While the government is making laws to increase female representation in national politics, several female Parliamentarians representing the two mainstream parties have complained to their party authorities that they were being subjected to sexual harassment by elderly MPs within the Parliamentary premises.
However, no inquiry has so far been initiated by either of parties in connection with the incidents. However, informed political sources told Asian Mirror that the need to ensure discipline during Parliamentary sessions had been stressed during the group meeting of the ruling coalition. However, apart from this vague remark, no direct reference has been made to complaints lodged by the female Parliamentarians.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had said reforms would be brought to include 25 percent females into local government bodies before the next polls.
The statement came following European election observers saying that the country had an extremely low number of female candidates participating in the general election held in August 2015.
They said even though the main parties adopted a gender policy in their manifestos, including the promotion of women’s development and social welfare, the general election 2015 had only nine percent female representation with 556 out of 6,151 candidates.
According to latest data the percentage of women in the last parliament was 5.8 percent, the lowest rate of representation in parliament for women among South Asian Countries.
Sri Lanka ranks 140 out of 153 countries in female representation in Parliament.
