Poverty, Aswesuma and food security

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By Dr. C. S. Weeraratna ([email protected])

Poverty is a condition characterized by severe deprivation of basic human needs, such as food, shelter, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, and education. Various criteria are used to measure poverty. The most commonly used is based on incomes. A person is considered poor if his or her income level falls below a minimum level necessary to meet basic needs. This minimum level is called the “poverty line”. What is necessary to satisfy the basic needs varies across countries, and societies. Therefore, the poverty line varies in time and place, and each country uses poverty lines which are appropriate to its level of development, societal norms and values. According to the Department of Census and Statistics, the poverty line in Sri Lanka, in 2016, was 6,177. It increased to 7,913 in 2021 and to 13,777 in 2022. According to World Bank data, Sri Lanka’s poverty rate almost doubled from 13.1 to 25 percent between 2021 and 2022, This increase has added an additional 2.5 million people into poverty in 2022. Poverty is projected to remain around 25 percent in the next few years due to the multiple risks to households’ livelihoods. The negative economic outlook for 2023 and 2024 and adverse effects of revenue-mobilizing reforms could worsen poverty projections. A recovery and expansion of wage employment in the services and industry sectors will be the key to shift employment from lower-paying agricultural jobs and make a dent on poverty.

Since independence, various programmes to assist the poor have been implemented in Sri Lanka. The Food Ration scheme, which provided rice at a subsidized price, the Janasaviya programme, and the Samurdhi programme, etc., implemented by the government at different times, and numerous projects carried out by other organizations, such as the World Food Programme, were to alleviate poverty/reduce food insecurity among the poor. In these programmes/projects, households receiving low incomes were provided cash/food to increase their food supply. The latest poverty alleviation programme is Aswesuma which is to be implemented shortly. Under this programme, cash is to be distributed among four social categories, namely transitional, vulnerable, poor, and extremely poor. Additionally, the usual allowances for the differently-abled, elderly, and kidney patients will also be provided. Around 400,000 transitional beneficiaries will receive Rs.2,500.00 per month, until 31 December, 2023, 400,000 vulnerable beneficiaries will receive Rs.5,000.00 per month, until 31 March, 2024, 800,000 poor beneficiaries will receive Rs.8,500.00 per month, for three years and extremely poor beneficiaries will receive Rs.15,000.00 per month for three years, beginning 01 July, 2023. The criteria used to classify the poor into the four categories and the allowances to be paid are not known. However, some Samurdhi beneficiaries are reported to be left out from the Aswesuma programme.

Food Security

Startling revelations have emerged, indicating that approximately 7.5 million people in Sri Lanka are currently grappling with a severe food crisis, according to a study conducted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. The study has disclosed that among the 5.7 million families, residing in Sri Lanka, a staggering 33% are facing food insecurity. Consequently, this translates to approximately 7.5 million individuals across the country being directly impacted by this crisis. According to a special report of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the World Food Programme’s crop and food security assessment mission to Sri Lanka, 17% of the population is in moderate acute food insecurity in Sri Lanka, especially in the Northern, Eastern and Central Provinces.

It is likely that the people affected by poverty are forced to face the consequences of food insecurity. Those in poor families are reducing their spending on health and education which have many undesirable repercussions. Rising food insecurity will also lead to increases in malnutrition and stunting among children, in addition to the undesirable effects on socioeconomic factors. According to the World Food Programme, 6.3 million people, or nearly 30 percent of Sri Lanka’s population, are “food insecure” and require humanitarian assistance. Of these, around 5.3 million people are either reducing meals or skipping meals, and at least 65,600 people are severely food insecure. This situation is likely to worsen due to high food prices, acute shortage of essential food, weak purchasing power, etc. Those who have been selected to receive Aswesuma payments are poor, or extremely poor, and they are likely to be not taking enough food in sufficient amounts to meet the daily energy requirement (2000-2500 Cal) which depends on age, level of physical activit, etc,

As defined in the World Food Summit, food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs for an active and healthy life. When people do not have enough financial resources, they and their families are unable to meet the nutrients requirement for an active and healthy life.

