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THE IMPACTS OF RURAL POVERTY ON HUMAN DEVELOPMENT IN

SRI LANKA: A CASE STUDY FROM A VILLAGE IN KANDY DISTRICT

By
Sujeewa Prathapage

Master of Philosophy in Development Studies Specializing in Geography

Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
Faculty of Social Sciences and Technology Management
Department of Geography
Trondheim
Norway
May 2006
 Dedication

To my loving mother, father and sister

Abstract
The study has examined the impacts of rural poverty on human development in Sri Lanka.
Recently, human development became one of the most important facts of the development
process. Meanwhile it is obvious that the two concepts of ‘human development’ and ‘poverty’
have a close relationship. Therefore it is important to identify this relationship to overcome
the poverty and increase the quality of human development. When the poverty incident is
high, it automatically leads to human poverty and adversely affects human development. Sri
Lanka has paid attention to overcome the problem of poverty since her independence, but still
there are considerable amount of the population living below the national poverty line.

This research focuses on key questions regarding rural poverty and human development in Sri
Lanka. The main objective of the research is to explore the relationship between the poverty
and the human development situation of the selected study area. The study used both
quantitative and qualitative research method. Also relevant data for the study were gathered
from the secondary as well as primary sources. The main primary data collection methods
were questionnaire survey, household interviews and key informant interviews.

To address the human development perspective of poverty, this research used Amartya Sen’s
capability approach as the main theoretical approach and livelihoods approach as a tool to
make the capability approach operational.

The village Madugalla (North) is located in the Udadumbara Divisional Secretariat Division
in Kandy District and it is a remote and rural village. Most of the villagers’ main economic
activity is agriculture and at the moment they have faced a number of difficulties due to
unfavourable climatic conditions of the area. This situation adversely influenced people’s
living standard. Due to this situation, to escape poverty and secure survival, they used various
types of livelihoods strategies. But the study revealed that most of these livelihood strategies
are not sustainable. Also in terms of assets they are in a vulnerable situation. This situation
has influenced their present poverty and low human development condition and deprivation of
more valuable capabilities.

The present situation of the village is a result of number of factors which directly or indirectly
affect the rural economy in Sri Lanka. The study found that the main reason for their poverty
situation is low income. Low income is connected to the employment situation of the village.
In terms of the Human development situation the lack of educational attainment of the elderly
people of the village has negatively affected their present living standard.

Also the study focused on the evaluation of present poverty alleviation program (Samurdhi) in
peoples’ perspective. The result shows that many of the people do not have a trust on the
program’s potential to overcome their poverty situation. It seems that many people use the
benefits they receiving form the Samurdhi only as a way of survival. Those who try to
overcome the poverty situation through the Samurdhi program are limited.

Further peoples’ personal views on poverty and their plans to overcome poverty situation and
upgrade their human development were examined through the interviews. The final result
revealed that many people don’t have any clear idea about poverty. But according to their
ideas they have experienced poverty in many ways. Many of them expressed poverty as lack
of basic needs. Also they have no any reliable plans to overcome the problem.

i
Acknowledgements
First of all I must thank my supervisor, associate professor Cathrine Brun who has provided
invaluable advices and comments from the beginning to the last moment of this thesis.
Without her comments and encouragements throughout the research process I would not have
been able to finalise this task on time. I am also grateful for her proofreading and providing
me with relevant reading materials. Her comments and suggestions encouraged me to
continue working on this thesis and final version of this thesis is the outcome of the
knowledge I received from her. My warm thanks also go to the course coordinators, Markus
Steen and Jorunn Reitan for assisting me in providing necessary information about the course
from the beginning to the end.

I am indebted to the people in the Madugalla (North), Grama Niladhari and Samurdhi
Development officer who devoted their valuable time in providing me the necessary
information and their hospitality during my fieldwork in my home country. My thanks also go
to Udadumbara Divisional Secretary, who granted me permission to conduct my field work in
the area and also to all the officers who helped me in collecting data from the Divisional
Secretariat office. Further I should thank all the officers at the Udadumbara Samurdhi head
office for providing me relevant information.

I am also thankful to my friend Goovinda Karunarathne, who provided me all the necessary
arrangements for materializing the fieldwork and accommodation to me during my fieldwork.
I am also thankful to Sameera and Ranasinghe brothers who help me throughout the fieldwork
as my assistants.

I am also thanking to my friends Aruna Abeykoon, Thilak and Isthikar at the University of
Peradeniya who encouraged me to apply for this scholarship and provide me relevant
information about NTNU and Trondheim before I came to Norway. My especial thanks go to
Aruna Abeykoon for his kind help for this journey. But Aruna, you are no longer with us!

I am also greatly indebted to my parents and sister for their constant support encouragement
throughout my life. Further I am thanking my relatives and friends in my hometown and
Norway for their encouragement whose names are not mentioned here. Also I would like to
express my special gratitude to my wife Asoka for being patient with me and helping my
work in many ways.

Sujeewa Prathapage (May 2006, Trondheim, Norway)

ii
Contents
Abstract ...................................................................................................................................... i
Acknowledgements................................................................................................................... ii
Contents....................................................................................................................................iii
List of tables............................................................................................................................. vi
List of figures ........................................................................................................................... vi
List of boxes ............................................................................................................................ vii
List of pictures ........................................................................................................................ vii
List of maps............................................................................................................................. vii
List of appendices ................................................................................................................... vii
Acronyms ...............................................................................................................................viii

Chapter 1 Introduction.......................................................................................................... 1
1.1. The background ..................................................................................................................... 1
1.2. Poverty and human development ............................................................................................. 3
1.2.1. What is poverty?........................................................................................................... 3
1.3.2. Human development .................................................................................................... 4
1.3. Important of the study ............................................................................................................ 5
1.4. Research objective and questions ............................................................................................ 6
1.4.1. Research objective........................................................................................................ 6
1.4.2. Research questions ....................................................................................................... 6
1.4. Structure of the thesis ............................................................................................................. 6

Chapter 2 Conceptual and Theoretical Background of the Study ................................... 9

2.1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 9
2.2 Overview of poverty and development discourse....................................................................... 9
2.2.1. Idea of economic growth (up to 1960s) ..................................................................... 10
2.2.2. Main development strategies of during 1970s and 1980s .......................................... 10
2.2.3. The period of 1990s (human development as a path of development) ...................... 11
2.2.4. Millennium development goals and poverty.............................................................. 12
2.2.5. Poverty reduction strategy papers (PRSPs)................................................................ 12
2.3. Absolute poverty and relative poverty ................................................................................... 12
2.3.1. Absolute poverty ........................................................................................................ 13
2.3.2. Relative poverty ......................................................................................................... 14
2.4. Human development and poverty .......................................................................................... 14
2.5. The capability approach ....................................................................................................... 16
2.5.1. Functionings ............................................................................................................... 17
2.5.2. Freedom...................................................................................................................... 19
2.5.3. Critical perspectives of the capability approach ........................................................ 21
2.6. Poverty and the capability approach ...................................................................................... 22
2.6.1. Income and capability deprivation ............................................................................. 22
2.6.2. Relationship between income poverty and capability poverty................................... 24
2.6.3. Unemployment and capability ................................................................................... 24
2.6.4. Measuring human poverty.......................................................................................... 25
2.7. Livelihood approach ............................................................................................................ 25
2.8. Analysis framework ............................................................................................................. 27

iii
Chapter 3 Research Methodology ..................................................................................... 31
3.1. Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 31
3.2. Selection of the study area .................................................................................................... 31
3.3. Quantitative research methodology ....................................................................................... 32
3.4. Qualitative research methodology ......................................................................................... 33
3.5. Triangulation (combination of methods) ................................................................................ 34
3.6. Sampling techniques ............................................................................................................ 35
3.7. Sources of data .................................................................................................................... 36
3.7.1. Secondary data ........................................................................................................... 36
3.7.2. Primary data ............................................................................................................... 37
3.8. Limitations........................................................................................................................... 40

Chapter 4 Country Profile: Sri Lanka’s Socio Economic Background ......................... 43

4.1. Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 43
4.1. Sri lanka: country background .............................................................................................. 43
4.1.1. Geographical location ................................................................................................ 43
4.1.2. Climate ....................................................................................................................... 43
4.1.3. Population................................................................................................................... 44
4.2. Poverty and human development profile in sri lanka............................................................... 44
4.2.1. Poverty related indicators........................................................................................... 45
4.2.2. Socio economic data................................................................................................... 46
4.3. Economy ............................................................................................................................. 49
4.3.1. Overview .................................................................................................................... 49
4.3.2. Sri Lanka’s economic policies ................................................................................... 50
4.5. Poverty alleviation ............................................................................................................... 54
4.5.1. Poverty alleviation efforts in Sri Lanka ..................................................................... 54
4.5.2. Present poverty alleviation program (Samurdhi) ....................................................... 58
4.6. Rural poverty and development in Sri Lanka.......................................................................... 61
4.6.1. Some characteristics of rural poverty in Sri Lanka .................................................... 61

Chapter 5 Presenting the Study Area and Surrounding Background ........................... 65

5.1. Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 65
5.2. Geographical location .......................................................................................................... 65
5.3. Socio economic situation ...................................................................................................... 65
5.3.1. Demofigurey............................................................................................................... 65
5.3.2. Poverty and human development profile ................................................................... 66
5.3.3. Heath conditions......................................................................................................... 67
5.3.4. Education.................................................................................................................... 67
5.3.5. Employment ............................................................................................................... 68
5.3.6. Housing condition ...................................................................................................... 69
5.4 .Presenting udadumbara area and Madugalla (North)............................................................... 70
5.4.1. Climate ....................................................................................................................... 71
5.4.2. Economic background of the area (historical evaluation).......................................... 71
5.4.3. Natural resources of the area...................................................................................... 75
5.4.4. Samurdhi poverty alleviation program in the area ..................................................... 75

iv
Chapter 6 Poverty, Assets and Living Standard .............................................................. 77
6.1. Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 77
6.2. Poverty, income and number of household members in
madugalla (north) ................................................................................................................ 77
6.3. Housing condition of the village (physical assets) .................................................................. 79
6.3.1. Construction materials of the housing units............................................................... 80
6.3.2. Sanitation facilities of the housing units .................................................................... 81
6.3.3. Land ownership .......................................................................................................... 82
6.4. Infrastructure facilities (within housing units) ........................................................................ 83
6.4.1. Electricity ................................................................................................................... 83
6.4.2. Water supply .............................................................................................................. 84
6.5. Ownership of the houses....................................................................................................... 86
6.7. Changing trends of housing conditions .................................................................................. 86
6.6. Education and poverty .......................................................................................................... 87
6.7. Health facilities and health condition of the area .................................................................... 89
6.7.1 nutritional consumption of the surveyed households.................................................. 91
6.8. Social assets ........................................................................................................................ 92

Chapter 7 Livelihoods Strategies of the Poor People and Evaluation of the

Present Poverty Alleviation Program.............................................................. 95
7.1. Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 95
7.2. Livelihood strategies of the poor people’s .............................................................................. 95
7.2.1. Livelihood strategies of the people in the study area ................................................. 95
7.3. Sustainability of livelihoods strategies ................................................................................. 100
7.4. Evaluation the Samurdhi program ....................................................................................... 101
7.4.1. Samurdhi program and poverty alleviation of the area ........................................... 101
7.4.2. How long need samurdhi benefits............................................................................ 102
7.4.3. Reasons for receiving samurdhi benefits ................................................................. 103
7.4.4. Sufficiency of the present Samurdhi benefits .......................................................... 103
7.4.6. Gender dimension of samurdhi benefits................................................................... 104
7.4.7. Improvement of the family situation after having Samurdhi benefits ..................... 104
7.5. people’s plans to overcome poverty ..................................................................................... 106

Chapter 8 Stories Behind Assets and Strategies............................................................. 109

8.1. Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 109
8.2. Poor households and their family history ............................................................................. 109
8.2.1. Living place and poverty.......................................................................................... 109
8.2.2. Family history and poverty ...................................................................................... 111
8.2.3. Loosing opportunities to have a good education...................................................... 111
8.2.4. Women and poverty in the study area...................................................................... 112
8.3. peoples’ experiences of poverty .......................................................................................... 114
8.3.1. Children and education............................................................................................. 114
8.3.2. Income...................................................................................................................... 115
8.3.3. Attitudes ................................................................................................................... 117
8.3.4. People’s definitions .................................................................................................. 119
8.4. Key informants’ thoughts about people’s attitudes......................................................... 120

v
Chapter 9 Conclusion and Suggestions ........................................................................... 123
9.1. Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 123
9.2. Relationship between the theoretical approaches and the
study ................................................................................................................................ 123
9.3. Conclusion of the study ...................................................................................................... 124
9.3.1. Summary of the present poverty and human development situation
of the area ................................................................................................................ 124
9.4. Problems to overcome poverty situation of the area .............................................................. 127
9.4.1. Economy and related problems ................................................................................ 127
9.4.2. Social back ground and related problems ................................................................ 128
9.4.3. Environmental related problems .............................................................................. 129
9.4.4. National policies....................................................................................................... 129
9.5. Recommendations to overcome the poverty situation of
the study area.................................................................................................................... 130

References ............................................................................................................................... 131

Appendices .............................................................................................................................. 137

List of Tables
4.1 Incident of poverty (%) by provinces, 1990/91-2002 ........................................................ 45
4.2 Poverty rates (%) by sex of the households heads, 2002 ................................................... 47
4.3 Human Development Index trends..................................................................................... 47
5.1 Poverty headcount ratio by district (%).............................................................................. 66
5.2 Labour force participation rate and employment and unemployment rates by sex ........... 68
5.3 Percentage of occupied housing units by principle material of wall in
Kandy district (2000) ........................................................................................................ 69
5.4 Population distribution by age and sex in Madugalla (North) .......................................... 70
5.5 Employment status of Udadumbara DSD (2004) by sex ................................................... 72
5.6 Number of Samurdhi beneficiaries by the value of the benefits in 2004
in Udadumbara DSD ......................................................................................................... 75
6.1 Monthly income distribution and the number of households' members in
Madugalla (North) ............................................................................................................. 78
6.2 Distribution of land among Madugalla (North) households ............................................. 82
6.3 Sex, education level and age of the respondents ............................................................... 88
7.1 Distribution of Samurdhi benefits in Madugalla (North) ................................................ 101
7.2 Sufficiency of Samurdhi benefits..................................................................................... 103

List of Figures
2.1 A framework for analyzing poverty and human development conditions ......................... 27
6.1 Materials used to build walls of the houses........................................................................ 80
6.2 Methods of water supplying in surveyed households ........................................................ 84
6.3 Places of taking medical facilities...................................................................................... 89
6.4 Visiting times to take medical facilities during the last month .......................................... 90
7.1 Participation of previous poverty alleviation program..................................................... 102
7.2 Improvement of family situation after having Samurdhi benefits ................................... 105

vi
List of Boxes
4.1 Development indicators of Sri Lanka................................................................................. 48
4.2 Components of the Samurdhi Program .............................................................................. 59
5.1 Health and education related data (Kandy district)............................................................ 68

List of Pictures
6.1 A pit type toilet................................................................................................................... 81
6.2 Wells are drying ................................................................................................................. 85
6.3 No regular water supply ..................................................................................................... 85
6.4 Building a new house close by their old house ................................................................. 86
6.5 Condition of a house in the study area ............................................................................... 87
8.1 Inside of a poor households' kitchen in the study area..................................................... 117
8.2 Inside of a poor households' kitchen in the study area..................................................... 117

List of Maps
1. Sri Lanka with Districts and Provincial Boundaries ............................................................ ix
5.1 Location map of Udadumbara Divisional Secretariat Division ......................................... 73
5.2 Location map of Madugalla (North) in Udadumbara D.S.D.............................................. 74

List of Appendices
Appendix 1. Questionaire....................................................................................................... 137
Appendix 2. Interview guide for the households ................................................................... 141
Appendix 3. Interview guide for the key informants ............................................................. 143

vii
Acronyms

CPRC Chronic Poverty Research Center

DSD Divisional Secretariat Division
GCEC Grater Colombo Economic Commission
GDP Gross Domestic Product
GN Grama Niladhari (Local Administrative Officer)
GND Grama Niladhari Division (Local Administrative Division)
GNP Gross National Product
HDI Human Development Index
HPI Human Poverty Index
IFIs International Financial Institutions
IMF International Monetary Fund
IRDP Integrated Rural Development Program
MDGs Millennium Development Goals
PRSPs Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers
RRDI Rice Research Development Institute
SAPs Structural Adjustment Programs
SLR Sri Lankan Rupees
SPSS Statistical Package for Social Sciences
UNDP United Nations Development Program
WB World Bank

viii
Map 1 Sri Lanka with District and Provincial Boundaries

Source: http://www.ices.lk/sl_database/maps/towns.shtml (24-01-2006)

(Kandy district highlighted by author)

ix
 CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION

1.1. THE BACKGROUND

“Being poor is related to a wide range of factors including income, health,

education, access to goods, geographical location, gender, ethnic origin, and
family circumstances…”
(World Bank 1997:2)

Poverty is a complex and multidimensional phenomenon. Sri Lanka is experiencing poverty

since her independence and still there are considerable amount of the total population
suffering from poverty. The existence of widespread poverty and unequal distribution of
income and non-monetary resources among population have become one of the major
challenges in Sri Lanka. Especially rural poverty predominantly exists in the country. Also Sri
Lanka has paid her attention on poverty alleviation more than five decades but there is no
dramatic change up to now.

Poverty has continued to affect rural human development in many ways. Furthermore,
poverty has negatively influenced the quality of human life. According to the World Bank’s
categorization of countries, Sri Lanka is classified as a middle-income country. Nevertheless,
many of her rural people are still living below the national poverty line. According to the
official poverty line of Sri Lanka, rural people are more likely to suffer from poverty than
urban people. In 2002, urban poverty was estimated to be 6.2 percent while rural poverty was
at 20.8 percent. Even though some poor families have participated in poverty alleviation
programs, their situation does not seem to improve at all. According to the Central Bank
Report of Sri Lanka in 2004, 1.9 million families have benefited directly from the present
poverty alleviation program (Samurdhi), which represents about 45 percent of the population
of the country.

