News
Welfare scheme triggers male labour force decline: IPS
Aswesuam is better focussed on poverty alleviation than previous schemes but could lead to a decline in male labour force participation, raising concerns about long-term fiscal sustainability and disincentives to work, according to a study conducted by the Institute of Policy Studies.
Results show that with the new Aswesuma, food insecurity decreased, but it also negatively affected the labour force participation, with a much greater reduction in labour force participation seen for males, IPS said.
Male labour force participation is projected to fall by 5.4 percentage points under the revised scheme (up from 4.2 points under the original), according to IPS’ Recalibrating Aswesuma: A Move Towards a Dynamic and Adaptive Social Registry in Sri Lanka by Pulasthi Amarasinghe.
“Labour force participation, especially among men, is expected to decline more sharply with the revised benefits.
For women, the reduction is more minor, at 1.3 percentage points.
“As economic theory predicts, non-labour income can reduce incentives to engage in paid work, particularly in informal sectors where wages are low and opportunity costs are minimal.
“These trends highlight the importance of combining cash transfers with activation policies to promote employment, skills development, and labour market reintegration.”
Strengthening social protection remains a critical priority for Sri Lanka, which continues to grapple with the aftermath of its economic crisis, IPS said.
At its inception, the Aswesuma scheme provided tiered cash transfers ranging from 2,500 to 15,000 rupees based on households’ poverty levels.
In April, Cabinet approved the expansion of Aswesuma, where after Parliamentary confirmation, households will receive cash transfers ranging from 5,000 to 17,500 rupees.
Aswesuma’s effectiveness will depend on its ability to better identify the beneficiaries.
The study findings were presented at a roundtable held at the IPS recently, where policymakers and stakeholders discussed the programme’s achievements and emerging challenges.
The targeting mechanism used for the welfare scheme, launched in the wake of the economic crisis, represented a structural shift, moving from income-based to multidimensional poverty targeting using a social registry.
The programme promised a more holistic and objective framework to reach the most vulnerable communities by looking at the weighted deprivation of households across 22 criteria.
The IPS study found that these eligibility criteria were an improvement over the previous Samurdhi programme, which critics said showed political patronage.
The IPS roundtable discussed policy lessons beyond simulations, improving local-level data verification, refining multidimensional indicators to include transient poverty and nutritional risks, and monitoring socio-economic outcomes to track progress toward poverty “graduation.”
Aswesuma was fast-tracked to meet the urgent need of the time, President of the Sarvodaya Movement Vinya Ariyaratne noted, but the underlying targeting system and registry required review.
A Commissioner at Sri Lanka’s Welfare Benefit Board said there were plans to consolidate welfare schemes and invest in stronger data systems through development officers on the ground.
The roundtable highlighted the foundations of the current social protection landscape as a success in a move towards a more transparent and well-targeted system.
“However, long-term success will depend on how well Sri Lanka can balance short-term relief with efforts to promote labour force participation, reduce dependency, and support individuals in graduating from poverty.
“Thus, to build resilience, social protection must become more adaptive and responsive not only to deprivation but also to the dynamic risks that shape household vulnerability in Sri Lanka today.”
… alleges NPP trying to implement UPFA, UNP plan
Front-line Socialist Party (FSP) yesterday (24) alleged that the NPP government’s move to amalgamate the Employees’ Trust Fund (ETF) and the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF), under a unified, tripartite governance framework, would be detrimental to the private sector workers.
Addressing the media at Melder Place, Nugegoda, FSP spokesman Duminda Nagamuwa said that the Cabinet of Ministers approved this proposal on 15 June.
Nagamuwa claimed that the NPP was trying to implement what President Mahinda Rajapaksa had sought to do, in 2011, causing the police to open fire on a group of the Export Processing Zone workers, protesting against the move to create a private pension scheme. A worker, identified as Roshen Chanaka, was shot by police on May 30, 2011, and he succumbed to his injuries.
Pointing out that the EPF and the ETF had been established for the benefit of private sector workers but with different objectives, Nagamuwa warned that amalgamation of the two funds could cause unnecessary complications.
The FSP spokesman said that Ravi Karunanayake, in his capacity as the Finance Minister of the Yahapalana government, in late November 2015 had declared their intention to amalgamate the ETF with the EPF.
FSP’s Pubudu Jayagoda told The Island that they expected all political parties, other than the NPP, to disclose their stand on the vital issue. Jayagoda urged the Opposition to take a stand on the vital issue .
By Shamindra Ferdinando
The Opposition yesterday argued in Parliament that the National Environment Amendment Bill was unconstitutional. The Opposition said that it violated the 13th Amendment.
SJB and Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa argued that the approval of the Provincial Councils was required for the Bill to go ahead, as it was a subject in the Concurrent List of powers as per the 13th Amendment to the Constitution.
The MP also said that the clause which enables the Central Government to file legal actions against Local Government bodies was unconditional as well, since local bodies are included in the Provincial Councils list.
“How can you go ahead at a time when the Provincial Councils do not function properly,” Premadasa questioned.
ITAK MP P. Sathyalingam also raised the issue, but Speaker Jagath Wickramaratne, who responded, said the MPs could raise the relevant matters during the debate.
The leader of the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK) and parliamentarian Sivagnanam Shritharan recently met the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Tamil Nadu state president, Nainar Nagenthran in India during a three-day visit in which discussions centred on the political and livelihood challenges facing Tamils in the North-East of Sri Lanka.
According to a statement issued by MP Shritharan, the talks ranged across a number of contemporary issues confronting the Tamil people among them the demolition of ancestral Tamil Hindu temples and the construction of Buddhist viharas in their place, the skeletal remains being exhumed at the Chemmani mass grave, and efforts to secure justice for the alleged genocide committed against the Tamil people.
The statement said the two sides had also discussed a lasting settlement to the Tamil national question.
“There was an extensive exchange of views between both sides on a permanent political solution for the Eelam Tamils and the political aspirations of the Tamil people.”
The two had agreed to continue such meetings and consultations in future, the statement added, and Shritharan was hosted for lunch during the visit.
Also present was the veteran Tamil political figure K. S. Radhakrishnan, described in the statement as having more than fifty years of experience in Tamil political affairs, along with the BJP’s Tamil Nadu state secretary and several senior party representatives.
Nagenthran, a former Tamil Nadu state minister, has headed the BJP’s Tamil Nadu unit since April 2025 and is leading the party’s bid to unseat the governing DMK in the state.
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