The government, perhaps, having realized the repercussions of food insecurity, initiated a programme to ensure that no citizen of the country should starve due to lack of food and no child should be a victim of malnutrition. The relevant mechanism is to be implemented through seven committees while the National Food Security and Nutrition Council will function under the chairmanship of the President. Food security in Sri Lanka has improved, marginally, according to the Crop and Food Security Assessment Mission (CFSAM) report jointly carried out in February/March 2023 by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). Despite this positive trend, food insecurity remains high in certain districts, especially in Kilinochchi, Nuwara Eliya, Mannar, Batticaloa, Vavuniya, and Jaffna. The highest level of acute food insecurity (67%) is reported within the tea plantation communities in the estate sector and among daily wage labourers. However, in spite of several committees, there appears to be no substantial increase in food production in the country.

The Aswesuma programme which is expected to dole out Rs. 15,000 per month per family to extremely poor families, over a period of three years, will not make them escape from the undesirable effects of food insecurity, Hence, it is necessary that appropriate programmes are implemented to increase food supply, the earning capacity of the poor and also to reduce their expenditure on food so that they will not have to face the consequences of inadequate food intake.

Increasing food security

Food security is a major issue in Sri Lanka, where the government is trying to provide food for its people in the face of shortages, natural disasters and increasing prices of food commodities in the market due to many reasons. The problems become greater in areas with degraded lands. Recognizing that the relative income of farmers has been sliding down consistently, production, processing and distribution of foods should be encouraged. Off-farm rural employment, and essential facilities and infrastructure for primary health and education should be created with due emphasis on streamlining of input-output markets, agro-processing and value addition, particularly in horticulture and livestock sub-sector, and services geared towards the resource-poor farmers, including the landless, and women.

Promoting cultivation of home gardens is one of the strategies to increase food security. Sri Lanka is a land of villages. There are around 14,000 of them. The total area under home gardens, in Sri Lanka, is around 300,00 hectares, representing about 25% of the total agricultural area operated by peasants. Appropriate programmes need to be implemented to increase the productivity of the home gardens. Numerous crops which supply carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins and minerals can be grown in home gardens which will have a positive impact on food security.

Most home gardens remain unproductive mainly due to the difficulty of obtaining suitable high yielding planting materials. Therefore, the development of plant nurseries, in areas easily accessible to the farmer, and provision of seeds, seedlings and other planting materials of vegetables, fruits, etc., will motivate householders to cultivate better high yielding crop varieties. Increasing the productivity of home gardens will have a considerable positive impact on food security. Various pests and diseases are likely to attack the crops cultivated in the home garden. In the attempts to achieve a high level of food security, it is necessary that these pests and diseases are controlled, using chemical, or biological pesticides. It is also necessary that fertilisers, such as compost, urea, potassium chloride and TSP, are applied at correct times. The cultivators need to be assisted by relevant authorities to obtain necessary inputs, such as seeds/planting material, fertilisers, etc. Prevention of post-harvest losses and efficient agro processing interventions should be emphasized so as to add value to the products that are grown/raised locally and link them with both domestic and international markets

Food Security is at maximum level when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to food. As indicated earlier, the local production of carbohydrates (rice and sugar), proteins (fish and milk) and fats and oils (edible oil, margarine and butter) is inadequate to meet the demand. Hence, these food items and several others are imported. The expenditure on food imports has increased considerably, during the present decade, and annually around Rs. 40 billion is spent on food imports. According to the Household Food Security Survey, conducted by the World Food Programme, in 2023, 67 percent of households in the estate sector are food insecure; The corresponding values for rural and urban areas are 53 and 43 percent, respectively.

Household food security depends mainly on their ability to secure enough food to ensure an adequate dietary intake for all of its members, at all times, for a healthy and an active life. Poverty and high food prices have reduced the food security at household level, especially in those where the incomes are low.

Hence, implementation of economically viable programmes to increase the level of local food production is essential, in addition to doling out cash among the poor for three years. Such programmes would provide employment to thousands of rural people and increase their incomes. Even if 50% of the present expenditure on food is spent locally, it would increase the rural income by nearly Rs. 20 billion, and significantly increase the purchasing power of the rural sector, thereby increasing food security, It will result in a considerable increase in the demand for high-elastic consumer items, thus generating further employment. The impact of it on the rural population and their poverty would be considerable.