If we consider some poor families’ history, they have participated in a number of poverty
alleviation programs. But still they have not escaped from their poverty. So there may be a
hidden reason for their poverty. Sri Lankan government pays more attention every year to

1
reduce poverty incidents. But the situation change very slowly. When the poverty incident is
high, it automatically leads to human poverty and adversely affects human development.
According to the United Nations millennium development goals (MDGs), to eradicate
extreme poverty and hunger is considered one of the main goals. Under these goals they hope
to reduce by half the proportion of people living on less than a dollar a day and reduce by half
the proportion of people who suffer from hunger by 2015.

When paying attention to development of Sri Lanka, it can be understood in relation to its
development strategies pursued by successive governments of Sri Lanka. Governments of Sri
Lanka have followed different development strategies and most of these development
strategies were prepared by political ideologists. However all Sri Lankan governments have
paid remarkable attention to eradicate poverty. They have implemented a number of poverty
alleviation programs, but the situation has not changed as they planed. In 2002, Sri Lanka’s
poverty reduction strategy paper (PRSP) “Regaining Sri Lanka” was presented by the
government of Sri Lanka. In the report six major strategies as a foundation for future poverty
reduction efforts are presented. They are (1) Building a supportive macro economic
environment (2) Reducing conflict related poverty (3) Creating opportunities for the poor to
participate in economic growth (4) Investing in people (5) empowering the poor and
strengthening governance and (6) implementing an effective monitoring and evaluation
system (Government of Sri Lanka 2002).

But there is no any guarantee of the present situation of the implementation process of these
things. It is noticed that when the governments change, most of the policies also change in Sri
Lanka. This situation adversely affects the country’s development process. However when
considering the history of poverty alleviation in Sri Lanka, it goes to the Second World War
period. The first food ration scheme was implemented in 1942 to protect the minimum food
consumption level of the population. After independence the government has allocated more
from the government budget for food subsidies in the context of high prevalence
malnutrition1. Between 1970-1977 government policies was to ensure the availability of a
minimum amount of food for needy groups (Central Bank 1998a). After independence these
programs were combined with the government’s poverty alleviation programs. Moreover

1
Sri Lanka was a welfare state since World War II and by now there are few changes have taken place in its
welfare policy. At the moment country has paid more attention to protect and upgrade the poor people’s living
standard instead of subsidies. Therefore recent poverty alleviation programs have both social development
programs and safety nets (more details can be found in the Chapter 4).

2
these programs have led to considerable human development in Sri Lanka But regional
disparity is a main problem.

1.2. POVERTY AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

1.2.1. What is Poverty?

According to the World Bank, most often poverty is a situation people want to escape and
poverty has many faces, changing from place to place across time. There are 1,089 millions of
people live on less than $1 a day (World Bank 2005a).

“Poverty is pronounced deprivation of well-being. But what precisely is deprivation? The

voices of poor people bear eloquent testimony to its meaning. To be poor is to be hungry, to
lack shelter and clothing, to be sick and not cared for, to be illiterate and not schooled. But for
the poor, living in poverty is more than this. Poor people are practically vulnerable to adverse
events out of their control. They are often treated badly by the institutions of state and society
and excluded from voice and power in those institutions” (World Development Report
2000/2001:15).

The above definition shows the multidimensionality of poverty. Poverty has been discussed
mostly in relation to income and also with social, cultural, political dimensions. World
poverty incidence has decreased from 28 percent of global population in 1990 to 21 percent in
20012. Also people’s living standards have risen dramatically over the last decades.
Nevertheless, regional disparities are at a high level.

Another important issue is the chronic poverty of the people. Though many institutes and
organizations try to address the issue of poverty, identifying the characteristics of chronic
poverty is necessary to overcome the problem. Chronic poverty considers the duration of
staying in poverty situation. People become poor, stay poor and escape poverty. But those
who can not escape from poverty for a long duration are considered as suffering from chronic
poverty. The Chronic Poverty Report (2004-05) says people in chronic poverty are those who
have benefited least from economic growth and development. Further the report stresses that

2
See World Bank poverty Net website
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTPOVERTY/0,,menuPK:336998~pagePK:149018
~piPK:149093~theSitePK:336992,00.html (31-03-2006)

3
900 million people will live in poverty by 2015, if the MDGs are met. Not only that chronic
poverty clearly affects people in many different situations and causes of chronic poverty vary
from region to region, households to households and person to person.

Among the main causes for chronic poverty, several different bases of social marginalization,
discriminations and disadvantage have been identified by both researchers and poor
themselves. These causes can be ethnicity, race, religion, cast; migrant, stigmatized or bonded
laborers; refugees and internally displaced people; people with disabilities and certain illness
such as HIV/AIDS; peoples age such as children older people; household composition such as
households headed by disabled person, older people and widows (CPRC)3.

Yet, the concept of poverty is still changing and not precisely defined. It is hard to find world
wide accepted definition on poverty. But it is important to have a precise definition and
various causes which influences on poverty to correct understanding of the problem.

1.3.2. Human Development

The concept of human development originally introduced as an alternative to the conceptions
of development that focused on economic growth. Dr. Mahbub ul Haq is one of the creators
of the concept of human development and he defined human development as “a process of
enlarging people’s choices”. The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) introduced
the first Human Development Report in 1990 and since then the concept has developed in
many ways. By now the concept has become a heart of the development and therefore all
development organizations pay more attention to human development.

According to the concept of human development income is a mean and not an end. The
concept mainly focuses on people’s long healthy life, people’s knowledge and access to
resources needed for a decent standard of living. If these elements are unavailable, many other
opportunities remain inaccessible. Further Human development has two main sides such as
human capabilities and skills (see Chapter 2.4. human development and poverty) (Human
Development Report 1990: 10).

3
See Chronic Poverty Research Center website
http://www.chronicpoverty.org/about/what_is_chronic_poverty.html (31-03-2006)
For more detail see Chronic Poverty Report 2004-05 (available online)

4
Also Amartaya Sen combined poverty and human development and defines poverty as a
capability deprivation. He paid more attention to people’s capabilities and freedom (see
Chapter 2.5 and 2.6). As poverty has many faces lack of basic capabilities such as education,
health, freedom etc. considered as human perspectives of poverty. To measure human
development and human poverty Human Development Index (HDI) and Human Poverty
Index (HPI) are used. I have discussed these concepts in detail in the Chapter 2.

Poverty is hunger, lack of shelters, being sick and not being able to see a doctor, not having
able to school and not knowing how to read, not having a job, fear for future, vulnerability
etc. This shows the multidimensionality situation of poverty. Those who are living poor have
one or more of above mentioned characteristics

1.3. IMPORTANT OF THE STUDY

Poverty is considered as one of the major barriers to the development process of Sri Lanka.
This research addresses some key questions regarding poverty and human development in Sri
Lanka. In the process of development, considering regional variables and trying to find
solutions and reasons for such kind of variables is a necessary thing. Because, if we can
identify causes or problems regarding rural poor people’s backwardness, it may be helpful for
the future planning and implementation process.

According to the United Nations National Human Development Report in Sri Lanka (1998)
the study area (Kandy) has recorded the poorest Human Development Index (HDI) value in
the country and the second lowest district in terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per
capita. Nevertheless in terms of education, health services and sanitation facilities the Kandy
district has attained considerable progress. However, this does not mean that the whole area of
the Kandy district has developed in the same manner. Although the Kandy town and
surrounding areas have developed, other areas which are situated away from the main city
center still have not attained considerable development. And rural people are faced with
unprecedented levels of poverty. Poor human development can also lead to other problems
like unemployment, spread of diseases, social unrest, and increased poverty level and so on. It
is important to understand the complexity of such problems. This research project will tackle
the various problems experienced in the study area.

5
1.4. RESEARCH OBJECTIVE AND QUESTIONS

1.4.1. Research Objective

The main objective of this research is to explore the relationship between poverty and human
development in rural households in Kandy district (Udadumbara Divisional Secretariat
Division) in Sri Lanka.
Specific objectives include the following:
• Identifying poor people’s assets
• To explore and identify poor people’s strategies, which they use for maintaining their
livelihoods
• To assess the impact of the government’s present poverty alleviation program
(Samurdhi program)
• To ascertain the people’s experiences of poverty

1.4.2. Research Questions

To achieve above objectives, answers to the following research questions are needed to be
sought.
01. What is the relationship between poverty and human development in rural households?
02. What kinds of strategies do poor people use to improve their living conditions and
human development?
03. Does the Samurdhi program help to overcome poor families’ problems and human
development?
04. What are the people’s own experiences of poverty?

1.4. STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS

This thesis is divided into nine Chapters. The first Chapter is the introductory Chapter that
includes the background, importance of the study, objectives, research questions, organization
of the thesis and definitions of the poverty and human development. Chapter two discusses
the problem of poverty and human development in theoretical perspective and under this the
thesis presents the capability approach as the main theoretical approach and livelihoods
approach as a way of making the capability approach operational. Chapter three is about the
research methodology employed and limitations of the research methods that I engaged.
Chapter four presents the country profile in relation to the poverty and human development
perspective. Chapter five is about the selected study area and brief overview of the present

6
situation of the area. Chapter six, seven and eight present the analysis of the collected data in
relation to the above presented research questions. The last Chapter, Chapter nine presents
summary, conclusion and recommendation.

7
8
 CHAPTER 2
CONCEPTUAL AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

2.1. INTRODUCTION
This Chapter discusses the conceptual and theoretical framework applied in the study. Here I
first present different approaches and debates on poverty and human development in a
historical perspective. It is important to have an idea of the evolution of the understanding of
poverty and human development. As there are a large number of theories and concepts on
poverty and human development, here I have decided to concentrate on only two of them
which are related to my research questions and objectives. To address the human development
perspective of poverty I have used the capability approach as my main theoretical approach in
this research and to identify the people’s livelihoods strategies, I used the livelihoods
approach.

2.2 OVERVIEW OF POVERTY AND DEVELOPMENT DISCOURSE

Poverty is not a newly born concept and it has a long history. During the past few decades
number of attempts has been taken to reduce the world poverty level. The issue of poverty is
directly connected to the development paradigms of the world. Therefore many development
attempts focus on poverty and it is considered as a key concept.

As mentioned in Chapter 1 defining poverty is still controversial. Different institutes and

people use the term poverty in different ways. Poverty has been discussed mostly in relation
to income and also in relation to social, cultural and political dimensions. At the moment
there are many dimensions have added to the concept of poverty such as education, health,
capability, vulnerability, equity, empowerment etc.

During the last few decade world nations strived to attain development by using different
policies. Meanwhile the meaning of the development has been changed over the time. Though
they concentrated on the process of development they did not pay much emphasis on the issue
of poverty until recently. But at the present all nations have identified poverty as a one of the
major issues which should be addressed when planning development.

9
2.2.1. Idea of Economic Growth (up to 1960s)
In the early post-war period development policy emphasized economic growth. In fact,
development was equated with economic growth, economic growth with industrialization and
industrialization with investment in physical capital formation (Kabeer 2003). Rostow’s
‘stages of economic growth’ was one of the major development theories during this period.
According to him development consists of five major stages such as traditional society, pre-
condition to take off, the take-off, the drive to maturity and the age of high mass consumption
(Rostow 1960). When development thinking broadened to encompass modernization,
economic growth was combined with political modernization such as nation building, social
modernization, fostering entrepreneurship and ‘achievement orientation’ (Pieterse 2002)

In order to that developing countries tried to attain economic growth and expected the result
to trickle down to the countries’ poorer people. Many developing nations established Import-
Substituting industries4 and tried to be more self-reliant. Countries per capita income was
considered as the main indicator of development of the country. However it was realized that
these strategies weakness as a development and reduction of poverty of many developing
countries.

In perspective of the social aspect of the economic growth, it was identified that only the
economic growth (increasing the GNP per capita) will not help to upgrade the human capital
formation. This led to an emphasis on education and training as pre-requisites of growth and
therefore increasing education, health etc. (Human capital) were considered as pre-requisites
for growth and also to industrialization of the country. However this economic growth led to
increased gap between rich and the poor.

2.2.2. Main Development Strategies During the 1970s and 1980s

During the 1970s oil crises reduced the growth rate of the advanced industrialized countries
and increased the debt burden of the less developed countries. According to Nila Kabeer, the
main poverty reduction strategy during this period was supplying basic needs for the poor. In
the 1970s there was a greater concern with the productivity of small farmers with meeting

4
This is related to the Dependency theory. The Dependency theory was introduced by Raul Prebisch during late
1950s. The theory refers relationship between developing and developed countries in the world. According to
Dependency theory underdevelopment sees as a result of unequal relationship between developed and
developing nations.

10
basic needs and with income generation for the landless poor. These approaches however tend
to be project based and piecemeal (Kabeer 2003).

Also since the 1970s Structural Adjustment Programs5 (SAPs) influenced the developing
countries. SAPs were imposed by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund
(IMF). Since the late 1970s the United State has been a principle force in imposing SAPs on
the governments of the global south. Formulated as loan conditions by Northern governments
and the International Financial Institutions (IFIs), SAPs require recipient countries to change
their economic policies, generally to encourage greater economic deregulation (liberalization)
of trade, investment and finances (Barry 2001).

Further the idea of sustainable development began during this period (1980s). The report of
‘our common future 1987 led to the idea of sustainable development and after that the all
development process focuses on the theme of sustainability. The report emphasizes the
relationship between environment, poverty and development. The report defines development
as sustainable development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the
ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

2.2.3. The Period of 1990s (human development as a path of development)

In the 1990s the term human development became as a key concept of development. The
United Nations Human Development Report (1990) emphasizes reduction of poverty as a way
to development. The report paid special attention to the human capabilities and its role for
development. During the 1990s human capability was put at the heart of development. The
report specifically explored the relationship between economic growth and human
development. It says that economic growth is essential for human development, but to exploit
fully opportunities for improved well-being that growth offers, it needs to be properly
managed. Further it stressed that there is no automatic link between economic growth and
human progress (Human Development Report 1990:42). The report introduced the Human
Development Index (HDI) to measure human development. Also 1997 human development
report paid attention to poverty and human development and it considered human
development a way of eradicating poverty.

5
SAPs were criticized later and therefore Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) introduced by the World
Bank as an alternative to the SAPs. But the structure is not changed.

11
Also Amartya Sen’s capability approach tries to understand poverty in relation to human
development and he considered poverty as capability deprivation. He paid attention to
people’s capabilities and inability to achieve valuable capabilities such as education, good
health condition etc. and he talked about the enlargement of people’s opportunities in the
process of development (UNDP 1990).

2.2.4. Millennium development goals and poverty

Many world organizations attempt to overcome poverty rates of the developing countries.
Among these UNDPs Millennium summit played an important role regarding poverty
reduction in the 21st century. At the United Nations Millennium summit in 2000, 189
governments across the world made a commitment to take collective responsibility for
halving world poverty by 2015. Further in the perspective of human development the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) has considered about education as one of the means
to eradicate poverty. As well as the gender equality, child mortality, maternal health, combat
diseases, environment and global partnership has considered as an important sectors to
development process.

2.2.5. Poverty reduction strategy papers (PRSPs)

The World Bank (WB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) introduced the idea of poverty
reduction strategy papers (PRSPs) to their member countries. And PRSPs prepared by the
member countries through a participatory process involving domestic stakeholders as well as
external development partners including the WB and IMF. PRSPs describe the country’s
macroeconomic, Structural and social policies over a three year period to promote broad
based growth and reduce poverty (International Monetary Fund6 2006).

2.3. ABSOLUTE POVERTY AND RELATIVE POVERTY

Poverty is most often seen as absolute poverty and relative poverty. What do absolute poverty
and relative poverty mean?

6
http://www.imf.org/external/np/prsp/prsp.asp#o (04-03-2006)

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2.3.1. Absolute Poverty
The approach of absolute poverty defines the minimum level of income needed to maintain
life. The concept of absolute poverty is most commonly used for measuring poverty in the
developing countries. The World Bank currently uses a figure of 1 (USD) per day for absolute
poverty. In terms of absolute poverty all countries have their own poverty lines to measure
poverty at the national level. This can be called the monetary approach to poverty. The
monetary approach to poverty assumes that individuals and households are poor if their
income or consumption falls below a certain threshold, usually defined as a minimum,
socially acceptable level of well being by a population group.

The most widely used indicator for the measurement of income poverty is the head count
index and per capita Gross National Product (GNP). The GNP per capita indicator gives an
indication of the average material living standard of a country’s population. The head count
index is based on a poverty line (or set of lines). Those poverty lines are established by
costing a minimum basket of essential goods for basic human survival, using income,
consumption or expenditure data of non poor households (Lok-Dessallien 1996).

Sen (1981) discussed this approach in the context of biological approach. According to Sen’s
concept of ‘biological approach‚’ poverty can be defined as insufficiency of income to meet
basic food need. But to define poverty in this way creates many problems. Sen identified three
main issues regarding defining poverty in the perspective of basic needs approach. First one is
that there are significant variations related to physical features, climatic conditions and work
habitat. Further he says that even for specific groups in a specific region, nutritional
requirements are difficult to define precisely. Second, the conversion of minimum nutritional
requirements into minimum food requirements also depends on the choices of commodities.
And also it depends on the subject’s consumption pattern and habits of the people who live in
a specific region or country. Third, for non-food items such minimum requirements are not
easy to define and the problem is usually solved by assuming that a specified proportion of
total income will be spent on food. However the proportion of spending on food varies not
only with habitat and culture, but also it depends on relative prices and availability of goods
and services (Sen 1981).

