About Us

Kantha Shakthi…… A brief History

Kantha Shakthi was started in 1983 by a group of women and men. The group included feminist activists and researchers, rural women, women from the plantation sector, women in middle class professions such as teaching, nursing and artists.

Its main and immediate purpose was to conscentise women and wider society about the issues faced by women and campaign for women’s rights and human rights and other social – political issues such as the ethnic conflict.

The socio- economic- political background which gave rise to Kantha Shakthi is stated below in detail.

Socio-economic political background and why we started

Development policies followed by successive governments in Sri Lanka since national independence in 1948 were imposed on the people b y the hierarchy. These policies discriminated against rural and urban poor, minor ethnic communities and women. The policy of structural adjustment introduced in the year 1977 mark the beginning of the current phase of globalization in Sri Lanka and is also the beginning of the end for many reasons. The government borrowed heavily from the World Bank, International Monetary Fund [IMF] and other foreign financial institutions to launch several major development projects including the Mahaweli river diversion scheme. As a pre- condition to these loans, the World Bank and the IMF proposed a programme of structural adjustment [SAP] The SAP disrupted agriculture, food production and local industries. Rural poverty increased rapidly.

According to International Fund for Agricultural Development of the World Bank, Sri Lanka ranks first among 114 countries in which rural poverty increased rapidly during the decade from 1982 to 1991.

Poverty alleviation programmes carried out by successive governments since 1948 with borrowings from lending institutions failed to eliminate poverty and killed the initiatives of the people and made them lethargic and dependent.

Despite preference accorded to private enterprise, the majority of enterprising people, particularly women cannot start small-scale economic ventures due to lack of credit facilities. The interest rates of the commercial banks are too high for the poor and the middle – income groups and the bureaucratic procedures are too complicated and hazardous. Therefore those except the rich are not benefited by the loan schemes of the commercial banks.

Sri Lanka never had an education system which would fulfill the economic, political and social needs of the country, enrich and empower life, foster ethnic harmony and gender equality. Despite a high literacy rate for women at 83.5% and remarkable educational attainments, women in Sri Lanka continue to be subordinated and extremely marginalized in political decision making at village, district and national levels.

Disruption of local food production, food insecurity, plunder of genetic resources, privatization of national assets, violation of human rights, discrimination and violence against women have all contributed to a deepening economic, political and social crisis in Sri Lankan society.

Out of all categories of people in Sri Lankan society, women seemed to be the most severely affected group by the negative effects of development mentioned above. Kantha Shakthi was set up particularly as a women’s social movement to address, campaign for and find solutions to the problems faced by such women as those working in the free trade zone, in agriculture, in the tea estates, in the graphite industry and so on and empower them.

Past Activities – 1983- 2001

Continuous campaign against the violation of human rights, at the national and international level
Campaign for equal wages of women in the tea plantations
Campaign for better working conditions and workers’ rights in the free trade zones
Campaign for a peaceful and democratic solution to the ethnic conflict
Campaign on important social, economic and political issues
Campaign for higher wages, better working conditions and so on of the nurses
Campaign for the rights of women in the graphite industry
Medical and legal aid programme for women in the free trade zone, graphite mines and ceramic industry
Publication of a newspaper and a journal on important socio- economic and gender issues
Publication of a book on women’s body in local languages
Workshops and seminars to raise awareness on socio- economic and gender issues
Research on pesticide use in agriculture
Promote sustainable agriculture by motivating and initiating organic farming in selected villages- (ongoing)
Set up micro-credit schemes at 2 levels for rural women- (ongoing)
Awareness-raising on socio-economic and gender issues- (ongoing)
Campaign at local, national, regional, and international levels on women’s rights- (ongoing)
Implement the Beijing platform of Action at local, national, and regional levels- (ongoing)
Empower and motivate children to help them become more independent- ongoing

Period 1993-2001

Alternate Development

As work such as campaigning and awareness raising advanced, majority of the people with and for whom Kantha Shakthi worked, faced enormous crisis in their daily life, due to high cost of living, unemployment, malnutrition, low income, lack of credit facilities, lack of infrastructure, degradation of environment, pesticide poisoning, social, political and gender violence, sexual harassment, violation of human rights and so on. These problems were so grave and urgent and needed to be addressed until other solutions are found at the national level. Kantha Shakthi was convinced of the sheer inadequacy of awareness raising and campaigning. [Further, a study done by Kantha Shakthi in 1993 on the use of chemical pesticides in agriculture revealed the damage to environment and women’s health, by the methods of the green revolution.]

With a view to respond to the need for alternatives, Kantha Shakthi started 3 main alternate development programmes in 1996 in selected rural locations.

These are:
1. Sustainable agriculture by motivating and initiating organic farming.
2. Micro-credit scheme, started and managed by and for small groups of women (each group consists of 6 – 10 members)
3. Collectives for women operated and managed by women (a collective formed by bringing together several small groups of the micro-credit scheme mentioned above.)
4. Alternate education provided for small groups; alternate education and training provided for the collectives. Specially designed educational programmes on gender and important socio-economic, political issues.

The rural locations in which Kantha Shakthi implement the above activities are really social laboratories where the organization has success fully implemented the programmes of alternate development mentioned above. While these programmes continue, Kantha Shakthi launched special programmes on women’s issues in the same locations.

Current Activities

The current activities of Kantha Shakthi at local, national and regional (also international) level are summarized below.

Activities