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by Dr K. M. Wasantha Bandara

This is a humble effort to build up on the article titled, ‘Medical negligence or error’, published in The Island on 18th July. The author of the article, Professor Susirith Mendis, who is a well reputed medical professional and an academic, has drawn our insight into unfortunate events taking place in the health system. That is very important at this time, because certain sections in the society are trying to insult and disintegrate our health system, obviously for narrow, political gains. As Prof. Mendis has emphasised it is an accepted fact worldwide that medical errors and negligence do occur in any system, although there is lack of information except for emblematic cases like the death of a young girl. However, in my opinion, any citizen may have a right to criticize any undesirable event, taking place in the process of delivery of healthcare to people, but it is very unfair to undermine the public confidence in the system. That is because our health system is considered to be Noble in terms of equity and geographical and financial access, when compared with so-called systems in most parts of the world.

I am sure there will be no one in our country to challenge the credentials of Professor Mendis to give a learned opinion on the issue. While being very much grateful and thankful to him, I must apologise to him for presenting my credentials to add some thoughts to his work as to how to minimise such incidents in the future. I am a dental surgeon who has postgraduate qualifications in three different fields, namely, Health Systems Management, Financial Management and Quality Management. I was certified as a quality manager in health care in New Zealand, and also have more than eight years of experience as a health programme manager overseas, including in certain projects funded by WHO and UNICEF. I also have participated in a number of international workshops designed to train “economic hit men” who are used to promote subtle strategies to expand the healthcare market in the name of improving the quality of care.

As such, I have personally experienced sinister attempts to disintegrate public funded health systems in favour of markets. There was one thing common in those attempts, which is what we see in our country today. These days, the attack on healthcare systems is much easier because of Zuckerberg’s army of mental slaves who can be used for the purpose free of charge. We also have experienced the role played by them to pave the way for regime change in the name of system change in Sri Lanka. The other feature which is common in these sinister attempts in exaggeration of undesired outcomes is willful cover-up of actual reasons for poor performance of the system. However, in my opinion unethical, unaccounted and corrupt practices of doctors and medical administrators do more harm to the system than errors or negligence. For example, prescribing habits of the majority of doctors are influenced by commercial interests of pharmaceutical companies, leading to over use and irrational use which is a cost to the patient as well as the nation. The corrupt practices of medical administrators in the procurement process of pharmaceuticals have undermined public confidence in the system.

I also have contributed to a research project where legal frameworks governing the healthcare delivery systems in 40 countries, including Sri Lanka, were studied. That was about more than 25 years back, and I was proud to be a Sri Lankan among western colleagues, because our system was considered to be one of the best, in terms of equity, geographical and financial access, responsiveness and relative cost of care or in other words efficiency versus effectiveness. It was also understood that remarkable performances in our health system can be attributed to free education, and civilizational inheritance, where empathy and kindness are guiding principles in social interaction in our country. Anyway, it is a fact that our people have enjoyed free healthcare, and free education ever since the origins of our civilisation.

It is obvious that we as a nation were able to achieve excellence in key aspects in our system, because of the national policy of free healthcare and hard work of health administration we had in the 70s and 80s. When compared with today’s administrative structure and the administrators themselves, the excellence of the old generation is well proved, although at that time they had no postgraduate qualifications in management, but professionalism and humanism. They took great pain amidst all constraints, especially lack of available resources, to build a system that was so effective and efficient to a level to be admired in international forums. Unfortunately, today’s generation of administrators, having postgraduate qualifications, training, and a comfortable lifestyle, have failed to uphold what their Predecessors built at difficult times than today in terms of resources. Anyway, one must be fair by accepting the fact that generational gap or deterioration of social and professional values in our society may have contributed to overall degeneration of the values in the health system.

As Professor Mendis has mentioned, and I have pointed out above, Zuckerberg’s army contributes to further deterioration of the system by posting irresponsible and indiscriminate comments in social media. In our country, although we have 6 million households, there are 8 million social media accounts and as such, there is a reasonable leverage to manipulate social opinion, and thereby social systems by a centralised system operated by external forces.