MacPherson and Silburn (1998) consider both the theoretical and practical difficulties of
definition of absolute poverty approach. They argue that not only nutritional requirements

13
vary from one person to another, and from time to time between people of different ages or
with different work-patterns, but also in practice, allowance may need to be made for
variations in the availability of foodstuffs, in the knowledge and skills needed for the most
efficient preparation of food, in food purchasing habits where the decisions about what to buy,
and in what quantity may be influenced not only by availability and price but also by capacity
to store food safely and prepare it appropriately. In addition to these things they stressed the
influence of food-beliefs, dietary customs and conventions as well as taste and food
preferences (MacPherson and Silburn 1998). So there is no any general agreement on the
concept of absolute poverty, but it has been used for a long time.

2.3.2. Relative Poverty

The alternative to absolute poverty has been to define poverty as relative deprivation, for
example as half mean income, or as exclusion from participation in society (Maxwell 1999).
All definitions of relative poverty are based upon comparison of the living conditions in the
community. Relative poverty can be defined as significantly less access to income and wealth
than other members of the society. The council of Ministers of the European Community in
1984 defined the poor as ‘persons, families and groups of persons whose resources (material,
cultural and social) are so limited as to exclude them from the minimum acceptable way of
life in the Members State in which they live’ (Council of the European Communities 1984 in
MacPherson and Silburn 1998:7). In this sense the relative poverty can be seen as the social
exclusion. This is multidimensional and can be combined with the income, resources, social
relations, social services like health, education so forth. Also when the inequality is at high
level in the society the relative poverty rate become high and on the other hand at the
condition of minimum inequality, the poverty rate become lower rate. The concept of relative
poverty often used to measure poverty in the developed countries rather than developing
countries. But it can be used to measure poverty in developing countries too.

2.4. HUMAN DEVELOPMENT AND POVERTY

Human development is not only a rise or fall of national income level of a country. And also
poverty is not only a lack of income. Both, poverty and human development have many
dimensions. As mentioned previously the first decades of the development discourse
considered only the economic growth of a country. Most of the development programs paid

14
their attention to the economic benefits of their projects. So the human development and
human poverty concept were not considered very much. However since 1970s/1980s more
attention is paid to human development in the development process.

During the last few decades the concept of poverty spread to various fields. As a consequence,
multidimensional perspectives of poverty, during 1990s the concept of poverty gathered with
the concept of Human Development. Then the definitions of poverty became further complex.
The concept of human development and human poverty was introduced by the UNDP’s
Human Development reports 1990 and 1997. The Human Development Report 1990 defined
human development as the process of enlarging people’s choices. These choices can be
infinite and change over time. In addition to that, human development has two dimensions.
They are the formation of human capabilities — such as improved health, knowledge and
skills — and the way people make use of their acquired capabilities — for leisure, productive
purposes or being active in cultural, social and political affaires. At the same time the report
defines poverty as the inability to attain minimal standards of living. From a human
development perspective, poverty means the denial of choices and opportunities for a
tolerable life. According to the Human Development Report 1997, poverty is not only lack of
material well-being, but it is also about the denial of opportunities and choices most basic to
human development – to lead a long, healthy, creative life and to enjoy a decent standard of
living, freedom, dignity, self-esteem and the respect of others (UNDP 1997). Poverty in the
human development perspective has many dimensions such as short life, illiteracy, exclusion
and lack of material means and all these dimensions can overlap in different combinations.
These things are related to the capability approach, which was introduced by Amartya Sen.

Further the Human Development Report from 2005 says human development is about
freedom. It is about building human capabilities — the range of things that people can do, and
what they can be. But this freedom can be restricted if they are poor, ill, illiterate,
discriminated against, threatened by violent conflict or denied a political voice. All these are
about people’s capabilities.

To measure Human Development and Human Poverty there are two main indexes introduced
by the UNDP namely Human Development Index (HDI) and Human Poverty Index (HPI). To
measure HDI three main elements are considered by the UNDP. They are longevity,
knowledge and decent living standards. To calculate the former, three main elements, life

15
expectancy at birth, adult literacy rate and GDP per capita are used. And the human poverty
index measures deprivation in basic human development in the same dimensions as the HDI.
The variables used are the percentage of people expected to die before age 40, the percentage
of adults who are illiterate, and overall economic provisioning in terms of the percentage of
people without access to health services and safe water and the percentage of under-weight
children under five (UNDP 1997).

2.5. THE CAPABILITY APPROACH

There is a considerable amount of literature existing on the capability approach (see for
example: Alkire 2002, Fleurbaey 2004, Krishnakumar 2005, Robeyns 2004, Sen 1981, 1995,
and 1999). The capability approach is generally described as a broad normative framework
for the evaluation and assessment of individual well-being and social arrangements, the
design of policies and proposals about social change in society and is used in a wide range of
fields, most prominently in development studies, welfare economics, social policy and
political philosophy (Robeyns 2004).

The capability approach is a broad approach to poverty and also to human development. The
concept of capability was first introduced by Amartya Sen in 1976. It has been developed and
criticized by other scholars during the last few decades. It seems that the capability approach
has paid more attention to human well-being. However the concept of well-being is
multidimensional. Further the approach seeks solution to the problem of poverty based on
people’s capabilities which should be attained in order to become valuable human beings.

Sen describes the ‘capability approach’ by considering human life as a set of doing and being
of functionings. According to Sen, it relates the evaluation of the quality of life to the
assessment of the capability function. The capability approach is mainly focused on what
people are effectively able to do and to be, that is on their capabilities. This contrasts with
philosophical approaches that concentrate on people’s happiness or desire-fulfillment, or on
income, expenditure or consumption (Robeyns 2004).

According to Sen, the capability approach has a long history. Among the classical political
economists, both Adam Smith and Karl Marx explicitly have discussed the importance of
functioning and the capability to function as determinates of well-being. Marx’s approach to
the question was closely related to the Aristotelian analysis. However, since then the concept

16
has been developed in many ways and applied to the concept of poverty and human
development. The capability approach is trying to explain and measure poverty in a human
development perspective and as already mentioned the concept was widely used by UNDP’s
human development report in 1997. The human capability approach to poverty measurement
measures poverty in terms of outcomes or ‘ends’. It defines the phenomena as the absence of
basic human capabilities to function at a minimally acceptable level within a society (Lok-
Dessallien 1996).

As this is a broad approach than other approaches to poverty and human development, it has
become an important feature of the process of development during the last few years. Poverty
and human development are therefore connected through the capability approach.

According to the above discussion there are two main concepts that are used to describe the
capability approach. These are ‘functionings’ and ‘freedom’. The whole approach depends on
these core concepts and it is important to define these concepts further. The next section
discusses these concepts briefly and in order to understand the key idea of the capability
approach.

2.5.1. Functionings
Sen uses the word ‘functionings’ very often to explain the capability approach and the
functionings have become one of the key words of the capability approach. What is meant by
these functionings? How can we explain the capability approach through people’s
functionings? It is important to consider these things related to my study and the analysis of
the research.

Then what are the capabilities of a person? Is it different than the functionings? Sen (1987)
explains the difference between the terms capability and functionings as “A functioning is an
achievement, whereas a capability is the ability to achieve. Functionings are, in a sense, more
directly related to living conditions, since they are different aspects of living conditions.
Capabilities, in contrast, are notions of freedom, in the positive sense: what real opportunities
you have regarding the life you may lead” (Sen 1987:36).

17
The term functionings is not easy to understand. But when considering the prevailing
literature the term implies a simple phenomenon. The term refers the standard of person’s
living condition. And on the other hand capabilities are set of choices and the functionings are
the achievements. For example as functionings considered ‘beings and doings’ being
educated, being well nourished, long life expectancy, being able to take part in social
activities in a society are achieved functionings. Therefore capabilities are the set of choices
that one face in life and functionings are the outcomes. These achieved functionings can be
observed and measurable and comparable, but capabilities can not be measured or observable.
In other way the capability refers the means and the functionings refer the ends.

Sen (1995) further describes different types of functionings. According to him, some
functionings are very elementary and being adequately nourished, being in good health and
being educated can be considered elementary functionings. Meanwhile there are more
complex functionings such as self-respect, ability to appear in public without shame, etc. It
seems that functionings have different levels and can be categorised in to a few different
groups. Moreover Sen has added value for all these functionings. Because it is obvious that
achieved functionings such as education, good health, social respect etc. have a value for the
persons who achieve these functionings, and also to the society. Because having a good
education and a good health are important both for the individual’s well-being and for the
country.

Robeyns (2004) explains capability functionings as, people’s capabilities to function. It is

people’s effective opportunities to undertake the actions and activities that they want to
engage in and whom they want to be. Functionings include working, resting, being literate,
being healthy, being part of a community, being respected, and so forth (Robeyns 2004).

However it is not easy to understand the term ‘beings and doings’ for all. But the phrase
explain simple phenomenon. Sen acknowledges functionings as what persons are actually
able to do or be –– that is their functionings — not in the pounds of rice they consume.
Further a functioning may be any kinds of action performed, or stage achieved, by an
individual, and may a priori cover any thing that pertains to the full description of the
individual’s life. Therefore such a description may be done by a list or “vector” of
functionings. The capability set is the set of all the vectors of functionings that the individual
could have obtained if he or she had chosen (Fleurbaey 2004). Further functionings are the

18
actual out comes or the level of achievements attained in the various dimensions.
Functionings are observable or measurable though the capabilities are unobservable
(Krishnakumar 2005)

These definitions of functionings reveal that the concept has many dimensions and also there
are many explanations on the concept. Also the Human Development Report (1997) defines
functioning as the valuable things the person can do or be (such as well nourished, living long
and taking part in the life of a community) and the capability of a person refers for the
different combinations of functioning the person can achieve; it reflects the freedom to
achieve functioning.

2.5.2. Freedom
This is the second main concept related to the capability approach. Sen’s book Development
as Freedom (1999:3) opens with: “Development can be seen; it is argued here, as a process of
expanding the real freedom that people enjoy. Focusing on human freedoms contrasts with
narrower views of development, such as identifying development with the growth of gross
national product or with the rise in personal incomes or with industrialization or technological
advance or with social modernization”. Alkire (2003) elaborates the term freedom in the
perspectives of progress, development or poverty reduction and says those thing occur when
people have greater freedom (=capabilities). Similarly there is another idea of freedom.
Freedom means having a capability set that offers plenty of opportunity for choice
(Gunewardena 2004).

How can people achieve freedom in order to gain their capabilities? The freedom to lead
different types of life is reflected in the person’s capability set. The capability of a person
depends on a variety of factors, including personal characteristics and social arrangements
(Sen 1995). Freedom is complex and there are some kinds of freedoms which have to be
avoided due to regulations or social arrangements. Sen also says that freedom is not an
unproblematic concept. In order to attend to the foundational importance of freedom Sen
introduced the concept of capability. Capability refers to a person’s or group’s freedom to
promote or achieve valuable functionings. That means these concepts are interrelated to each
other and it is some extent difficult to explain separately.

19
According to the above definition the terms freedom, capabilities and functionings are
interrelated and they are dependent on various factors. Freedom refers to the ability to choose
one type of life style by using capabilities. On the other hand capabilities refer to a person’s
freedom to achieve valuable functionings. As Sen says in the above definition, freedom may
depend on many things such as social conditions, religious, resources, income etc. As an
example if we think of freedom to choose some kinds of food (example: meat) may depend on
person’s income as well as social or religious norms that he attached.

In the perspective of the capability approach, freedom is concerned with the ‘real
opportunity’ that we have to accomplish what we value’. Sen argues that freedom has intrinsic
as well as instrumental value. The ‘good life’ is partly a life of genuine choice and not one in
which the person is forced in to a particular life-however rich it might be in other respects
(Alkire 2002). It seems that Sen stressed the freedom to choose one particular life style among
various styles. However though there are many choices some poor can not chose one life style
which they want to be and other hand some may have chosen normal life style when available
more rich life styles that they have chosen. Furthermore sometimes there may be some kinds
of force to select a specific lifestyle or other things without any freedom to select. But these
things may be for the goodness of the persons’ who had to do so. Further Sen has presented
five types of instrumental freedoms that contribute, directly or indirectly, to the overall
freedom people have to live the way they would like to live. They are (1) political freedoms
(2) economic facilities (3) social opportunities (4) transparency guarantees and (5) protective
security (Sen 1999:38)

In relation to my research these things may be helpful to identify the reasons for the poverty
in the study area and also their capabilities to overcome poverty situation in the perspective of
the capability approach. Though the concept of capability seems good approach to evaluate
poverty during the past few decades the approach was criticized by many scholars in the
development field.

20
2.5.3. Critical perspectives of the capability approach
During last few years the concept of capability has played an important role among academics
as well as among international organizations and non-government organizations. Many
development programs tried to apply the capability approach as a new development paradigm.
However the concept of capability is not totally clear and some critical issues rose about the
approach. I will discuss some of the issues which have been criticized by other scholars
within the past few years.

Though the approach has considered many perspectives there are some questions that can be
identified regarding the concept. The main problem is how to measure a person’s capabilities.
There is no any justified method to evaluate or measure someone’s capabilities. Because
capabilities vary from one person to another, and change according to the various kinds of
environmental conditions that the persons are living in. For examples a person’s health
conditions are obviously influencing on their personal capabilities (example: disable person).
Sometimes capabilities can be varying according to the laws and regulations of the regions or
countries where people are living (example: due to traditional customs). Not only health,
available resources where a person is living also affect the availability of several capabilities.
Because if think of poor society which is geographically located in a extreme climatic region
in the world, many capabilities which are needed to achieve well-being, are not available to
persons who live in there. Thereby capability sets are not similar to all persons in the world
and depend on various factors where they are living.

Another important issue is identifying valuable capabilities and functionigs. How do we value
functionings or ‘beings and doings’ in relation to the capability approach? Though there is an
array of opportunities open for a person, would value all these by the society or the others is
another problem. Because some of the functionings may not be valued by the society or others
which is done by some one to fulfill their own needs. This is also relating to the concept of
freedom. Because, sometimes a person’s freedom to choose some kinds of activities may be
adversely affect by other people’s freedom or living conditions. Also sometimes people have
to choose any kinds of income generating activities but not freely to maintain their living
condition. Because she or he may need to earn some money to maintain their lives and
therefore they might not have any chance to think of the means of earning money (example:
selling illicit liquor as a way to income generating) and influences on others. Perhaps she or
he may enjoy with their earnings, but how they themselves or others value their job may be a

21
problem. There may be other types of choices but they can not choose them due to their
inability or sometimes may be other reasons like social inequality or poverty.

Another important issue is the means to achieve valuable functionings. There should be
unproblematic ways to achieve fuctionings. Because though there are set of capabilities and
opportunities there is no same chance to choose whatever need for a person. And therefore it
is difficult to evaluate or compare two different groups of people’s capabilities and
functionings in the same way.

Also the terms which have been used by Sen to explain the capability approach is not very
much familiar to the common people and these terms have used in for explaining somewhat
deep ideas, because specially the terms ‘capabilities’ ‘functionings’ ‘freedom’ has been used
to explain hidden ideas which can not be understood by looking at the words (example: for
Sen ‘functionings’ is a achieved living condition of a person). However I will use the concept
of capability to analysis my research problems and will elaborate coming Chapters with the
help of capability approach.

2.6 POVERTY AND THE CAPABILITY APPROACH

Sen has tried to explain poverty in the perspective of the capability approach. Sen’s capability
approach views poverty as deprivation of basic capabilities and development and
development of human capabilities as the real goal of development. One of the major
approaches (income perspective of poverty) which was considered as the basic or main fact
for the poverty has seen as only one of the causes for the condition of poverty.

2.6.1. Income and Capability Deprivation

According to Sen, the perspective of capability-poverty does not involve any denial of the
sensible view that low income is clearly one of the major causes of poverty, since lack of
income can be a principle reason for a person’s capability deprivation. He further advocates
that “The claims in favor of the capability approach to poverty are the following: (a) Poverty
can be sensibly identified in terms of capability deprivation; the approach concentrates on
deprivations that are intrinsically important (unlike low income, which is only instrumentally
_ _
significant) (b) there are influences on capability deprivation and thus on real poverty
other than lowness of income (income is not the only instrument in generating capabilities)

22
and (c) The instrumental relation between low income and low capability is variable between
different communities and even between different families and different individuals (the
impact of income on capabilities is contingent and conditional)” (Sen 1999: 87-88).The above
quotation reveals the multidimensionality of poverty in the perspective of income. On the
other hand the capability of a person depends on a variety of factors, including personal
characteristics and social arrangements (Sen 1995).

Further Sen (1999) advocates that the relationship between income and capability would
affected by the age of the person, by gender and social roles, by location and by
epidemiological atmosphere. How is it affected by age? There may be different types of needs
for the old people and young people. So that their need’s cost also may be varying (example:
to the old aged person may need a wheelchair to transport whereas the young person may
need a bicycle). Further by gender there are many different roles to play in the society and
their needs may be different by other gender (male or female).

Yet there can be some disadvantages between (1) income deprivation and (2) adversity in
converting income into functionings. Sometimes disability, illness and age reduce one’s
ability to earn an income. This situation entails that the real poverty (in terms of capability
deprivation) may be more intensive than what appears in the income space (Sen 1999). Also
he has paid his attention to the distribution of the income among family members. This is
mostly related to the gender of the family members. There is a tradition among some
developing countries especially in Asia and North Africa about preferences of boys than girls
for their families. And this situation affects the resource allocation among the family
members. Further the situation often leads to deprivation of girls in such countries and it may
adversely affect their human development in terms of capability deprivation.

Finally Sen argues that relative deprivation in terms of incomes can yield absolute deprivation
in terms of capabilities. Being relatively poor in a rich country is a great capability handicap,
even when one’s absolute income is high in terms of world standards. He explains further this
step as, generally in an opulent country, more income is needed to buy enough commodities
to achieve the same social functionings. If they could not fulfill their needs as others in the
society, sometimes it may lead to social exclusion (Sen 1999).

