Towards a sickly, benighted nation?

Tuesday 9th May, 2023

About 40 percent of Sri Lankans have adopted livelihood-based coping strategies in view of the current economic crisis and chosen to curtail expenditure on education and health, according to media reports based on a Central Bank document. In other words, due to a drastic decline in their real income, they have had to prioritise their basic needs such as food for want of a better alternative, and they are left without enough money, at the end of the month, to pay for education and healthcare, unlike in the past.

Sri Lankans opt for shadow education or private coaching for their children and out-of-pocket health expenses owing to the rapid deterioration of the so-called free healthcare and free education systems. Public schools, save a few, have failed to cater to the educational needs of children satisfactorily, and the state-run hospitals are facing various shortages, and, worse, doctors are leaving the country in droves. Now, most people cannot pay for private healthcare and their children’s supplementary tuition. They are facing a double whammy.

All state institutions such as hospitals, schools and universities are facing crippling resource squeezes, and it is not difficult to imagine the social costs that sharp drops in people’s spendings on health and education will entail in time to come A startling 42.2 percent of the 0-4-year-old Sri Lankan children are multidimensionally poor, a study conducted collectively by the Department of Census and Statistics (DCS), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Sri Lanka and the Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative (OPHI) at the University of Oxford has revealed, according to a news item we published yesterday. Based on data from the Household Income and Expenditure Survey 2019, the report says that an alarming one-third of children are undernourished. The situation must have taken a turn for the worse during the economic crisis.

Sri Lankans pride themselves on their relatively high literacy rate, which however is not reflected in their decisions and choices that are anything but rational, in most cases. They not only suffer incompetent politicians gladly, so to speak, but also entrust the latter with the task of governing the country.

People are known by their elected representatives, and the sheer number of political dregs, including chain snatchers, cattle rustlers, bootleggers, drug dealers, extortionists and fraudsters enjoying political power, one wonders whether Sri Lanka’s literacy rate is accurate. Those who have bankrupted the country, inflicted so much suffering on the public and ruined the future of ordinary children, have got off scot-free to all intents and purposes. Corrupt, failed rulers have been turfed out and thrown behind bars for lesser offences in other countries! Worse, the failed crooks in the garb of political leaders here continue to wield power, mismanage the economy and live the high life while suppressing the people’s rights without much resistance from the victims. What the situation will be in case of a sharp decline in the overall education level of the public due to the economic crisis is anybody’s guess.

Unless urgent action is taken to arrest the deterioration of the vital sectors such as education and health, Sri Lanka will end up being a sickly, benighted nation. This must be a worrisome proposition for the public, but that is bound to stand the rulers in good stead, for the people will be too analphabetic to figure out the causes of their suffering in such an eventuality; they will also be too sick and feeble to take to the streets, demanding relief and justice. Politicians and their kith and kin with colossal amounts of ill-gotten wealth will continue to have their progeny educated overseas and rush to foreign hospitals for treatment if they ever so much as catch a cold.

In fact, it is surprising that there is so much enthusiasm among Sri Lankan children to pursue their educational goals and compete for university admission though they see ignoramuses who drop out of school taking to politics, going places and being fawned over by even university dons. One can only hope that the young Sri Lankans will not want to emulate the cretins in kapati suit, give up education and engage in dirty politics with a view to living the life of Riley and being above the law.