However, I will not go into details of how medical negligence or errors take place in the system, since Professor Mendis has dealt extensively on that aspect, I would like to draw the attention of the administrators and the public on the aspects of how to prevent or minimise them. Irrespective of the fact, whether the issue is negligence, error, or a kind of contributory, negligence or error, for which patients are also responsible partly or unpredictable mishap, medication error, Or poor reconciliation of medications prescribed by multiple specialists independently of each other or whatever other undesired outcome; definitely there will be a certain degree of dispute between the provider of the service and the recipient.

If the dispute is not managed properly, a minor negligence can be interpreted as criminal negligence will lead to litigation, creating more problems in the system. In the USA, it is well known that there are legal firms spying on undesirable events, taking place in hospitals and offering litigation services on the basis of sharing the compensation equally. This situation has led to unnecessary investigations and other defensive actions by the medical professionals and finally extra cost to the patient as well as the nation. That is the main reason why the US is classified as the highest spender on healthcare with poor outcomes. Healthcare spending in the US is amounting to 13.5% of the GDP, although 20 million people have no insurance cover at all for healthcare and for those who have insurance the overhead or the cost of insurance is 35%, which does not cover the cost of care.

To cut it short to be fair with The Island newspaper, which is always open for discussion, on issues of national importance, I would like to present in point form as to how to prevent or minimise undesirable outcomes in a system. Irrespective of the underlying cause of the poor outcome in the system, we could categorise those remedial measures into threefold. The first and foremost is protection of the noble fundamentals of the system, where equity, geographical and financial access is guaranteed and cost of care is contained to have justifiable balance between the efficiency and the effectiveness. People must be aware of subtle strategies, introduced to address the issue of being responsive to the expectations of the people, and finally how they facilitate expansion of the healthcare market, depriving sections of the society of basic care.

One of those subtle strategies recommended by international funders, is to divide or split the funder and provider. For example, at present, both the funder and the provider are department health, whereas if those functions are separated public and private providers have equal access to the public funds. If that is facilitated by insurance, 35% of the funds will be wasted as insurance admin cost or overhead. However, there is a need and an opportunity to improve the system further, mainly by addressing interconnected issues in the present system. One is the continuity of care and the other is a referral mechanism for specialist care, both of which can be addressed by establishing a General Practice sub system integrating the public and private out patient care.

The second approach to minimize undesirable outcomes is strengthening of legal frameworks to regulate medications, devices-etc., and to improve the accountability of medical manpower, as well as prevention and settlement of disputes. It is obvious that doctors individually cannot guarantee the safety and efficacy of medications and medical devices they are supposed to use and as such the NMRA act should provide for that. But in the present wave of allegations and counter allegations, the need to amend and strengthen the legal framework is not highlighted.

Although the draft of the amended act is in the drawers without being presented to cabinet and Parliament. Obviously, it is a well-known fact that the so -called pharmaceutical mafia takes decisions over and above the politicians and officials. That is the very reason as to why state pharmaceutical corporation is reluctant to intervene in the market to bring down the prices of essential drugs, which is contrary to principles of its founder Prof. Senaka Bibile. Also, countries like New Zealand have an independent body called health and liability commissioner established by law to intervene and settle the disputes as a mediator and to improve the accountability of medical personnel. But unfortunately, that kind of third-party approach to minimize disputes and public unrest as well as need for litigation is not discussed in the noise created by various interested parties. When there is a permanent independent mechanism established by law, it is not easy for interested parties to undermine the confidence of the people in the system.

The third approach is to improve, modify or optimize the knowledge, skills and behavioral aspects of the key healthcare personnel, for which multiple strategies can be used, including strengthening of clinical processes and practices as well as changing of management culture. There is a long list of interventions to that effect with evidence which can be easily applied in our system. Even simple measures like multidisciplinary ‘grand ward rounds’, case reviews, death reviews, medical audits in emblematic cases, and related clinical or process audits to identify common weaknesses would make a big change in the minds of the medical manpower. There is very remarkable evidence of improvements achieved by way of introducing complaint and incident registers with transparent inquiry and reporting mechanisms. Also, introducing protocols and practice guidelines to guide and unify practices that can lead to questionable outcomes have shown remarkable results.