23
2.6.2. Relationship between Income Poverty and Capability Poverty
Income poverty and capability poverty have a close relationship. In the perspective of
capabilities, income is seen as an important means to achieve valuable capabilities for the
people. Sen’s capability approach stresses that the relation with income and capability is
positive and when a person’s income increases, it may also increase the capability of the
person and then again improved capabilities to help to earn more income. Anyhow this is
related to human development such as education and health improvement of the poor people.
When such basic facilities increasing it automatically improve person’s ability to earn more
income and escape from income poverty.

Increasing the infrastructure, spreading economic opportunities and basic social backgrounds
such as high level of literacy, numeracy, and basic education, good general health care,
completed land reform so forth would enhance the development of the country and there are
some countries such as Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, China and
Thailand that have gained good result of doing so. According to Sen (1999) this is related to
the way countries have improved the human development condition.

In terms of human development though Sri Lanka has gained considerable progress as
mentioned previously a considerable amount of regional disparity can be identified. In the
perspective of human development and eradicating of poverty, especially from the rural areas
in Sri Lanka, increasing capabilities is more important than providing safety nets for the poor.

2.6.3. Unemployment and Capability

Sen’s capability approach has also discussed the relationship between unemployment and
capability deprivation. Many people have had to face poor condition due to unemployment
and its negative impacts on the poor people and country’s economy. Sen (1999) explains the
relationship between unemployment and capability deprivation. Here unemployment is
considered a case for deprivation of a person’s capability. Though he has talked about this in
relation to the European context, in his book “Development as Freedom” it is applicable to
developing countries. There are many side effects of unemployment more than loss of
income. Some of them are psychological harm, loss of working motivation, skill and self
confidence, increase in ailments and morbidity, disruption of family relation and social life,
hardening of social exclusion and accentuation of racial tensions and gender asymmetries. So

24
that it is noticeable that there are many other problems that may occur due to unemployment
and these are not concerned in other approaches very often.

It is essential to reduce the unemployment rate in order to eradicate poverty and especially in
the perspective of capability approach minimize the income poverty and related capability
deprivations.

2.6.4. Measuring Human Poverty

As mentioned in the Chapter 1, to measure human poverty in the human development
perspective, the Human Development report (UNDP 1997) introduced the Human poverty
Index (HPI). This provides a picture of poverty country by country and it deals with three
main dimensions such as longevity, education and economic factors (decent a living
standard). The Above three variables consist of the vulnerability to death at a relatively early
age — and it represented the percentage of people expected to die before age 40, the
percentage of adults who are illiterate and overall economic provisioning which reveals the
percentage of people with access to health services and safe water and the percentage of
malnourished children under five. Most of the capability poverty indicators such as life
expectancy, literacy rates, malnutrition, are straightforward measurements. However
participation of poor people in their societies can not easily be quantified. But it is noticeable
that HPI does not reflect income poverty. However the HPI can be used (1) as a tool for
advocacy (2) as a planning tool for identifying areas of concentrated poverty within a country
and (3) as a research tool (Human Development Report 1997).

2.7. LIVELIHOOD APPROACH

Livelihoods approach will be used as a tool to make the capability approach operational.
Always livelihoods are playing an important role in terms of people’s poverty situation. This
approach has been popularized during the past two decades and many of the poverty related
studies and organizations applied the approach for their research especially to address the
problem of poverty. The approach has identified the need to consider all the factors that
influences poor people and all aspects of their lives and means of living. In general
livelihoods mean the way of maintaining a living. It implies means of income generating in
order to maintain household’s daily life. Though it seems simple phenomenon, the term
livelihoods have many dimensions. And also it is complex in many ways

25
Chambers and Conway (1992) define livelihood as comprising people, their capabilities and
their means of living, including food, income and assets. Further assets are divided in to two
main groups as tangible assets and intangible assets. Tangible assets are resources and stores,
and intangible assets are claims and access. Moreover they have considered about the
sustainability dimensions in terms of environment and social. A livelihood is environmentally
sustainable when it maintains or enhances the local and global assets on which livelihoods
depend, and has net beneficial effects on other livelihoods. A livelihood is socially sustainable
which can cope with and recover from stress and shocks, and provide for future generations.

The concept of livelihoods has been developed in many ways. According to the above
definition livelihoods comprises people and their capabilities. It includes human capabilities
such as knowledge, skills, health, good physiological conditions so forth and capability to
access tangible and intangible assets. All these elements are important to assess the rural
poverty and their strategies in terms of eradicating poverty.

Livelihoods are depended on various factors. Among these factors, environmental factors
such as climate change, natural resources, and geographical location of an area are important.
On the other hand there are many social and human factors influencing the livelihoods.
Mainly knowledge, social norms, resource allocation, people’s capabilities are important. Due
to various reasons including the above mentioned factors livelihoods have become diverse.
Especially the diverse livelihoods are important to examine the poor people’s strategies which
they use as a means of maintaining their living conditions. Frank Ellis (1998) define
diversification of livelihoods as the process by which rural families construct a diverse
portfolio of activities and social support capabilities in their struggle for survival and in order
to improve their standard of living.

According to the perspective of livelihoods there are five types of capital assets have been
identified. They are human assets, natural assets, financial assets, social assets and physical
assets (Turton 2000). Availability of these five types of assets determines the living standard
of rural households. Unavailability of some of these puts people to the vulnerability situation.
Human capital refers the skills, knowledge, ability to work and good health etc and all these
provide person to pursue a sustainable livelihood. If the people are lack of the human capital it
is difficult to use them to other capital assets. Simply natural capital means the available

26
natural resources to maintain people’s livelihoods. Social capital refers the social resources
such as networks, social claims, affiliations, associations and having good social relationships
are important to maintaining livelihoods strategies. Then the financial capital includes
peoples’ savings, credit, production equipments etc. Meanwhile physical capital refers the
infrastructure facilities which are available to the people live in an area (Scoones 1998).
Further these assets are important to enable people’s capabilities. When the people have
considerable level of assets, it increases the opportunities and their capabilities.

2.8. ANALYSIS FRAMEWORK

SOCIO
VULNERABILITY ASSETS AND ECONOMIC
CONTEXT CAPABILITIES FACTORS

Natural Resources Human Capital RURAL Culture

POOR
Environmental condition
Employment Availability Financial Capital Freedom
National economy
Rural Infrastructure Natural Capital Gender
Technology
Drought Physical Capital Attitudes
Disease LIVELIHOODS
Heath Social Capital STRATEGIES Age

Power

Opportunity

Accessibility

Economy

Poverty
ACHIEVED FUNCTIONINGS Alleviation
AND LIVING STANDARD
Market

Figure 2.1. A Framework for Analyzing poverty and Human Development Conditions7

7
This framework is based on the sustainable livelihoods approach.

27
As I have shown in this Chapter, poverty is multidimensional and therefore various factors
affect poverty. Sometimes poverty is a cause and on the other hand a result. Therefore to
identify poverty should consider the basic factors which lead people to become poor.
According to the capability approach and livelihoods approach I hope to approach poverty by
using the above framework and the frame work is based on the livelihoods approach, but the
perspective of capabilities are also included.

The vulnerability context includes the external factors which affect rural poverty. Natural
resources, environmental conditions, etc. are affect people’s assets and their livelihoods.
However these factors are not always negative and sometimes they lead people to become
poor, sometimes they lead people to become rich. The situation depends on the available
context, and therefore it is important to identify the context to examine the poverty and human
development condition of the study area.

Assets are playing an important role within the vulnerability context. According to the
livelihoods approach, there are five types of assets have been introduced. Assets and the
context have a close relationship, because assets can be created or destroyed within the
available context. Human capital implies the human development perspective to the concept
of poverty and according to the capability approach being educated, being health, etc are
considered as valuable functionings. Financial capital refers people’s credit, income, savings
etc. Meanwhile, natural capital means the available natural resources to the people and
physical capital consider available infrastructure facilities. Finally social capital indicates
social relations and all these assets have a grater influence on people’s livelihood strategies.

In addition to that socio-economic factors of an area where people are living directly
influence the people’s poverty condition and also their assets. Further these all factors
sometimes enhance the people’s assets and their livelihoods and sometimes destroy them. At
last all these together make people’s achieved functionings and their living standard.

I will consider the above factors when analyzing my data. I hope this framework will help to
answer my research questions and in order to do that I hope to identify the poverty and rural
development condition of the study area. According to the above framework first I will
consider the vulnerability context of the study area. Then according to the vulnerability
context I will identify the assets and capabilities of the poor people in the study area. After

28
that I will concentrate on the poor people’s livelihoods strategies and finally will identify the
relationship between these factors. Chapter 4 and 5 discuss the context of poor people and the
Chapter 6 will identify their available assets. Chapter 7 will discuss the poor people’s
livelihoods strategies and Chapter 8 will conclude the analysis part with combining all these
things with people’s experiences on poverty.

29
30
 CHAPTER 3
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1. INTRODUCTION
Research methodology plays an important role of the research. It includes research design,
data collection, analysis and interpretation of results. The term ‘methodology’ comprises this
whole process. The final results of a research depend on the methodology that we are
employing and methodology depends on the type of data needed to answer the research
questions. Social sciences researches use either quantitative research methods, qualitative
research methods or both (triangulation). But there is a controversial argument between social
sciences researchers and scientific researchers regarding the use of these two methods in the
social sciences and debates on quantitative and qualitative research methods is still
continuing. However these two approaches help to understand the socio-economic realities of
the society. The qualitative approach use non-numeric data and the quantitative approach use
numeric data. Selecting an appropriate methodology for specific research depends on the
research objectives and research questions which are going to be answered through the
research. The research methods must lead to comprehensive and clear results at the end of the
research. In order to gain better understanding the situation of poverty and human
development of the study area this research employed a combination of quantitative and
qualitative research methods. This research required the use of primary and secondary data
sources related to poverty and human development. This Chapter discusses the methodologies
which I engaged.

3.2. SELECTION OF THE STUDY AREA

The selection my study area was dependent on a literature survey. According to the United
Nations National Human Development Report in Sri Lanka (1998) Kandy District has
recorded the poorest HDI (Human Development Index) value in the country and the second
lowest district in terms of GDP per capita. This information leads to conduct this research on
poverty and human development in Kandy district. I wanted to know reasons for this situation
and to identify possibilities to overcome this situation. Then I selected a Divisional Secretariat
Division (Udadumbara) from the Kandy district, an area situated rather far away from the
Kandy main city and selected the remote village Madugalla-North from Udadumbara
Divisional Secretariat Division (see map 2 and 3). As this is a rural and remote village from

31
the main cities, it is less in infrastructure facilities. The village has extreme geographical
boundaries due to mountain. It may have affected adversely to the development of the area
and increase the level of poverty.

There is another reason to select Kandy district as my study area. Kandy is my home town
and it was convenient for me to make necessary arrangement for fieldwork and also there was
a friend of mine who lived in the selected field area (Madugalla-North). Together with all
things, it was easy for me to arrange accommodation facilities during the fieldwork of the
selected village (Madugalla-North) and also made it easier to get access to the government
offices where I collected secondary data of the study area.

3.3. QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Quantitative research methods are research methods dealing with numbers and anything that
is measurable. Quantitative research methodology called what is known as hard data in the
form of numbers. Quantitative research methodology is about the collection of data in their
numerical form. So they can be easily measured or counted. This research methodology is
highly prepared by the positive researchers who want to observe the social reality in terms of
quantification and objectivity. By quantitative methods, researchers have come to mean the
techniques of randomized experiments, paper and pencil “objective” test, multivariate
statistical analysis, sample survey and the like (Cook and Reichardt 1979 and Neuman 2000).

In social sciences quantitative research methods express different social phenomena in

numbers. In case of my thesis I had to use numerical data which are associated with poverty
and human development. I wanted to find out the poor household’s income level, their
expenditure, literacy, life expectancy etc. in the study area as primary data and secondary
data. These data help to discover the past states, present states as well as future trends of the
area by using available data. This is an additional advantage of using quantitative data. Also
the quantitative research methods help to generalize the existing social phenomena by testing
samples. I have done a sample survey for gathering primary data by using a questionnaire. It
was useful to me to understand the general situation of the study area. Further I used SPSS
(Statistical Package for Social Sciences) computer software to organise and analysis the data
which was collected through the field survey. It is easy to handle quantitative data with SPSS
program and graphing, tabulating, describing data sets, mean, standard deviation etc. When

32
make graphs by using numerical data it can be understood by anyone who doesn’t have even
any knowledge of statistics. However in my research quantitative data were important to
explain and identify the social conditions, poverty and human development situation in the
study area.

However there are some limitations we can identify in quantitative methods. Quantitative
methods can not explain human feelings and thoughts like, for example, people’s experiences
of poverty. It is difficult to convert such things in to numerical data. To overcome this
problem I had to use some open ended questions in the questionnaire. These open ended
questions describe personal feelings and people’s ideas better than closed ended questions. It
makes respondents to have freedom to give their own answers than selecting an answer which
is provided by the researcher. Therefore social sciences research like this should use
qualitative methodologies to justification of the end result of the research. Also dealing with
huge quantity of numbers sometimes makes mistakes when handling them. So these kinds of
mistakes may make unbelievable results at last.

Another limitation of quantitative research methods is that sometimes we can not get the exact
answers. Especially when dealing with poor people’s monthly income, their expenditures so
forth I had to make groups or data ranges to make easy to enter the data to the SPSS program.
These kinds of data do not reveal the exact income or expenditure of them the poor people.
However quantitative data was important to my research in many ways and helped me to
make general evaluation regarding poverty and human development in the study area.

3.4. QUALITATIVE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Qualitative research methods are widely used in the social sciences. Qualitative methods are
concerned with understanding the world by collecting row data on social experiences.
Qualitative research methodology collect soft data in the form of words, sentences, phrases,
pictures etc. By using qualitative research methodology, people’s attitudes, opinions and
feelings can be identified. Qualitative methodology is inquiry process of understanding or
exploring social or human problem. Qualitative data contain large amount of information and
they are difficult to understand and analysis. In order to simplify them researcher has to code
them (Creswell 1994, 1998 and Neuman 2000).

33
According to Limb and Dwyer (2001) the choice to use qualitative research methods for a
research will be shaped by the dimensions of research questions. However choice to use
qualitative research methods will also depend on the way of understanding the social reality.
They state that the selection of qualitative research methods reflects the researcher’s attitudes
and role of responsibilities of the researcher.

However qualitative methodology is a time consuming method when the data collecting and
also analysing process, because qualitative data consist of detailed descriptions. Some times it
is difficult to choose necessary data from the collected data base due to huge quantity of data.
Despite these difficulties most of social science researchers employ qualitative methodology
because of its validity for the humans.

There are several types of qualitative data collection methods used for this research. As my
research project is about poverty and human development, I wanted to collect data regarding
poor people’s life history, views and experiences about poverty. So that I had to conduct
interviews with them and also it was needed to gather data from the key informant who are
engaging the poverty alleviation processes in the study area.

3.5. TRIANGULATION (COMBINATION OF METHODS)

Triangulation is the application and combination of several research methodologies in the

study of the same phenomena. It can be employed with quantitative and qualitative studies. At
the present triangulation method use by most social sciences researchers to achieve better
result from their research projects. By combining multiple theories, empirical materials and
research methods researchers can overcome the weakness or biases that comes from a single
method. Combination of two methodologies may also increase reliability and present a more
accurate picture of the problem.

Creswell stresses that the concept of triangulation was based on the assumption that any bias
inherent in particular data sources, investigator, and methods would be neutralized when used
in conjunction with other data sources, investigators, and methods (Jick 1979 in Creswell
1994). Creswell further describes, a combined methods study is one in which the researcher
uses multiple methods of data collection and analysis and also these methods might be drawn

34
from “within methods” approaches, such as different types of quantitative and qualitative data
collection strategies.

If the social science researcher did not use qualitative research methods, he may overlook
many phenomena that occur within the context of the settings. On the other hand when
absence of quantitative methods it is difficult to show the differences between different
variables. So there are a number of benefits can be achieve by triangulation quantitative
research methods and qualitative research methods.

In case of my research combination of these two methods helped me to gather various types
of data related to poverty and human development. It was essential to use quantitative data to
understand the context and to get an overview of the situation. Especially I had to use more
numerical data such as HDI, HPI, literacy rate etc. Also it was important conducting
interviews with poor household members to identify their own ideas and thinking on poverty.
If I used only quantitative methods it might not provide the comprehensive answers for my
research questions and also would not give sufficient details on their experiences of poverty.
Though I used only qualitative methods it would not make the background picture of the
study area in terms of poverty and human development.

However combination of methods is good in one hand and sometimes every research can not
combine methods as social sciences. Some researches are bound to do by using single
methods due to their context.

3.6. SAMPLING TECHNIQUES

Sampling is an important part of all the research. Especially in the social sciences research
need sampling techniques to study social phenomena. Because it is impossible to study whole
population due to various facts like time limitation, high cost, population size so forth.
Sample is a selected part or group of the total population and it represents the whole
population and the final result of the research will depend on the selected sample size and
techniques. There are different types of sampling methods available for the data collection. In
my case I had to use sample to collect data because of the time limitation. In the selected
village there were 72 Samurdhi beneficiary families and I selected 50 per cent of them to
conduct my questionnaire survey. Surveyed families were selected by using random sampling

35
method. I conducted 20 interviews with Samurdhi beneficiaries of the village and they were
also selected in a random order.

3.7. SOURCES OF DATA

To collect the relevant data for this research I used both secondary and primary data. It was
useful to enhance the quality of the research and to collect data I used different types of data
collection methods. Related data were collected through the fieldwork period.

3.7.1. Secondary Data

According to Kitchin and Tate (2000) the use of secondary data sources is a valid approach to
research and often the only one available in certain circumstances, such as for a historical
study. They suggest that where possible researcher should consider generating primary data
(Kitchin and Tate 2000). However they stressed some limitations of the secondary data. The
secondary data were collected some years or decades back of present, the purpose of previous
secondary data sources will not have been recorded for the researcher’s requirements, access
to some kinds of data may not possible and may take time and coast and the data originally
collected may inaccurate or poor quality. So when using the secondary data should handle
them carefully.

