State-industrial Entanglements in Women's Reproductive Capacity and Labor in Sri Lanka

Bibliographic Data

ID2634865
AuthorsM Jegathesan (0000-0003-4920-7021, Santa Clara University, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume20
Issue20
Publication date2019-05-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSouth Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1960-6060 • E-ISSN: 1960-6060
PublisherOpenEdition (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.4000/samaj.5095
OpenAlexW2943819047
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited17

In 2013, the Sri Lankan Government issued the Family Background Report (FBR), a circular requiring women to obtain a medical certificate before migrating abroad for domestic work. In 2015, the FBR was revised to further restrict the labor choices of Hill Country Tamil women in the plantation sector. Feminist scholars and activists critique the FBR as an exceptionally restrictive policy that contradicts women’s rights. However, closer examination of the plantation sector’s labor policies and reproductive practices suggests that it is not entirely exceptional but a continuation of the restrictions imposed upon women in Sri Lanka. Drawing from discourse analysis and ethnographic research conducted between 2008 and 2017, I argue that in the context of the plantation sector the plantation clause signals the resilience of strategic entanglements between the state and industrial policies, and exposes the limits of human rights praxis in securing women’s labor and reproductive rights

Economics · Labour economics · Socioeconomics · Sri lanka · Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences · Mathematics · Migration and Labor Dynamics

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