Besides, in order to restore the public confidence a comprehensive financial and quality audit must be done to identify the weaknesses and corrupt practices in relation to registration and procurement of pharmaceuticals. It should also be mentioned that prices of medicine cannot be reduced only by price controlling mechanisms alone. In the present economic crisis, the US dollar went up by less than 50%, yet the prices of essential medicines went up in a range of 80% to 300%. Those greedy pharmaceutical traders must be countered by adequate market intervention by the state pharmaceutical corporation, which was created by Professor Senaka Bibile, for that purpose.

But, unfortunately, none of these remedial actions to improve and protect the system is not discussed by the medical associations and trade unions, except for individuals like Professor Mendis. If the fundamentals of discussion on this matter is not corrected, it can be predicted that we would get a “Gota go home – Ranil come back” type of solution to the problem.

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Cassandra in her Friday Cry-s has often noted with deep gratitude that nature has been benevolent to suffering, down and almost out Sri Lanka. Forest fires due to intemperate temperature in usually cool climes; sudden floods due to torrential rains; erupting volcanoes and earthquakes have all assiduously avoided troubling poor little Sri Lanka struggling against economic woes and continuing corruption. Sadly, not so any longer; meaning climate-changed Nature has struck us, though not cataclysmically nor totally catastrophically, but struck she has. A water shortage from wewas that feed the major rice producing areas of Hambanatota, Uda Walawe, Ampara and elsewhere is prevalent.

Farmers are desperate because needed water for their growing paddy fields has not been trickling in, leave alone spurting forth along irrigation channels. Water was not released from sources such as Uda Walawe and Samanala Wewa. And why? Levels have fallen so low. It was shocking to see pictures of the Uda Walawe Wewa which Cass remembers to have been so full and sea-like when the area was a favourite family holiday spot some years back. The deep water lapped the bund on which vehicles travelled. This week’s TV photographs showed water that was sure shallow far away in the middle of a vast acreage of bare tank bed. Samanala Wewa water is used to generate electricity.

Farmers are on strike – sit down, silent ones. They have loudly proclaimed their prediction that this season their paddy harvest will fail. They shed heart felt tears over their fear of not being able to feed their families and death from starvation staring them in the face. We echo their cries since no harvest means shortage of rice and importing of inferior varieties at great cost – unaffordable as of now.

Two contrary ministers

Two ministers are pitting themselves against each other, trumpeted by various trade unions and political pandits. The Minister of Power powerfully puts forth the threat of four hour power cuts if water is released from the Samanala Wewa to paddy fields. The Minister of Agriculture smilingly, meekly proclaims he will get water released for paddy farmers. The threatened power cuts will be only for southern areas. So where’s the balance between the two fears/threats? The weighing scale, not only to Cassandra but all right thinking people, tips strong in favour of water to paddy farmers. We, or they, the Southrners can suffer power cuts for short periods, but stomachs have to be filled, at least to some extent. TV news yesterday had a spokesman from a mushroomed people’s forum declare that power supply depletion info is merely to buy electricity from money-making private sources. Power mafia at work?

The onsetting SW Monsoon seems not to have brought sufficient rain to fill our wewas, which surprisingly are either overflowing at great danger to those living below spill gates or so low the water can hardly be seen. Where have the always full wewas gone to? Or been sent to? We do hope that at least the receding monsoon will fill these thirsting wewas. Or have the poor farmers to wait for the North East Monsoon – much weaker and not widespread in its dispersal of rain, by which time the now growing paddy plants would have turned to old piduru.

The singer not the song

The song was our national anthem sung at the inauguration of LPL cricket matches, and the singer, I learned, was popular Umara Sinhawansa. Her crime – which to some ultra nationalists (stoopid to Cass) was heinous – was that she rendered Namo Matha in a novel style – operatic it was said. SO WHAT!?

The moment Cass heard that a singer was faulted at the LPL tournament, she remembered how a Sri Lankan opera singer of international fame was booed and derided after the newly formed Yahapalanaya government’s February 4 National Day ceremony in Galle Face Green. This talented, beautiful singer decided to give Danno Bundunge an enhanced lilt with a slightly different rendition from the usual. Didn’t she get into hot water for that! Similarly, as stupidly and insanely as then, Umara is being said by a few ‘legal bigwigs’ to have violated the Constitution of the Democratic, Socialist Republic of SL! Bah to that!