For the study secondary data was collected from the various types of sources like
government’s divisional Secretariat offices, local government office of the village, Samurdhi
office of the study area. And also I gathered some secondary data related to poverty and
human development in Sri Lanka by reviewing existing literature on poverty and human
development. Further I used secondary data from the government census report of previous
years to gather the data which is about population, poverty, GDP, HDI, HPI etc. In addition to
these data sources I used internet to gather some relevant secondary data for my research.
Also I was needed to collect the location maps of my study area as a secondary data sources.
These kinds of data helped me to make out the present situation of the country and the study
area.

36
3.7.2. Primary Data

The main primary data collection methods were questionnaire, household interview, key
informant interview, personal observation and photography.

(a). Questionnaire

Questionnaire is one of the most popular techniques applied in research to collect primary
data. Questionnaires are the printed sets of questions to be answered by the respondents,
either through face-to-face interviews or self – completion, as a tested, structured, clearly
presented and systematic means of collecting data (mainly in the quantitative methods
tradition) (Geoff & Judy 2005). Further they describe the questionnaire is a list of topics to be
included is converted in to easily understandable and answerable questions written down on
standardized form. Each question should mean the same to everyone involved so that
comparable answered are obtained and the language used should be simple, non-technical and
unambiguous.

The questionnaire was used to obtain household information of the study area. It was one of
the main primary data collection methods of my research (see appendix 1). From this
questionnaire I obtained the background information of the poor families who were
beneficiaries of the government present poverty alleviation program (Samurdhi). The
questionnaire was semi-structured and there were number of open ended questions to take
people’s personal opinion and attitudes on poverty and reasons for their poverty condition and
also there were some closed ended questions.

I chose the household as basic data collection unit for my research. There were 118
households in the Mdugalla (North) GN division8 and out of 118 households 72 households
received Samurdhi benefits. So I was able to collect data from 50 percent of total households
of the study area by using the questionnaire and it was 35 households. The questionnaires
were filled by me.

(b). Interviews

According to Nichols (2000) an interview is a mutual exploration of the issues, without the
researcher imposing his or her ideas and in the semi- structured interview, the researcher has a

8
GN (Grama Niladhari) Division= Local administrative division (this is the smallest administrative unit of Sri
Lanka

37
prepared list of topics through still not a set list of questions. Also interviewing in geography
is so much more than ‘having a chat’. There are three major forms of interviewing exist. They
are structured; unstructured and semi-structured (Dunn 2002)

Interview method was one of the main primary qualitative data collection methods of this
research. In my case I used the interview guide for conducting interview (see appendix 2). It
made me easier to conduct the interview and also it helped me to cover all the topics that I
needed.

My aim was to conduct interviews with household heads, because it is easier to collect all the
relevant information of the households from the households’ heads. But most of the times
when I visited households there were not the head of the households. At those times I
conducted the interview with one of the other household members who was present mostly
women. Men were normally out of the household because of their jobs. There were 72
Samurdhi beneficiary families in the village and I conducted 20 interviews with Samurdhi
beneficiaries of the study area (Madugalla North). The duration of the interviews lasted for
about 45 minutes to one hour and interviews conducted at the interviewees’ houses. When
conducting the interviews sometimes their family members were present.

(c). Key informants

Interviewing key informants is considered as a valuable primary data collecting methods in

research. According to Nichols (2000) it is often possible to collect valuable information from
a few members of the community who are particularly knowledgeable about certain matters.
Those knowledgeable persons are considered to be key informants. Key informants have
special knowledge on a given topic. They are not necessarily the ‘leaders’. A farmer who has
experimented with different crops is as much a key informant as an extension officer; their
information is complimentary (Mikkelsen 2000)

I was able to conduct 10 key informants interview during the fieldwork period by using an
interview guide (see appendix 3). The key informants were local government officer (GN) of
the Madugalla North, Samurdhi officer of the village, Udadumbara Samurdhi managing
director, Udadumbara Samurdhi bank assistant managing director, one of the Samurdhi bank
manager of the area, Samurdhi social security officer of the Udadumbara and others were
Samurdhi offices of Udadumbara divisional Secretariat division. There information was

38
helpful to me to understand the practical situation of the area and what are reasons for
underdevelopment of the area.

(d) Observation

There are two types of observation methods. They are Participant observation and non-
participant observation. I used non-participant observation method as a primary data
collection method for this research.

Participant observation developed primarily from the disciplines of cultural anthropology and
qualitative sociology, participant observation is both an overall approach to inquiry and a
data-gathering methods. Meanwhile observation entails the systematic noting and recording of
events, behaviors, and artifacts in social settings. The researcher makes no specific effort to
have a particular role, often, have to tolerate as an unobtrusive observer is enough (Marshall
& Rossman 1999).

Especially I could gather some important information of the households and surrounding
environment of the village by using the observation methods. Conditions of the households,
their sanitation, infrastructure facilities of the village were observed during fieldwork. As I
could stay in the village while during fieldwork, observation methods helped me to gather
more additional information and it was enhanced the validity of some data which I collected
through questionnaires and interviews.

In addition to questionnaire survey and interviews, personal observation also took place in
this research. Observations were recorded while administrating questionnaire survey and
while interviewing households in the village

In addition to that I made some photographs to show the households’ conditions and
environment conditions of the village. Those photographs may be good evidence to prove the
real situation of the village and selected photographs have included in the relevant places in
the thesis to elaborate the real situation of the area.

39
3.8. LIMITATIONS

In the process of data collecting I encountered with some kinds of practical problems. When I
carried out the questionnaire survey, I faced difficulty in gathering data on monthly income
and expenditure. Some respondents did not like to reveal their income and income sources
specially when ask them extra income generating activities. On the other hand most of them
do not have proper monthly income sources, because most of them were peasants. Not only
that though they were peasants, they cultivated agricultural crops only once a year due to
unfavorable climatic condition of the other period of the year. So my question regarding
monthly income was not suitable for them because of their situation.

Also when the household head is away from the home some people (most of them women)
did not like to give me their household members’ details. They wanted to get the permission
from their husbands. Further, they were afraid to give information because they thought that I
am a government officer who is carrying out a survey on Samurdhi beneficiaries and will stop
their Samurdhi benefits after the survey. Then I myself and my assistants explained the
situation clearly, and then they expected some kinds of benefits from me to build up their
houses or toilets etc. But sometimes they told me their all the problems which are even not
related to my questions. However I had to listen to them because they gave the real answers to
my questions in the middle of their stories or at the end.

Another problem I faced when conducting the questionnaire survey was sometimes all the
household’s members tried to give answers to my questions and it confused me because
sometimes they gave me different information regarding the same question. Therefore it was
not easy to identify what are correct and what are wrong answers.

In addition to that other main issue that I faced was to make notes while they are talking. As
my study area is a rural area I did not try to use a tape recorder because many of them may not
talk freely (manly women) if I used a tape recorder.

There were some limitations regarding interviews too. Some key informants avoided talking
against the Samurdhi program or present government policy on poverty eradicating as they
are government officers. When conducting the households’ interviews the main problem was
the language. Because the villagers talked local language and I had to translate them in to
English, because it was a requirement of my study. So there may be some changes of the
original opinion and ideas of the respondents when I transcribed them in to English. Also the

40
women felt shy to face the interview and for some of them it was a new thing. Also some of
interviewees gave very long descriptions and most part of their speech was not related to my
questions. So I had to be careful.

There was another limitation regarding selection of the study area. Due to time limitation I
had to select only one village to do my field survey. So I realized that if I was able to even
select two villages, I could have compare the situation and it may give the supplementary data
base to analysis. Also I had to limit the number of interviews also due to time limitation.

Further when considering the secondary data sources, some kinds of data like literacy rate,
unemployment rate, HPI, HDI, etc. could not find related to the selected village due to
unavailability of data. So I had to use Kandy district and Udadumbara DSD data for
presenting the background of the study area in the Chapter 5.

However I managed to gather necessary data to write up my thesis. And this was a good
experience to me about carrying out a research project and gets to know about various types
of data collection methods. From the next Chapter I have presented the collected data in
relation to my research project.

41
42
 CHAPTER 4
COUNTRY PROFILE: SRI LANKA’S SOCIO ECONOMIC
BACKGROUND

4.1. INTRODUCTION
This Chapter aims at explaining Sri Lanka’s socio economic conditions as background details
of the study. Like most developing countries Sri Lanka has also paid attention to the
development process since her independence. This Chapter discusses the country’s
development history with special concentration on poverty alleviation and human
development. First I describe Sri Lanka’s geographical location and then economic situation,
poverty and human development profile of the country as well as introduce the country’s
poverty alleviation programs. Though Sri Lanka has spent more than fifty years after becomes
independence from the British government, still it runs with a number of problems like civil
war, poverty, unemployment, high cost of living, low human development of rural areas,
malnutrition and so forth which influence the poverty situation of the country. In terms of
country’s development process there are many issues to address in coming years.

4.1. SRI LANKA: COUNTRY BACKGROUND

4.1.1. Geographical Location

Sri Lanka is an island situated in the Indian Ocean, at the base of the Indian sub continent. Sri
Lanka is separated from India by the Palk Strait. It lies between latitudes 5° 55' and 9° 55'
north and between the eastern longitudes 79° 42' and 81° 52'. It has an area approximately
65,610 square kilometers. And in terms of administration the island is divided in to twenty
five (25) districts and nine (9) provinces as shown by map 1. Colombo is the capital city and
there is one major city in all the districts. According to the topographical features of Sri
Lanka, the land can be divided in to three major geographical zones. They are central
highlands: which reach elevation of over 2000 meters, low land plain: elevation from sea level
to 300 meters and flat coastal belt.

4.1.2. Climate
Sri Lanka’s climate is typically tropical and has an average temperature around 270C in the
low lands and lower temperature in high latitudes of the country.

43
4.1.3. Population
According to the census of population and housing 2001, Sri Lanka recorded a population of
18.7 million with an annual growth rate of 1.1 percent (Department of Census and Statistics
2001a) Further the Central Bank of Sri Lanka shows that mid year population in year 2004
has become 19.4 million. The average population density was 310 persons per square
kilometer in year 2004.Also crude birth rate in year 2003, was 19.9 percent and crude death
rate was 5.9 percent (Central Bank 2004). In Sri Lanka nearly 80 percent of the total
population is living in rural areas. The city Colombo, commercial capital of the country is the
district which has the highest urban population in the country and the population density in
the district was 3,305 persons per square kilometer in 2001 (Department of Census and
Statistics 2004a).

4.2. POVERTY AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT PROFILE IN SRI LANKA

As I have discussed in Chapter 2, poverty is usually viewed as either a form of absolute or
relative deprivation. A number of indicators are used for describing and understanding the
poverty situation of a country. Measurement of poverty in Sri Lanka is mostly calculated
using monetary measures. These measures are uni-dimensional which means that they look
purely at economic deprivation. The monetary measurement of poverty can be looked at
poverty in absolute or relative terms. Although various individual research organizations had
been calculating poverty lines in Sri Lanka since 1970s, it lacked an officially accepted
poverty line (Jabbar and Senanayake 2004).

However the controversial problem was solved after introduced the official poverty line in
June 2004 by the Department of Census and Statistics (DCS). According to the poverty line
introduced by DCS , the persons living in the households whose real per capita monthly total
consumption expenditure is below Rs. 14239 in the year 2002 in Sri Lanka are considered
poor (Department of Census and Statistics 2004b).

By using the official poverty line it has been estimated that poverty headcount ratio10 in 2002
as 22.7 per cent and in 1990-91, 1995-96 it was respectively 26.1 per cent and 28.8 per cent.
Also by sectors national poverty headcount ratio in 2002 was 7.9 per cent (Urban sector), 24.7

9
According to the current currency exchange one US$ is approximately equal to Rs. 100/=.
10
Poverty headcount ratio is defined as the percentage of the total population whose monthly per capita total
consumption expenditure falls below the district level poverty line.

44
per cent (Rural sector) and 30.0 per cent (Estate sector) (Department and Census and Statistics
2004b).

Further to measure the non-monetary dimensions of poverty especially human poverty such as
lack of access to basic education, health, safe drinking water, lack of freedom etc., the Human
Development Index (HDI) and Human Poverty Index (HPI) are being used. While the concept
of human development focuses attention on levels of achievements and fulfillments, the
concept of human poverty concentrates on deprivation and shortfalls (UNDP 1998 in Jabbar
and Senanayake 2004).

4.2.1. Poverty Related indicators

This section briefly presents various kinds of poverty related data in Sri Lanka. This section
mainly depends on the data collected by the Department of Census and Statistics in Sri Lanka,
Central bank reports and World Bank documents.

Table 4.1 Incident of Poverty (%) by Provinces*, 1990/91-2002

Province 1990/91 1995/96 2002
Sri Lanka 26 29 23
Western 19 17 11
Central 30 36 24
Southern 29 32 28
North-Western 26 27 27
North-Central 24 25 21
Uva 32 47 37
Sabaragamuwa 31 42 33
Source: World Bank 2005b
*North and East provinces are not include

The table shows the trends of poverty over the time period. According to the table the poverty
rate rose from 26 per cent in 1990/91 to 29 per cent in 1995/96 and then decline to 23 per cent
in 2002.The increase of 1995/96 was likely the result of that year being a drought year with
rain fall in most parts of the country being well below average (World Bank 2005b).

45
4.2.2. Socio Economic Data
There is a close relationship with Socio economic data and poverty situation of the country.
Because the main socio economic data revealed the overall poverty condition in the country
and also it helps to compare the poverty and social conditions of the country with other
countries. Here I have presented key socio economic indicators of the Sri Lanka.

(a). Health related indicators

Sri Lanka government has allocated high rate of expenditure on health care during past period
and it has resulted in an impressive development in the health sector. Although the basic
health care is satisfactory, Sri Lanka’s achievement in preventive health care is less successful
and is one of the major causes of poverty. And also the national estimated of health care is
excluded the North and Eastern provinces, where health achievements are expected to be
worse than rest of the country (Jabbar and Senanayake 2004).

(b). Education
In terms of education Sri Lanka has attained remarkable headway in the South Asian region in
the world. The main reason behind that is government high expenditure on free education
since 1970s. Investment in education has been at the heart of Sri Lankan government policy
for several generations, to increase national income, reduce poverty and promote human
development. As a result of this the country has attained high levels of primary school
enrolment and completion (World Bank 2005b).

Further in related to poverty situation it is revealed that the incidents of poverty is higher as
45 per cent among individuals with no schooling, followed by 34 per cent among individuals
with primary schooling and 21 per cent among those having junior education (World Bank
2005b). On the other hand the literacy rate highest among non-poor urban males as 97.2 per
cent and the lowest rate recorded from the both rural and estate sector’s female as 81.7 per
cent (Jabbar and Senanayake 2004).

(c). Gender Development and Poverty

The Gender Development Index (GDI) is considered as most suitable index for measure the
gender development in a country. Overall status of human development attained by women is
fairly evenly distributed within the country mainly with regards to life expectancy levels and
education attainments (Jabbar and Senanayake 2004). In related to poverty generally believe
that female headed households are more poor than male headed households. However the data
below gives some different form about this idea.

46
Table 4.2 Poverty Rates (%) by Sex of the Households heads, 2002
Sex of Household Head Poverty Incidence
Male 23
Female 21
Source: World Bank (2005b)

Among the reasons for this situation lower poverty rates among female headed households are
the presence of a high income earning female headings and the generous government benefits
available through such schemes as Samurdhi to the female headed households (World Bank
2005b).

(d). Human Development Index

Sri Lanka has attained high quality of human development since independence and the
relevant data shows the improvement of the situation during last few years. However if the
overall human development situation at a good position there are regional disparities within
the country can be identified. According to the UNDP’s Human Development Report (2005)
Sri Lanka’s Human Development Index (2003) is 0.751 and Human Development rank is 93
among 177 countries of the world.

Table 4.3 Human Development Index Trends

Year Index Value
1975 0.607
1980 0.649
1985 0.681
1990 0.705
1995 0.727
2000 ……
2003 0.751
Source: Human Development Report (2005)

47
Box 4.1 Development Indicators of Sri Lanka
Life expectancy at birth
Total population (2003) 71.0 years (WHO11 2003)
Male (2001) 71.7 years (CB12 2004)
Females (2001) 76.4 years (CB 2004)

Child Mortality (Probability of dying under age 5 years) (per 1000) (2003)
Overall (2003) 11.10 (CB 2004)
Male (2003) 17.00 (WHO 2003)
Females (2003) 13.00 (WHO 2003)

Public Health condition

Persons per doctor 2,224 (CB 2004)
Nurses (for 10,000 persons) 8.9 (CB 2004)
Hospital beds (per 1000 persons) 3.1 (CB 2004)
Government expenditure on health (per cent of GDP) 1.69 (CB 2004)

Crude Birth and Death rates

Crude birth rate (per 1,000 population) (2003) 19.9 (CB 2004)
Crude death rate (per 1,000 population) (2003) 5.9 (CB 2004)

Access to safe Drinking water

Access to safe drinking water (per cent) 71.5 (CB 2004)

Literacy rate 2003/2004

Country (per cent) 92.5 (CB 2004)
Male (per cent) 94.5 (CB 2004)
Females (per cent) 90.6 (CB 2004)
Contd. on next page

11
World Health Organization http://www3.who.int/whosis/country/indicators.cfm?country=lka (20-01-2006)
12
Central Bank, Sri Lanka http://www.lanka.net/centralbank/-Preliminaris%20-%20AR-2004.pdf (20-01-2006)

48
Contd. from previous page
General Education
School density (area covered by a school) (sq. km) 6 (CB 2004)
Primary net enrolment ratio % (age 5-19 years) (2002) 97.2 (CB 2004)
Age specific enrolment ratio % (age 5-19 years) (2002) 72.95 (CB 2004)

Gender Related Indicators

Gender Development Index (GDI) rank (2003) 66 (HDR132005)
Gender Development Index (value) (2003) 0.747 (HDR 2005)

4.3. ECONOMY

4.3.1. Overview
At the time of regaining independence, Sri Lanka was mainly an agricultural economy and
during that period main plantation crops were tea, rubber, and coconut, which contributed to a
major share of the national income. The domestic non-plantation agricultural sector mainly
produced subsistence food crops. More than half of the population of 7 million was dependent
on agriculture for their livelihoods. In 1948 the agricultural sector directly contributed to 40
per cent of national income (Central Bank 1998a).

