” Prof. Stanley Tambiah of Harvard University published a book length comment, ‘Ethnic Fratricide and the Dismantling of Democracy’, just two years after Sri Lanka’s conflict began. In it he noted, “[Today, in 1986] the armed forces are filled with Sinhalese and the Tamils areexcluded from serving in them. … There has been virtually no recruitment of Tamils into the armed forces, and very little into the police force, for nearly thirty years.” Also see our earlier post: Army's Sinhalese blood is in Tamils - senior military official (10 January 2014) Coercive Population Control in Kilinochchi by The Social Architects      - on 09/13/2013  Recently, women in three Kilinochchi villages were subjected to coercive population control. This incident occurred on August 31, 2013 – at the Veravil government divisional hospital in Kilinochchi.  The affected women reside in Valaipaddu, Veravil and Keranchi[1] ; all three are coastal villages. Above the Law: Violations of Women’s Reproductive Rights in Northern Sri Lanka by The Social Architects -10/11/2013 Image courtesy The Social Architects This report, TSA’s fourth, outlines the findings of the organization’s September 2013 field mission on coercive contraception clinics in Kilinochchi District. In early September of this year, activists in Kilinochchi discovered that public health workers had administered the sub-dermal contraceptive implant, Jadelle, to women from Veravil, Keranchi, and Valaipaddu during a nutrition clinic. After publishing accounts from these women, TSA traveled to Kilinochchi for an in-depth follow up investigation.