Please read the editorial in The Island of Wednesday August 2, under the title Singer under fire, where the Editor, in his usual sharp and succinct manner verbally shoots around. To show the absolute triviality of the matter in hand – the manner of singing the national anthem – he mentions crimes committed in presidential pardons given to the worst type of criminal with hardly a public protest. Against those ‘mistakes’ of the highest in the land – Mahinda R, Maithripala S, Gotabaya R and Ranil W – Presidents granting pardons of those in death row, this singer’s mistake is as a mustard seed is to an elephant. She is being crucified because some people know no singing style other than the rough and ready baila. This is Sri Lanka for you! Nitty gritties gather so much publicity and social media hype while huge economic crimes, corruption, rape and murder by politicians pass uncensored or ignored.

Referring back to Presidential pardons, the most unpardonable and horrific is Prez Ranil W pardoning them who blew up the Central Bank killing hundreds, blinding and injuring many and causing such economic loss to the country. No protest except a couple of newspaper editorials, a voice or two in the wilderness and a smattering of letters to the Editor like Pardon for terrorists unpardonable by Ranjith Soysa, spokesperson for SPUR in many states of Australia and another Lankan organisation in London.

To Cassandra’s manner of thinking and reaching summations, this privilege given to Presidents of this land amounts to contempt of court since the pardons are for persons judged criminal by the highest court of law. Ranjan Ramanayake was sentenced to four years hard labour just because he gave leeway to his big mouth. Similar for Congress Leader and scion of India’s most respected family – Rahul Gandhi. He said, maybe laughingly, that in any pack of thieves (was it?) there was sure to be a Modi. What weight does that carry for goodness sake! Didn’t Gandhi have to resign his MPship for this statement considered libelous and/or contempt of court. Please correct Cass if she is wrong; don’t quarter and slaughter her. The privilege of pardon MUST be removed from those allowed our presidents; better still remove forever the presidency.

Splashes of humour

Cassandra often rolls around laughing at pronouncements made by politicians. It must however be qualified that her laugh is not a happy one. It is spontaneous, but prompted by derision. Recently, she guffawed at the command issued by the Leader of the Opposition to the Prez himself. In his inimitable style of speaking, whether in King Charles III’s language or our very own national language of Sinhala, he pontificated: “the satyagraha by Embilipitiya farmers has started demanding water for the crops that are blossoming and however, the authorities of this relentless government seem to have no empathy at all …”

It must be the translator’s fault for causing extra derisive laughter by translating his statement ludicrously. Does paddy blossom forth? Sajith would have pronounced the demand in studied Sinhala so more would appreciate his concern. Jeff and Mutt pounced on Sajith’s declared command, asking: “Does he expect the President to cause rains?”

Vegetables being imported

Writing about paddy which gives us our staple food, Cass had its accompaniment vegetables coming to mind immediately followed by Tuesday’s TV announcement that vegetable growers in Welimada, while harvesting their potato crops, complained bitterly the government was considering (or already) importing vegetables. Potatoes are imported cutting into the up county potato production. Importing eggs is bad enough. We should never import vegetables. Make people grow whatever vegetable wherever possible. We can be self-sufficient in this food commodity at least.

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‘it is not narrative that we should abandon but chronology’’ – Kumar Shahani

By Laleen Jayamanne

Rajani Thiranagama, sister of Nirmala and Sumathy, was shot dead by an LTTE gunman for criticising the organisation’s totalitarian ethos and violent actions. Both Nirmala and Rajani were members of the LTTE and Nirmala was jailed for her work with them, in the very early, seemingly idealist phase as an organisation for social and political justice for the Tamils. Escaping prison, she fled to Madras as a political exile, to escape arrest and now lives in Britain. Critical of the LTTE violence, she was unable to come home for Rajani’s funeral for fear of being assassinated by the LTTE which had become a terrorist force.

So, for those of us who know this thick political history, Nirmala’s presence as the mother is loaded with memory. I am told that some found Loganathan’s Malaiyaha Tamil accent jarring in his role as a son of the Northern Tamil family. Similarly, Anu also appears to break the realist link, through her confident dance, as a fresh presence unburdened by the family history. Sumathy’s approach to acting is therefore hybrid, eclectic, unconstrained by an idea of consistency of acting style.