Also during the first five decades after independence, Sri Lanka’s economy grew at an
average of 4.2 per cent annually. During 1980s Sri Lanka has gained also 4.2 percent of
average economic growth rate and it has slightly increased in the period of 1990-1999 as 5.1
per cent average growth. Then by 2004 it has increased up to 5.4 percent with some serious
problems like surge international oil prices, drought conditions of the first part of the year and
flood in the later on in the year and finally tsunami disaster (Central Bank 1998b, 1999, 2003,
2004)

There is a remarkable change can be seen in the economic structure during last few decades.
Mainly during 1950s agriculture was the major national income source. But by 1998 it

13
Human Development Report (2005) http://hdr.undp.org/statistics/data/cty/cty_f_LKA.html (22-01-2006)

49
contributed only 21 per cent for the GDP and 16.5 per cent from the manufacturing sector.
Meanwhile services sector has contributed 53 per cent of the GDP (Sanderatne 2000).

Country’s many economic changes are related to the government policy which was
implemented by successive governments since independence. One of the most prominent
features is that changing the policies when the governments are changed. Due to that, there
are many fluctuations can be identified in country’s development process.

4.3.2. Sri Lanka’s Economic Policies

Since independence of Sri Lanka different types of economic development policies have been
followed by the different ruling political parties. These different types of development
strategies were moulded by prevailed conditions and political ideologies. The condition is still
continuing and it has become a style when the parties are changed, new government comes
with new policies too. However to take some idea of countries economy we have to consider
some specific time durations where there was changes of economic development policies with
the change of governments.

Sri Lanka has been a participatory democracy since independence. The people have changed
the government seven times since 1948. The post independence government faced the
challenging task of nation building and promoting economic development. The major
challenges in the preference of the economy were caused by several key factors, namely, the
economic policies followed by different governments. The behavior of the world market
condition, in particular the large changes in commodity prices, extreme weather condition and
the ethnic conflict (Central Bank 1998a).

(a). 1950-1970
Just after independence the government’s major aim was to be self sufficient by foods due to
experiences during the world wars. So government’s policies were towards agricultural
development and, tried to promote local industrial and agricultural activities. In order to that
there was increased government intervention and state regulation of economic activities from
the late 1950s until 1977, except for a partial liberalization attempt in the second half of the
1960s (Central Bank 1998a).

50
There were few problems encountered in the development process of the country during this
period. Mainly it required the development of the peasant small holding sector and
accordingly, the improvement of rural infrastructure in health, education, agriculture
extension services, and marketing and transport services was considered as important in
budgetary resources allocation (Gunatilleke et all, 1992.) In order to attain this government
invested on irrigation and resettlement program in new areas.

Then in 1956 changing the government has led to drastic change in economic policies.
Especially the period of 1956-65 the government pursued socialistic policies with great state
ownership and control of the economy. An initiative was taken to introduce state led
industrial development with the introduction of the state industrial corporation Act in 1957.
Also during 1956-59, the agricultural development policy of farmer settlement under
irrigation was continued. Further government has discouraged private foreign investment and
obtained very little foreign aid (Central Bank 1998a). At the same time the international prices
of the country’s main exports tea and rubber fell sharply and foreign exchange reserves
declined to crises proportions in the 1960s. If considered reasons for this situation, it can be
seen as a result of government policies which did not leave reinvestable surpluses within the
plantation sector. Moreover there were few other external factors also affected adversely for
the situation. Because, during the period there were low elasticity of demand for tea and
coconut in the world market and long term deterioration of their terms of trade and to the
government’s failure to make effective adjustments in the face of these adverse developments
(Gunathilake et all, 1992). Also due to high tariffs protected local industry, the import of a
number of commodities including some agricultural imports was banned (Sanderatne 2000).

Thus, the government elected to office in 1956 considered central planning essential to
develop the country in line with their social democratic ideals (Lakshman 1997). The
collation of the government in 1965, made again significant changes in the countries
development policies. During 1965 the government of Sri Lanka attempted to return to a free
market economy; and also encouraged foreign investment and assured investors that their
investment would not be nationalized, that full compensation would be paid. Further a dual
exchange rate was introduced in 1966 (Sanderatne 2000). Many economic reforms which
were adjusted during this period were supported by the first borrowing made by Sri Lanka
from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 1965 of US$ 30 million. In related to green
revolution the country’s agricultural sector was given high priority and school children were

51
mobilized for agricultural activities and agriculture was given a prominent position in the
school curricula (Central Bank 1998a). Further there were some readjustments of welfare
expenditures through the mechanism of Sri Lanka aid group, organized under the World
Bank. The country managed to obtain higher volume of resources to implement these policies.

(b). 1970-77
The Sri Lankan economy faced number of external and internal problems during the 1970-77
periods. In this period economic growth rate has declined as 2.6 percent and also
unemployment had increased to 20 percent. Especially internal political upheavals, drought
and bad weather conditions, such as increasing international oil prices (1973) contributed to
this poor performance. But domestic policies have played the major role in inhibiting growth.

However a comprehensive five year development plane was introduced in 1972 to achieve
high growth rate, but could not be implemented effectively because of resource constraints.
Though foreign investments were not encouraged in the beginning, the policy was changed
later (1972 to 1975) to encourage foreign investment in collaboration with local investment,
with local investors holding the majority share. Moreover this period put steps on country’s
major development project ‘Mahaweli’ in 1976. Industrial policy was basically to promote
import substitution through high tariffs and incentives, with a grater emphasis on public sector
and local owner ship (Central Bank 1998a)

In conclusion of this part, since independence up to 1977 there was a closed economic policy
mainly but time to time for duration of short period open economic policy was implemented.

One important thing behind these agricultural development strategies is the development
model is so called ‘Dual economy model’. According to this model though there are two
sectors such as plantation crop and subsistence agriculture, which are distinctive from each
other.

(c). 1977-1994
There were considerable dramatic changes of the country’s economy and development
policies after the 1977. The first phase witnessed the fundamental shift in development policy.
The shift was a rapid movement in the direction of the market and an open economy in which
the private sector would be the main ‘engine of growth’. Further during this period food
subsidy was reduced approximately by half and it was converted to food stamps with cash

52
value and targeted to the low income 40% of the households with a cut-off at a specific
income level. In addition to that the government introduced new social welfare schemes such
as free school books and the ‘Mahapola14’ scholarship program (Central Bank 1998a). Under
the development of infrastructure the Mahaweli river diversion scheme was accelerated. New
reservoirs and power stations were created at Kotmale, Victoria, Randenigala, Rantambe and
Ulhitiya.

The opening of the free trade zones under the Grater Colombo Economic Commission
(GCEC) encouraged foreign direct investment for export industries. Export led economic
strategies were considered as most important economic policies of the country. It was
assumed that high economic rate could be achieved only by increasing new industrial exports.
As a result of these things enhanced the country’s economic growth until 1983 and then it set
back due to the disturbance of the ethnic conflict which started in the 1983. The economic
growth rate has felled down from 4.3 per cent in 1986 to 1.5 per cent in 1987 and during
1988-89 it growth an average of 2.5 pre cent only. The week economic performance in the
late 1980s resulted to adopt Structural reforms. Also the process of privatization was
increased by end of the 1993 (Sanderatne 2000).

In terms of poverty alleviation the Janasaviya program was introduced in 1989 in a phased
manner, among the districts. School children were also provided with free school uniforms in
1993. Also in terms of economic development the industry became a leading export oriented
activity and it was further expanded with the implementation of the two hundred garment
factories program and special incentives were given to location of garment factories in rural
areas.

(d). 1994 and after

The government tried to continue market friendly open economic policies further with a
human face. The private sector considered as the principle engine of growth in the domestic
sector as well as foreign sector. The government provided institutional frame work which
leads to rapid private sector development. Further government paid attention on to reduce the
budget deficit in order to decrease the inflation of the country. Also in 1994 gave priority to
reaching a political settlement to the ethnic problem by initiating negotiations with the LTTE.
The major welfare programs, Janasaviya and Food stamps schemes were centralized under

14
This program provide monthly stipend for university students.

53
one poverty alleviation program ‘Samurdhi’ Modernization of the economy to be competitive
in the international market received high priority. Special attention has been given to improve
productivity (Central Bank 1998a & Sanderatne 2000).

As discussed above, there are several Structural changes have been occurred in the country’s
development policies during the last few decades. All these changes affected to the poverty
condition of the country in many ways. Because there are come important changes have taken
place regarding the poverty reduction strategies of the country while changing the economic
policies of the country. More details about the country’s poverty alleviation programs can be
found below.

4.5. POVERTY ALLEVIATION

Eradication of mass scale poverty was one of the main objectives of economic development
of policy makers in most developing countries after they achieved political independence. The
colonial period had not paid much attention to; poverty and their interest were on extracting
natural resources and spread their power over the colonial countries. The situation was same
in Sri Lanka as well as other colonial countries of the world. However there is some welfare
approaches can be seen in Sri Lanka since independence. This is the first step of considering
poor people in the country as beneficiaries of government programs. After that there are
multiple attempts were paid on poverty alleviation in Sri Lanka. But some of these programs
were not directly considered as poverty alleviation program. But those programs targeted on
poor and low income groups as well as low benefited social groups in the rural areas of the
country. Below there will be an overlook of such programs.

4.5.1. Poverty Alleviation Efforts in Sri Lanka

Mainly Sri Lanka’s poverty reduction strategies can be divided in to three major categories
such as (1) productivity increasing program (2) Poverty alleviation program and (3) providing
basic needs (People’s Bank 1995.2). Though these programs directly not indicate as poverty
alleviation programs many poor people benefited from them. Some of these program
addressed root causes of poverty. Later successive governments have identified non economic
cause of poverty such as poor health condition, low educational attainment, malnutrition etc.

54
(a). Productivity increasing programs
Most of these kinds of programs were implemented during the colonial period. The main goal
of these programs was increasing the profit and productivity of the colonial governments. But
they did not consider these programs as poverty alleviation programs or did not target the
poor people. However, as mentioned above indirectly poor people benefited from these
programs

• Land alienation programs

This is related to agricultural and rural development program which was pursued by Sri
Lankan rulers. From 1930s Sri Lankan governments (including colonial period) have
implemented various kinds of land distribution programs. Main objective of these programs
was distributing lands among landless people in the country.

• Peasant settlement programs in the dry zone

This is a large scale development program which was implemented after independence. The
history of these kinds of programs goes back to early 1930s. Through this program special
attention was paid to the dry zone of Sri Lanka. Also the program called as peasant
‘colonization’. Colonization of the dry zone was intended primarily to benefit the peasants
and to contribute towards the objective of “preservation of peasantry” as an institution (Peiris
1996). Another objective of this program was special transfer of population from the highly
populated wet zone to dry zone of the country. The progress made in the settlement of
peasants continued to be slow due to the harness of the conditions that prevailed in the dry
zone. Poor communication facilities, malaria and unsatisfactory infrastructure facilities in
particular militated against the case for movement. Therefore 1935 Land Development
Ordinance had to be introduced in 1939 to overcome the reluctance of peasants to move from
the wet zone to dry zone. And under this policy each settler was received a unit of land and
the necessary assistance to enable them to maintain a reasonable standard of living
(Amarasinghe 1976).These peasant settlement programs more developed after the
implementation of the Mahaweli development program. This was the largest development
project of the country after the independence. However though these programs not called as
poverty alleviation programs those who benefited from these programs were deprived people
in the society.

55
 • Modernization of agriculture
This was a most influential method for increasing productivity. This goes parallel to the
peasant settlement programs. Special attention were paid on small land holders and increasing
their productivity by introducing new techniques to the agriculture. Since the 1940s
agriculture and irrigation have absorbed the largest share of the government’s budget. These
investments included restoration of the ancient irrigation systems, major new river basin
development projects in the eastern and southern areas and new agricultural settlements
(Gunatilleke et al 1992).

To improve the productivity more intensive cultivation practices utilizing new high yielding
paddy varieties along with the use of non organic fertilizers and better methods for crop
husbandry have been undertaken since the 1950s. Also the Rice Research Development
Institute (RRDI) was established in 1952 with a mandate to develop high yielding varieties to
replace the local varieties (Central Bank 1998a). During the period of 1950-1960s
government’s major target was to achieve self-sufficiency in rice. Those who received new
agricultural lands also were provided new variety of seed, fertilizer, machineries for
increasing their productivity and these are a result of the green revolution too.

• Integrated Rural Development Program

Sri Lanka launched the Integrated Rural Development Program (IRDP) to support
development in disadvantaged areas that had not benefited from major government
investment in irrigation or industrial infrastructure. The IRDP started from 1979 and the
program was focused on specially encourage non- agricultural pursuits, especially small- and
medium- scale industries, in rural areas for the creation of off- farm job opportunities in
addition to the modernization of rural agriculture. The IRDP aimed to alleviate rural poverty
through a combination of variety of factors and policy measures. Further the IRDP tried to
alleviate rural poverty through facilitating the efficient use of local resources, stimulation of
additional employment opportunities, improvement of production and productivity,
augmentation of rural incomes, improvements of basic needs and strengthening of production
linkages with other sectors, specially agricultural and modern sectors. In addition to these
things the IRDP was improved basic services and rural infrastructure facilities such as roads.
The program was funded by the World Bank and some other foreign aid agencies.

56
(b). Poverty Alleviation Programs
• Food Stamps
This is a program which focused on poor people in the country and also kinds of social
welfare and basic need providing program for the poor. Food stamps program introduced in
1979 for instead of old food subsidy system. Though the food subsidy program covered all
people in the country, for the food stamp system did not covered all of them and therefore
people who wanted to have benefits required to apply for food stamp through a decelerations
of incomes and households consumptions. Under the food stamp scheme households with an
income of less than Rs. 3,600 per year with marginal adjustment for lager families would be
issued food stamps. The benefits was distributed as each child under 8 years old Rs. 25 worth
stamp, for each child between 8-12 Rs. 20 worth stamp and other all household members
older than 12 years with Rs. 15 worth stamp. In addition to that to meet fuel needs for
households each household which have food stamps received Rs. 9.50 value kerosene stamp
per month (Edirisinghe 1988).

• Janasaviya
This is the largest poverty alleviation program which was implemented in Sri Lanka after the
independence. The program aimed on different dimensions on poverty and tried to give a big
push to the poor families and upgrade their living conditions within short period (two years).
The program was introduced in 1989 and continued until 1994; there after the present poverty
alleviation program (Samurdhi) was introduced (More details can be found under 4.5.2). The
program becomes a target oriented poverty alleviation program in Sri Lanka. The program
involved in two-way strategy, the firstly on target oriented welfare program and secondly on
the target oriented income generation program. The beneficiaries were identified according to
the income criteria. Mainly the families who have monthly income less than Rs 700 per
month were included in the program. The major objectives of the program were (1)
Alleviation of poverty through people based development (2) Reduction of unemployment
among population in poverty (3) Reduction of rural and urban malnutrition and assurance of a
healthy population and (4) Promotion of social stability restoration of economic freedom and
security (Tennakoon 2003)

The selected families received Rs. 2500 per month and it was divided into three categories as
consumption, (Rs. 1000 provided for maintain consumption needs of a family saving (Rs. 458
saved in a bank) and rest also (Rs. 1042) was saved for beneficiaries.

57
(b). Providing Basic Needs
Under the basic needs providing programs, the governments have paid special attention to the
education and heath services. Therefore providing free education and health services have
become one of the main responsibilities of the government (some of these services have
discussed under the section of education and health in this Chapter)

4.5.2. Present Poverty Alleviation Program (Samurdhi)

The Samurdhi program was introduced in 1995 as a poverty alleviation program in Sri Lanka
and replaced Janasaviya beneficiaries to the program. When considering Samurdhi program,
Samurdhi’s poverty alleviation strategy consists of a short-term component to protect the poor
by reducing their vulnerability, and a long-term program to assist them to graduate out of
poverty. The conceptual framework of Samurdhi clearly recognizes the complexity of the
problem of poverty, and the need to adopt a broad-based, holistic approach to tackle the
problem (Gunathilaka & Salih 1999).

According to the Samurdhi Act 1995 the main objectives of the Samurdhi program is (1) To
integrate youth, women and disadvantaged group in to economic and social development
activities and (2) To promote social stability and alleviate poverty. The program comprises
with three main strategies to eradicate poverty. They are (1) A welfare component (2) Saving
and credit program and (3) Self-help work program (Tennakoon 2003).

By 1999 two million families, about 50 percent of all families in the country were receiving
benefits from Samurdhi (World Bank 2002). The program claims almost 1 percent of the
gross domestic product or roughly half of all welfare expenditures excluding expenditure on
education and health. The bulk of the program resources are distributed as transfer of
consumption grants to poor households.

These main components include various types of strategies which focus on poor people’s
whole life. These can be elaborate as follows,

58
Box 4.2 Components of the Samurdhi Programme
1. The welfare component
1.1. The welfare grant
1.2. Insurance scheme
1.3. Social Development Programs focusing on the aged destitute,
alcoholics, drug addicts, handicapped and other disadvantaged persons.
To be implemented with the assistance of certain NGOs.

2. The group-savings and credit component

2.1. Group savings and intra-group credit
2.2. Credit schemes implemented by the state banks
2.3. The accelerated loan scheme
2.4. The Samurdhi bank project.

