Colombo (AsiaNews) - The government of Sri Lanka has decided to allocate
100 thousand rupees (600 euros) to the families of Navy, Air Force, Army and
Police personnel who decide to have a third child. According to Fr. Marimuttu
Sathivel, an Anglican priest and activist for human rights, the move is
discriminatory towards the rest of the population. For
this, the religious together with Buddhist activist Priyadharshani Ariyarathna has
drawn up a Declaration of public interest against the government of Sri Lanka, calling
on them to extend this incentive to all households in the country.
The
government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa has allocated this financial help
with the 2010 budget (for members of the three armed forces of the country) and
that of 2011 (extended to police officers). The
ambiguity of the proposal is accentuated by other negative policies. In
recent decades the government has conducted numerous family planning campaigns,
to push the Sri Lankan families to have a maximum of two children. In
addition, over the past few months there is an attempt to legalize
abortion. From
the outset the Church has objected to this proposal, instead of promoting the
value of the family with various initiatives.
According
to the two activists, the decision is a "mistake" that could lead to
an "ethnic crisis", because the military is 98% Sinhalese and
Buddhist. "It
is an attempt - said Fr. Sathivel - to create a population of a single
ethnicity and religion."
In
Sri Lanka
there are four major ethnic groups: Sinhalese (74%), Tamil (native: 12.6%,
Indian 5.1%), Muslim (7.4%) and burgers (0.2%). The
main religion is Buddhism (70%, mostly Sinhalese), followed by Hinduism (15%,
Tamil), Islam (7.5%) and Christianity (7.5%, Burgher, but also some Tamil and Sinhalese communities). Among Christians, 88% are Catholic.