The silent maid is part of the family but appears alienated. In the midst of her chores, she is given a moment of attention when she sips a hot cup of tea seated quietly on a step, resting. In her unsmiling, entirely silent, sullen presence, she remains quite unknown in the way some neo-realist figures remain, as in life. They are opaque, not consumed by the narrative which was an aspect Bazin especially admired in Italian neo-realist acting, because it does not tell us how to respond to it, in the way a performance in a Hollywood film might.

The ’mad’ mother is also quite opaque, though clearly delusional, she appears quite lucid at times. As an admired Teacher of English and a mother of four children, having nursed a terminally ill husband, run a large household, and sustained a friendship, she is quite fascinating. I have never seen such a mature professional woman, presented with a complex interior and social life in the Sinhala cinema, with its lamenting mothers and venerable grandmothers in Kandyan sari.

Her monologue, delivered as she is seated on the back veranda, is worth listening to carefully for all its contradictions, lucidity and craziness. She is not quite the blindingly insightful mad Lear. But King Lear is a fierce family squabble about inheritance between an egocentric king and his children, with soaring existential poetry on a stormy heath. The Single Tumbler meditates on mass political violence, evoked by a professional woman gone mad, stuck at home, broken by the weight of her history. Nor is she the stoic Maurya, at the end of J. M. Synge’s Riders to the Sea, after all her seven sons have died at sea. Though a mother and a grandmother, Nirmala does not present Daisy Teacher sentimentally with pathos, despite her grievous loss. Her religious faith is emphasised when we see her pray at her own little altar with holy pictures and statues of the Virgin Mary, Jesus and Saints. Though mentally delusional, Daisy Teacher, is a singular figure in Lankan cinema, made of strong mettle.

Daisy Teacher

with her short grey hair, usually wears a long chintz dress and we see her in a short white cotton nighty too. But there is a brief scene when, wearing a sari, she shuffles around the veranda calling out to Jesse and looking for Jude. Seeing her dressed in a sari for once, Lalitha exclaims going up to her saying, Amma How nicely dressed you are!’ She is draped in a luminous, soft-yellow cotton sari, with a grey and black border, with a striking dark bluish-green blouse. As she smiles in response but somewhat vacantly, we get a glimpse of her former self, a strong, handsome professional woman who dressed with flare. She even still wears a wristwatch, though she doesn’t function within chronological clock time. Nirmala’s Daisy Teacher is a superbly calibrated, illuminating performance of the mental decline and madness of a professional woman, under immense political duress.

Singing & Dancing

Song and dancing are familiar motifs in Sumathy’s films where people sing to each other, mostly when asked, but also when alone. We know that she comes from a family of trained musicians. Nirmala sings a long hymn of intersession to Mother Mary of Madhu while reading the newspaper attentively, a most engaging scene where she seems to ‘multi-task’ with ease. We are left wondering if she is as mentally disabled as we were led to believe. The sister-in-law who sings regularly in church, requires little persuasion to sing for the family and they all join in keeping time by clapping – a delightful scene. A male voice chants the Kyrie as Jude enters the church having walked by the ramparts of the old Dutch Fort (built on the Portuguese original from 1560), on his way to request that the parish priests speak to the LTTE not to expel the Muslims who are their brothers. It’s a slow walk through the long history of Mannar, which was colonised and Christianised by the Portuguese beginning in 1543 when 600 locals were baptised en masse. In another of Jude’s slow walks by the Fort and the sea we see minarets of a mosque in the distance and hear the Muslim call to prayer faintly echoing in the distance.

Then there is a long dance sequence by Daisy Teacher’s young granddaughter, Anu, who for the most part has been absorbed in her new cell phone gifted by the aunt from Canada and we see a recording of her school dance passed around. Later, out of the blue she does the same Bollywood-derived dance in the courtyard, looking at the camera, at a point in the film which marks a strong break in tone from what I think of as the elegiac sequence of the film. One doesn’t feel like asking why she is dancing and for so long, because the quality of her attention, her gaze and the strength of her gestures are in themselves sufficiently persuasive and beguiling. (To be continued)

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