3. The integrated rural development approach

3.1. Rural infrastructure development carried out by the local communities
3.2. Other projects such as environmental protection, youth training,
nutrition projects etc
Source: Salih 2000

(a).Welfare grants
The Samurdhi poverty alleviation program providing welfare grants for the beneficiaries
according to their number of households members and their monthly income. The program
offers monthly coupons that can be exchanged for goods from the local cooperative shops.
The amount given to the household is either Rs.1000, Rs.500, Rs.250, Rs. 200 or Rs.10015
(Salih 2000). This is very much supportive for the poor families in terms of maintaining their
consumption poverty and also to meet their day to day needs with out having more
difficulties.

(b). Insurance Scheme

This is going together with welfare grants and aim to reduce the vulnerability of poor people
in several critical occasions of their life. The scheme provides benefits for the Samurdhi

15
These amounts have been changed at the time as Rs.1000, Rs. 600, Rs. 400, Rs 350, Rs. 250 and Rs. 140.

59
beneficiaries in a case of death, birth, marriage or illness in the family. Only those receive
Rs.1000 and Rs.500 grants per month are entitled to join the scheme.

(c). Social development Programs

The program consider about the social development of the beneficiaries. Under this there are
ranges of social development programs have implemented and they are helpful to maintain the
good social life for Samurdhi beneficiaries. Under this illiteracy elimination, Samurdhi
scholarships, programs for the aged, disabled, destitute and alcoholics and narcotic prevention
programs are progressing. Some funds are also allocated for secondary and religious
education and health needs. Training camps for the Samurdhi officers are also funded by the
program.

(d). Credit Program

The Samurdhi program has introduced various types of saving systems to the beneficiaries.
There is a compulsory savings as Rs. 200 and Rs.100 respectively for beneficiaries in those
households that receive Rs. 1000 and Rs. 500 under the relief scheme. Also there is a small
group saving system and these are voluntary saving as well as use these savings for meeting
their small loan requirements. The remaining balance is deposited under a collective account
in the Samurdhi bank (Sumanapala 2000). Samurdhi bank is some what like a co-operative
bank. Also the Samurdhi bank encourages deposits by individuals, whether member of the
bank society or not, and mobilizes further saving from women (Diriyamatha deposits)16 and
children (Kakulu deposits)17. Further there are a number of loan schemes for the Samurdhi
beneficiaries to commence income generating projects such as self employment. Membership
of a banking Society makes the Samurdhi beneficiaries eligible to borrow from the bank, and
the only security that need be provided is the increase guarantee of the members of the group
to which the applicant belongs. Interest is charge at the market rate and repayment begins
immediately, with installment due each month other than for short-term cultivation loans
(Gunathilaka and Salih 1999).

(e). Rural Infrastructure Development

Samurdhi has rural infrastructure development program. Under this there are small scale and
large scale rural infrastructure development projects. Mainly small scale development projects
include develop gravel roads, re roofing a village school roof, build a ditch etc. and 80 percent

16
and 17 These are local names of bank accounts in Samurdhi bank which was introduced for the Samurdhi
beneficiaries to encourage their individual savings.

60
of funds are issued by the Samurdhi Authority. The rest (20 percent) must come in the form of
labour contribution by the beneficiaries. This is important in many ways to develop rural areas
according to the need of the people who live in the area.

4.6. RURAL POVERTY AND DEVELOPMENT IN SRI LANKA

In this conclusion section, I will analysis and evaluate rural poverty in Sri Lanka in the
context of development policies and the socio economic transformation that has taken place
during last four decades. These policies have resulted in a configuration of development that
is usual for a low-income developing country.

In Sri Lanka rural poverty is higher than urban poverty. Most of poverty related studies show
that poverty in Sri Lanka is predominantly a rural phenomenon. The rural sector accounts for
about four-fifths of aggregated poverty. Also rural poverty in Sri Lanka is related to
development policies of the country since independence. Though in terms of human
development and many other social development indexes (life expectancy, adult literacy,
infant mortality etc.) figure out higher quality, yet the situation of rural poverty is not a solved
problem.

Further there is a consensus that rural development should be central to poverty reduction.
This relationship can be identified to both ways. Therefore it was thought that rural
development programs that focused on improvement of rural infrastructure in the rural areas
would substantially help to reduce poverty in rural areas.

Also the subject of rural development today is receiving the attention of politicians,
administrators, academics and funding agencies more than ever before. It is almost an axiom
in the developing countries that the path to national development lies through rural
development (Talagune 1984).

4.6.1. Some Characteristics of Rural Poverty in Sri Lanka

There are number of characteristics can be identified on rural poverty in Sri Lanka. Most of
these features are related to the country’s national economy and development process that
have been progressing. Poor households are depending on various types of problems that can
be seen as a result of unequal distribution of the social development programs.

61
(a) .Low income and employment conditions
In terms of employment the rural poor are usually small and marginal farmers, landless
laborers, rural artisans and semi-skilled workers. The landless labourers are at the
disadvantaged lower end of the traditional caste hierarchy (Gunatilleke et al 1992). When
considering the spatial distribution of rural poor in Sri Lanka, the hill country, intermediate
zone and dry zone have the highest incident of poverty in the 29-33 per cent range (1986/87)
which compared with the 15-18 per cent range of the South west region of the country
(Gunatilleke et al 1992). Also many rural households’ main income source comes under the
agricultural activities. Due to various kinds of problems poor farmers get low income than
others those who are engaging non agricultural activities. Specially increasing the price of
consumption goods as well as agricultural input has lead their low income and this is one of
the major features of rural poverty.

(b). Unemployment
High level of unemployment is another main factor which has contributed to the persistence
of rural poverty in Sri Lanka. Many poor households have the family members more than 3 or
4. And among them unemployment rate is at very high level in rural areas. The rates of
unemployment in other South Asian countries are much lower than that of Sri Lanka. There
are few important factors can be identified behind this situation. One thing is that the present
young generation who had good educational background, do not join their parent’s farming
activities after they leave from the school and they are considered to be unemployed. Also the
rural sector has not been able to provide non farming job opportunities in the village and it
leads them to be unemployed. There are two main factors related to this situation (1) the lack
of diversification of the rural economy and the absence of income earning opportunities in the
non farm sectors; and (2) the slow pace of Structural change in the economy (Gunatilleke et al
1992).

Not only that rural unemployment has a negative impact on rural development as well as
country’s development process. On the other hand whole problem of rural development is
where and how provide employment opportunities to this redundant labor force. Under the
rural development the government led Integrated Rural Development Program (IRDP) during
80s had limited capacity to generate employment opportunities (Gunasinghe 2002).

62
(d). Lack of Housing Water and Sanitation Facilities
This is another common feature of the many poor people in rural areas. Due to their limited
income sources, less employment opportunities and less rural infrastructure development had
lead to this situation. According to the 1981 census report the proportion of semi-permanent
rural housing is 56 per cent and the proportion of temporary housing is 6.7per cent.

(e).Fewer assets
Rural poor have few assets in comparison to others. Especially rural poor need lands for their
agricultural activities and therefore some of poor rural poor have to lease lands. Land scarcity
and the ownership of fragmental parcels of unproductive lands are two of the major reasons
for high incidence of poverty in the rural areas.

63
64
 CHAPTER 5
PRESENTING THE STUDY AREA AND SURROUNDING
BACKGROUND

5.1. INTRODUCTION
This Chapter focuses on the study area (Kandy District and Udadumbara). In the Chapter 1
showed that the Kandy district is one of the poorest districts in the country in terms of poverty
and human development. Here I will try to show the present human development and poverty
condition in the Kandy district and my field area Udadumbara and selected village Madugalla
(North). However it is difficult to present development and human development indicators
related to the selected village due to unavailability of data. Therefore I have discussed the
data related to the whole DSD. It is obvious that Sri Lanka’s achievements of some areas in
human development such as education and health have been described as remarkable for a
low income country. Adult’s literacy rate, life expectancy at birth of the country level also
have been recorded as higher than the world averages. Identifying the Kandy district situation
is important to this research.

5.2. GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION

Kandy district is located at the central part of the country and in terms of administration it is
related to the central province (See map 1). The central province comprises three districts
including Kandy, Matale and Nuwara Eliya. Also kandy district is divided in to 20 divisional
Secretariat divisions and my field area, Udadumbara is one of them. The district occupies a
land area of 1940 sq. km and contains nearly 3 per cent of the total land area of the country.
The district is situated in the center of the central province. The elevation of the district is
varying 100m -300m from the sea level. The average mean temperature is around 23c0-26c0
and the mean annual rainfall exceeds 1500mm.

5.3 SOCIO ECONOMIC SITUATION

5.3.1. Demography
The total population of Kandy district was 1048317 in 1981 and in 2001 it was 1272463.
From the total population about 1022895 (80 per cent) are living in the rural areas. The
population density of the area is about 554 per sq. km in 1981 and 664 per sq. km in 2001. In

65
Udadumbara Divisional Secretariat Division (selected field area)18 have 22615 of population
and 92 per cent of total population of the Udadumbara area is living in rural areas. The rest of
the population is living in estate sector and there is no urban sector in the Udadumbara area
(Department of Census and Statistics 2001b). And population density of the Udadumbara area
is 81 per sq.km in the year 2001 (Statistical Hand Book of Kandy District 2003).

5.3.2 Poverty and Human Development Profile

Poverty in Sri Lanka is predominantly a rural phenomenon. However in the year 2002 the
estate sector fares the worst in terms of poverty and also with regards to social indicators such
as housing, access to education and health services, safe drinking water, sanitation, electricity
and malnutrition (Jabbar and Senanayake 2004). The table below shows the poverty head
count ratio by district according to the national poverty live of Sri Lanka.

Table 5.1 Poverty Headcount Ratio by Districts %

District 1990-91% 1995-96% 2002 %
National 26.1 28.8 22.7
Colombo 16 12 6
Gampaha 15 14 11
Kalutara 32 29 20
Kandy 36 37 25
Matale 29 42 30
Nuwara Eliya 20 32 23
Galle 30 32 26
Matara 29 35 27
Hambantota 32 31 32
Kurunegala 27 26 25
Puttalam 22 31 31
Anuradhapura 24 27 20
Polonnaruwa 24 20 24
Badulla 31 41 37
Monaragala 34 56 37
Rathnapura 31 46 34
Kegalle 31 36 32

Source: The Department of Census and Statistics (2004b)

18
Kandy district has 20 Divisional Secretariat Divisions and Udadumbara is one of them. For this study as my
field area I have selected Udadumbra area and from that DSD I selected one Grama Niladhari division (local
administrative division) Madugalla (North) as a sample.

66
According to the data table there is a significant decrease of poverty headcount ratio can be
identified during 1990s and 2002. But most prominent feature is that during 1995-96 period
the most of the district shows higher poverty headcount ratio as well as national level poverty
headcount ratio has increased during that period. But again by 2002 national poverty
headcount ratio and as well as district poverty headcount ratio has been decreased. Meanwhile
the poverty headcount ratio for Udadumbara DSD is 37.5 per cent and this is higher than the
national level as well as the poverty headcount ratio of the Kandy district.

Further according to the national poverty line the percentage of the poor households in 2002 is
19.2 per cent and in Kandy district it was 20.9 per cent and that is some what higher than the
country average.

5.3.3 Heath conditions

Though Sri Lanka is far ahead of its Asian neighbours in terms of human development related
data there area regional variations can be identified.

However it is evident that the health care of the central province (including Kandy) has
increased during the 1990-2000. Presently the province is serviced by 2 teaching hospitals and
5 base hospitals and Kandy being the most urbanized district and the provincial capital, is the
centre for health care having the most developed infrastructure in the central province
(Kurruppu 2003). However in udadumbra DSD has only one general hospital.

5.3.4 Education
Due to free education system in Sri Lanka the overall literacy rate of the country is at a high
level and as well as in Kandy district also shows high level of education level in the central
province. The adult literacy level in the central province has increased in the period 1990-
2000. The percentage of attending school in the 5-19 age group is 79.8 per cent and on the
other hand, 16.5 per cent of children in this age group do attend any type of educational
institution. Further female school attending rate is higher than the male school attending rate
of the Kandy district (Department of Census and Statistics 2003a).

67
Box 5.1 Health and Education Related Data (Kandy District)
Health related indicators for Kandy District
Crude birth rate (per 1000 people) (2002) 22.8 (DCS) (2003b)
Crude death rate (per 1000 people) (2002) 6.9 (DCS) (2003b)
Infant Mortality rate (per 1000 live birth) (1997) 21.6 (CPA)19
With safe drinking water (per cent of house holds) 82.9 (DCS) (2003b)
With latrine facilities (per cent of house holds) 96.0 (DCS) (2003b)

Education Related Data for Kandy District

Adult Literacy Rate (2001) (per cent) 90.9 (DCS) (2003b)
Literacy Rate (Male) (per cent) (2001) 89.0 (DCS) (2003b)
Number of government Schools (1991) 685 (CPA) (2003)
Number of government Schools (1997) 689 (CPA) (2003)
Number of government Schools (2000) 667 (CPA) (2003)
Pupil teacher Ratio (1997) (per cent) 20.6 (SHBKD)20 (2003)
Pupil teacher Ratio (1999) (per cent) 19.4 (SHBKD) (2003)
Pupil teacher Ratio (2000) (per cent) 19.5 (SHBKD) (2003)

5.3.5 Employment
Most of the area in Kandy district is considered as a rural area and also many of the rural
households are depending on the agricultural activities as their livelihood. Mainly Kandy city
area is highly urbanized and rest of the areas is not much urbanized areas. The table below
shows the labour force participation by sex, employment and unemployment rates in Kandy
district.

Table 5.2 Labour Force Participation Rate and Employment & Unemployment rates
Labour force Total% Male% Female%

Labour force participation rate 43.4 64.4 23.8

Employment rate 90.2 91.8 86.2

Unemployment rate 9.8 8.2 13.8

Source: Department of Census and Statistics (2003a)

19
Centre for poverty Analysis (2003)
20
Statistical Hand Book of Kandy District (2003)

68
5.3.6 Housing Condition
Quality of a house shows the social condition of the people. Based on the materials of
construction used for walls, floor and roofs housing units are categorized in to three types as
permanent, semi permanent and improvised. Out of occupied housing units in Kandy district,
73.2 per cent are permanent and 25.8 are semi permanent while rest (0.2 per cent) are
improvised in year 2001 (Department of Census and Statistics 2003a).

Further 83.9 per cent housing units are single houses. When considering the principle
construction material of floor, 73.9 per cent housing units have cement floors and 21.2 per
cent have mud floors. Rest of all materials constitutes only 3.5 per cent. Also with principle
materials of roofs, housing units have used tile 31.5 per cent, asbestos 31.7 per cent, concrete
4.4 per cent, metal sheet 29 per cent, cadjan/ palmyrah/ straw 1.0 per cent, other 0.6 per cent
and not stated 1.4 per cent per cent for their roofs 2001 (Department of Census and Statistics
2003a). The table shows percentage of occupied housing units by principle materials of wall.

Table 5.3 Percentage of Occupied Housing Units by Principle Material of wall in Kandy
District (2000)
Principle material of wall percentage
Total 100.0
Brick 47.0
Cabook 0.8
Cement block/ stone 34.9
Pressed soil block 4.7
Mud 10.5
Cadjan/ Palmyrah 0.1
Plank/ metal sheet 0.7
Other 0.3
Not stated 1.0
Source: Department of Census and Statistics (2003a)

In addition to that about 91 per cent of the households in occupied housing units have a toilet
of their own; 81.7 per cent have a toilet exclusively for the households and 9.2 are sharing
with another households and nearly 2 per cent of the households are not using a toilet at all
(Department of Census and Statistics 2003a).

69
5.4 PRESENTING UDADUMBARA AREA AND MADUGALLA (NORTH)
Udadumbara is one of the DSD in Kandy district and situated in eastern side of the Kandy
city (see map 2 & 3). The area is totally considered as rural and estate sector, there is no urban
sector in the Udadumbara area. So the infrastructure and other basic services are not at
satisfactory level when compared to Kandy city and surrounding area. The Kandy –
Mahiyangana main road goes through the division. Udadumbara DSD has 63 GND21 and
Madugalla (North) is one of them and situated about 10Km away from Udadumbara town.

The village Madugalla (North) governed by under the Udadumbara divisional Secretariat
division. This is a small village and it is about 1.4 sq Km. and 118 families22 live in the
village. The total population of the village is 426 and it consists of 217 female and 209 male.
The following table shows the age groups and sex position of the village population.

Table 5.4 Population Distribution by Age and Sex in Madugalla (North)

Age Group Female Male Total
0-5 11 10 21
6-14 44 42 86
15-59 143 137 280
60 < 19 20 39
Total 217 209 426
Source: Local Government office Madugalla (North) 2005

According to the above table the population of age group 15-59 is 65.7 percent of the total
population in Madugalla (North). Percentage of females (51.0 percent) of this age group is
little higher than the percentage of males (48.9). The population in the age group 0-14 is 25.1
percent of the total population in the village and related values are 12.9 percent and 12.2
percent for females and males respectively. The percentage of 60 years and over is 9.1 percent
of the total population.

21
Grama Niladhari Division (Local level administrative area)
22
In Sri Lanka there are two main types of families can be identified they are nuclear family and extended
family. Nuclear family refers family with husband, wife and their children and extended family refers families
which consist of blood relatives (grand mother, grand father etc.) or kingship relatives (by marriages) together.

