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A Coir Mill of Their Own: Women’s Agency in Post-tsunami Sri Lanka

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Gender and Land Tenure in the Context of Disaster in Asia

Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Environment, Security, Development and Peace ((BRIEFSSECUR,volume 21))

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Abstract

The 2004 tsunami devastated large parts of the coast in Sri Lanka causing loss of life and livelihoods and displacement of families and communities. Recovering lost livelihoods was a major challenge for the State in the post-recovery process. The case study presented in this chapter describes the experiences of a local women’s organization that faced the challenge of restoring the livelihoods of its members, specifically coir workers. After the tsunami, the fisherfolk became the focus of aid organizations and coir workers were largely neglected. As a result, the men who dominated the coir industry were not interested in reviving it. With the support of local NGOs and CBOs, women coir workers entered this space to establish their own small-scale coir fibre-processing centre and broke the monopoly of private individuals who sold coir fibre at high prices. However, running the coir fibre mill, providing coir fibre to women for production, and negotiating a good price for the coir-based products are new challenges for the women as well as women’s organizations. Disasters can offer women some opportunities to exercise their agency and challenge oppressive social norms and barriers.

Ramanie Jayatilaka, Department of Sociology, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka; Email: ramaniej@yahoo.com.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This research into the coir industry in south Sri Lanka began with the researcher’s association with a national NGO that assisted local NGOs through district consortiums to recover from the tsunami and implement other developmental work.

  2. 2.

    A small and medium scale trader who provides women with coir fiber and buys back coir ropes woven by the women.

  3. 3.

    The state imposed a ban on house construction within 100/200 m from the sea in the south and north east.

  4. 4.

    The crusher has a rotating wooden cylinder fitted with sharp steel spikes and the husk is held by hand by the operator.

  5. 5.

    The State provided fishing boats and fishing gear to those registered with the government and having formal identification. Civil society organizations and individual donors, mostly foreign, also distributed fishing boats and fishing gear, often haphazardly, to people who did not even engage in fishing! International agencies, such as Food and Agriculture Organization, Canadian International Development, and ITDG South Asia pumped in money for the reconstruction of harbors, anchorages, and landing centers. FAO also assisted in preparing a master plan for fishing infrastructure reconstruction and development. By 2007, the industry had recovered from the loss, according to the Government Reconstruction and Development Agency (RADA): of the “over 19,000 boats destroyed, 90 % had been replaced and fishermen were now catching 70 % of what they did prior to tsunami” (IRIN 2007). Fishermen in the study area now use multi-day boats, which many did not have earlier, and they spend a number of days at sea.

Abbreviations

CBO:

Community based organizations

CNO:

Centre for National Operations

DS:

Divisional Secretary

GN:

Grama Niladari

NGOs:

Non-governmental organizations

TAFOR:

Task Force on Relief

TAFREN:

Task Force for Rebuilding the Nation

TAFRER:

Task Force for Rescue and Relief

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Colombo, Sri Lanka

    Ramanie Jayatilaka

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  1. Ramanie Jayatilaka
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Correspondence to Ramanie Jayatilaka .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environment Resources and Development, Asian Institute of Technology, Klong Luang, Thailand

    Kyoko Kusakabe

  2. School of Environment Resources and Development, Asian Institute of Technology, Klong Luang, Pathum Thani, Thailand

    Rajendra Shrestha

  3. School of Environment Resources and Development, Asian Institute of Technology, Klong Luang, Pathum Thani, Thailand

    Veena N.

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Jayatilaka, R. (2015). A Coir Mill of Their Own: Women’s Agency in Post-tsunami Sri Lanka. In: Kusakabe, K., Shrestha, R., N., V. (eds) Gender and Land Tenure in the Context of Disaster in Asia. SpringerBriefs in Environment, Security, Development and Peace, vol 21. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16616-2_6

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