70
5.4.1 Climate
If the area is related to Kandy district the climate is not same as in the whole area. There are
regional variation can be identified in the Udadumbara area. During the middle of the year
(May-August) the area is having windier climate. Main rain reason is September to November
from north east monsoon. And June, July and August have a dry climate of the area. It has
annual rain fall of 45-60 inches and temperature 80-90of (Udadumbara Divisional Secretariat
Division’s data base 1998/99)

5.4.2 Economic Background of the Area (Historical evaluation)

The economy of the area is manly depended on agriculture since history. Most prominent
agricultural activity was chena23 cultivation. The people have deforested the area and have
used for their agricultural activities in the past. Mainly family labour was used for the
cultivation and harvest is mainly use for consumption. But later the system failed because of
various types of environment related problems such as land degradation, low fertility of the
land and also land scarcity and labour supplying problems. However this agricultural system
played an important role for supplying daily needs of the families in the area.

At the same time other important cultivation system was paddy cultivation and this has a
close relationship with people’s life style and their culture. The paddy cultivation was
depended on rain fed water during past. But at the present time paddy cultivation has
decreased due to various reasons such as water scarcity, reducing the profit, long time
duration for harvest, availability of non agricultural job opportunities, high cost of investment
and spread of paddy related diseases, influence of wild animals. However still in some GNDs
have considerable amount of paddy cultivation. Also at the present time there is a tenet
system and land owners do not engage in the cultivation process. During the 70s tobacco
cultivation have influenced on the rural livelihood significantly. It has affected their economy
and on the other hand people who were engaged in the paddy cultivation returned to tobacco
cultivation. At the present the situation has changed and the tobacco cultivation is
disappearing because of the environment problems, resource scarcity, and new job
opportunities.

23
This is a form of traditional agricultural system. This often involves clearing a plot of land and cultivate crop.
Mainly people cultivate for consumption purpose.

71
At the present era the garment factories have affected the rural people of the area in many
ways. There are two main garment factories in the Udadumbara area and these two factories
paid wages of a worth nearly 2 million rupees for the people who work in the factories. Due to
their income level increasing they were able to upgrade their living standard. As a result of
these new opportunities there are many changes taking place in rural people’s living
conditions who area working in these factories. Among those changes increasing money
expenses for food items, using telephones, increasing the consumption of households electric
equipments are quite significant.

However the area does not have any industrial background in addition to garment factories.
The second largest industry is carpentry and there are 13 carpentry industries have resisted but
they are not large scale. In addition to that there are about 10 rice processing industries and 8
grinding mills are available in the area. All these industries are small scale industries. The
table below shows the employment states of the Udadumbara area.

Table 5.5 Employment status of Udadumbara DSD (2004) by sex

Category Female male
Government/semi government 493 730
Private sector 207 612
Agriculture & animal husbandry 723 1872
Self employment 134 501
Temporary/ labourer 634 539
Foreign employment 201 43
Other/retired/ Samurdhi 626 764
Source: Udadumbara Divisional Secretariat Office (2005)

72
Map 2. Location Map of Udadumbara Divisional Secretariat Division

Matale District
Kurunegala
N
District

Badulla
District
Udadumbara
D.S.D
▪Kandy

Kegalle
District

Nuwara Eliya District

Udadumbara D.S.D

73
Map 3. Location Map of Madugalla (North) in Udadumbara D.S.D

Udadumbara

74
5.4.3 Natural Resources of the Area
When compared to other areas of the Kandy district Udadumbara area have fewer natural
resources that can be extracted for industries. There are some graphite, granite, dolomite, non-
cultivated lands (but can be cultivate), medicinal plants, and natural beauty of the area.
Though there is some graphite still they are not extracted. Also granite extracting is needed
high investment due to their locations.

5.4.4 Samurdhi Poverty Alleviation Program in the Area

This is the major government poverty alleviation program in the area. According to the
Udadumbara DSD office there are 3443 Samurdhi beneficiaries (households those who are
having benefits from the Samurdhi program) in the area in 2004. This is nearly about 48 per
cent of the total households of the area.

Table 5.6 Number of Samurdhi Beneficiaries by the Value of the Benefits in 2004 in
Udadumbara DSD
Value of benefits (Rs:) Number of beneficiaries
1000 -----
500 271
400 1719
350 314
250 459
140 680
Source: Udadumbara Divisional Secretariat Office (2005)

The Samurdhi program has influenced on rural people’s livelihoods in many ways. Specially
in terms of reducing poverty, the program is playing an important role in the area. However
the poverty rate is reducing very slowly. The program has launched various types of loan
schemes for the poor people of the area. Under these loan programs during the year 2004 have
granted value of Rs.2097000 among 184 Samurdhi beneficiaries (Udadumbara Divisional
Secretariat Office 2005). Also under the compulsory saving programs of the Samurdhi
beneficiaries have saved value of Rs.7,435,700 under the compulsory saving programs.

75
In addition to that the Samurdhi program has engaged in rural infrastructure development
programs especially with the help of Samurdhi beneficiaries labour government investments.
Under these development projects in Udadumbara area have developed mainly rural roads,
renovating old irrigation systems, water supply projects. Samurdhi program and present
situation of the Madugalla (North) will be discussed in Chapter 6 and 7.

76
 CHAPTER 6
POVERTY, ASSETS AND LIVING STANDARD

6.1. INTRODUCTION
The data which was collected through the field work will be analyzed in Chapters 6, 7 and 8.
According to the available data this Chapter will focus on the first research question and
Chapter 7 will focus on the research questions two and three. Then Chapter 8 will focus on
last research question (see Chapter 1). To examine the poverty assets and living standard of
the people in the study area, economic background, housing conditions, people’s education,
health condition and their assets will be considered in this Chapter. The Chapters will be
based on the questionnaire survey and interviews as well as the basic information provided by
some of the key informants. The questionnaire survey based on the household level and the
household24 is considered as the unit of analysis.

People’s living standard is dependant on a number of factors. In a way the poor people’s
living standard reveals their capabilities and the vulnerability context. People make their
living standard according to the available livelihoods strategies and capabilities. In the
perspective of the capability approach these elements depend on the available capabilities,
assets and achieved functionings.

6.2. POVERTY, INCOME AND NUMBER OF HOUSEHOLD MEMBERS IN

MADUGALLA (NORTH)
A households’ income is one of the important factors which enable people to have a good
living standard. Low income of the household is a cause of poverty and on the other hand
poverty is a cause of low income. According to Sen’s capability perspective low income is
considered one of the causes of capability deprivation. The study revealed that most of the
surveyed households have a low income and as a result, they have faced more difficulties to
maintain their living condition. Low income is depending on various factors such as
employment, environment, assets, human development etc. In terms of income generating
activities all the surveyed households depend on agriculture, but due to various reasons some

24
Household refers a group of two or more persons live together and have arrangements for cooking and
partaking foods.

77
of them have given up their agricultural activities at the moment. Therefore some household
members have engaged in non-agricultural income generating activities.

Also the number of household members is an important factor for evaluating poverty and
human development in any selected area, because the number of household members affects
various things which lead people to become poor. When increasing the number of members
living in a household, it influences the income, space, distribution of household’s resources
etc. and in some cases higher number of household members can enhance the living standard
of the households. The table 6.1 shows the monthly income distribution and number of
households members of the surveyed households.

Table 6.1 Monthly Income Distribution and the Number of Housholds’ Members in)
Madugalla (North)

Number Monthly income of the households*

of Less than
household Total%
2000 SLR 2000-5000 5000-7500 No income Total
members
1-2 1 0 0 1 2 5.7
3-4 7 12 1 0 20 57.1
5-6 0 9 1 0 10 28.6
7-8 0 1 2 0 2 8.6
Total 8 22 4 1 35 100
Total % 22.9 62.9 11.4 2.9 - 100
* Excluding the value of Samurdhi benefits
Source: Fieldwork 2005

As discussed in Chapter 3 income of a person plays an important role in terms of capabilities

and is one of the factors which affect to poverty. According to the above table 62.9 percent of
the surveyed households receive SLR 2000-5000 average monthly income. Also within
households with 3-4 members, 60 percent of the surveyed households receive the same
monthly income. Further 22.9 percent of the households receive less than SLR 2000 for their
monthly income and among surveyed households 11.4 percent households are receiving
somewhat higher income (SLR 5000-7500). It is noticeable that those households who are
receiving monthly income around SLR 5000-7500 have number of household members

78
within 3-8 categories. Due to higher number of household members in the extended
households the income level increases. Because when the numbers of household members are
increasing they may engage in various types of income generating activities and this increase
their income. Although they earn more their expenditure is also high due to the high number
of household members.

Higher income level of some studied households’ are also related to the employment
opportunities provided by the garment factory which is situated close to the study area.
According to the primary data which was collected from the local government officer of the
village there are 17 females and 4 males from the village working in the garment factory. But
after they started working in the garment factory, their Samurdhi benefits are reduced or
stopped by the government. However due to high living expenditures of the country and their
poverty situation they are unable to overcome their problems within a short period. According
to some respondents their children have stopped schooling and they have engaged in some
kinds of income generating activities such as garment factory, working out side of the village
as laborers, etc. and now the parents are depended on their children. According to them they
do not have any other options to live without their children’s income. Though they wanted to
give good education to their children they have not been able to manage it due to the
economic problems of the family. Now the parents are worried about their children’s missing
opportunities and their future. However at the same time their children have upgraded their
households and in some cases overcome the poverty situation

6.3. HOUSING CONDITION OF THE VILLAGE (PHYSICAL ASSETS)

Housing is one of the basic needs of a human being. The quality of housing units shows the
quality of living condition of the humans. According to available data the total number of
families in the village is 118 and these families are distributed within 101 households. Most of
the houses in the village are not in good condition. The condition of a house is a basic
measurement for evaluating the living conditions of the rural poor people. Housing conditions
vary from large houses to small huts in the village. Many poor people do not have enough
financial facilities to improve their houses or build new houses. However at the time being
some poor families have started build new houses with the help of bank loans and others. In
this section I discuss the condition of the housing units of the Samurdhi beneficiaries based on
the information from the questionnaire survey.

79
6.3.1. Construction Materials of the Housing units
The construction materials can be used to evaluate the quality of houses. The figure below
shows the main construction materials of the walls. Out of surveyed 35 households 57.14
percent walls were built with bricks and 20 percent walls constructed with mud. Housing unit
with walls constructed using cement block stone to 8.57 percent. Other 11.43 percent of
household’s walls were built by using Cabook25 and rest 2.86 was built by using cadjan/
palmyrah.

Figure 6.1 Materials used to build walls of the houses.

2.86% 11.43% Cadjan/Palmyrah

20% Cabook
Mud
57.14% Cement Block Stone
8.57% Brick

Source: Fieldwork 2005

When considering the condition of the selected households, most of the houses look old and
in bad shape and should be renovated soon. However the poor people in the village do not
have enough money to spend on renovating their houses. They have to do other important
things such as educating their children, spend money on daily living purposes etc. according
to primary data more than 91 percent of their houses’ roofs are constructed with tiles, asbestos
and metal sheets. Among other materials only one housing unit was found constructed with
concrete and another one is still being constructed. Though the roofs consist of tiles and
asbestos the quality of the housing units are not in very good condition. Because most houses
have been built by using mud and bricks, they are not fully completed housing units. Most
walls are not plastered. Additionally the houses do not have enough room for all family
members of the household.

25
A kinds of natural stone that can be used as building material.

80
Further condition of floor of the housing units can be considered as a measurement of
household’s condition. According to the questionnaire survey, percentage of households
having mud floors is 51.4 percent and other 45.7 percent have cement floors, the rest of the
floors are concrete. The above discussed factors reveal the present situation of the housing
condition of the surveyed households.

6.3.2. Sanitation Facilities of the Housing Units

People’s sanitation facilities can be used as an evaluation method of the living standard.
Further sanitation facilities relate to the peoples’ health condition. According to the survey,
many of the poor housing units’ sanitation facilities are not in good condition in the village.
The questionnaire survey revealed that more than 50 percent of the households do not have
proper toilets within their housing units. About 57 percent of the surveyed households have
pit type toilets (See picture 6.1). The corresponding percentages for water seal and temporary
toilets are 40 percent and 2.8 percent respectively.

Picture 6.1 A pit type toilet

Source: Fieldwork 2005

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To achieve good health condition the sanitation facilities can help in many ways. Moreover
many toilets do not have water inside them. Though some poor houses are in good condition
they do not have good toilet facilities. When compare to other rural areas which are situated
close to the Kandy town the situation in the village is poor.

6.3.3. Land Ownership

Assets can be use as one of the main means to overcome poverty. I focused my questionnaire
and interviews to identify their assets mainly which can be use as a means of livelihood
strategy. As they were farmers they have had lands from many generations. However
presently they do not have large scale lands due to land fragmentation among their family
members due to heritage traditions. Meanwhile some families do not have their own lands to
do farming activities and they are hiring lands for their farming activities. As a result of these
things their income has gone down. Anyhow they have had lands for agricultural activities
and also a house as an asset.

According to the available secondary data the table below shows land distribution of the
village.

Table 6.2 Distribution of Land among Madugalla (North) Households

Acres* 1/4 < 1/4 -1 1 -5 5 & over Landless #households
Paddy land 0 15 1 0 82 98
Other land 10 32 35 12 9 98
* 1 Acres=0.405 Hectares (ha)
Source: Udadumbara Divisional Secretariat Division’s data base 1998/1999

The village has very little amount of paddy lands due to extreme geographical location. But
other agricultural lands also not very large. However the value of land in terms of agriculture
is becoming lower day by day due to climatic condition of the area. One female respondent
explained her ideas when I asked about her families assets like below

What else we have only this small house. We do not have any other properties than this. I
received this house from my father. He had a land for agriculture. But he gave it to my elder
brother and I got this house. So now we have to hire lands to cultivate. Also you can see

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inside of our house there are no any valuable things [observation: the house is too small and
there were some old furniture inside the house]. We do not have jewelries or any other
valuable things to sell even in the emergency situation of the family.

The quotation implies that their assets are being reduced from generation to generation. She
also has three children and there are no properties to distribute among all of them. Also in
future this situation will be a crisis in many rural areas in Sri Lanka. Further this situation
adversely affects especially the poor families, because many poor families’ main income
source is agriculture and when they do not have lands they lose their income. The lack of land
will also increase the debt rate of the poor households, because they have to spend extra
money to hire lands. Meanwhile large scale land holders are earning money from hiring their
lands to the poor who do not have a plot of land to cultivate in the area.

The majority of the population of the area is still depending upon the agricultural sector for
their income, but the income generated from agriculture is not enough to improve their
economic status. Therefore most of the rural poor are unable to save and invest in creating
new assets.

6.4. INFRASTRUCTURE FACILITIES (WITHIN HOUSING UNITS)

Basic infrastructure facilities can be use as another measurement of the housing conditions. At
the present electricity and water supply is considered essential facilities for a housing unit.

6.4.1. Electricity
The collected primary data reveals that the electricity has become major type of lighting in the
study area (62.8 percent) and kerosene is used in 37.1 percent of the households. This implies
infrastructure development in the study area. But people who use the kerosene for their
lighting are worried about their inability to have electricity in their houses especially those
who have children who are schooling. The children are at a risk when they do school works
during the night times by using lamps with kerosene. Some of them have bad experiences of
using lamps with kerosene.

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6.4.2. Water Supply
Though the village has pipe born water supply, many houses do not have tap water in their
housing units. According to the survey nearly 47 percent of the households used water from
wells and another 28.5 percent used pipe born water outside their homes. And rest (25.7 per
cent) used pipe born water within their houses. However the villagers faced many problems
regarding water supply during dry seasons. According to their opinions though they have
water in their houses the service is not regular. So they are not satisfied with the water supply.
Many people said that they are receiving water once a week or twice. On the other hand the
problem is related to the climate condition of the area. During the dry months of the year
particularly July and August they faced water scarcity. Sometimes the wells of the village
become dry and people are waiting for water bowsers. As the fieldwork was conducted during
the month of June, July and August I could observe that pipe water supply is very irregular
and also wells are drying up (see picture 6.3 and 6.4). The irregular water supply affects their
day to day life style. But the problem is very much related to the climatic conditions of the
area.

Figure 6.2 Methods of Water Supplying in Surveyed Households

25.71%
45.71% Tap within house
Tap outside premises
Well
28.57%

Source: Fieldwork 2005

84
Picture 6.2 Wells are drying

Source: Fieldwork 2005

Picture 6.3 No regular water supply

Source: Fieldwork 2005

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6.5. OWNERSHIP OF THE HOUSES
Ownership of the house reveals the gendered characteristics of distribution of assets in rural
areas. According to the primary data collected through the survey, nearly 75 percent (74.3
percent) of the surveyed households are owned by men and other 25 percent owned by
parents, women or others. The situation implies that traditional resources (assets) distribution
among family members. Though there is no any legal discrimination on distribution of assets
among men and women, parents tend to hand over their physical assets such as houses, lands
to boys in the family. The situation is continuing to generation to generation and the above
mentioned situation can be a result of that.

6.7. CHANGING TRENDS OF HOUSING CONDITIONS

According to the field survey and observations now some of them have started to build new
houses close by their old houses (picture 6.4). But most of poor are not in a position to start
building new houses or even repair their existing houses due to lack of money. Further the
survey revealed that among the new house builders, most are the younger generation with
newly established families.

Picture 6.4

Building a new house close by their old house

Source: Fieldwork 2005

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On the one hand most families plan to build a new house or even upgrade their old houses,
but on the other hand their low income is one of the major barriers for implementing their
thoughts practically. Though they have provided some kinds of loan facilities to upgrade their
housing conditions, they are afraid to take loans because they do not have reliable monthly
income sources to pay back the loans. Taking into account above mentioned all factors,
revealed the relationship between poverty and housing condition of the study area.

However though some people have started building or renovating their houses, they are also
in the poor condition. Because lack of money they can not afford high cost of building
materials. They are used to use natural resources which are available in the area to build their
houses. The picture below shows a condition of a poor house in the village

Picture 6.5. Condition of a House in the Study Area

Source: Fieldwork 2005

6.6. EDUCATION AND POVERTY

Among achieved functionings education plays an important role in achieving a good living
standard. When the people have a good knowledge and educational background it may enable
them to chose various types of employment opportunities as well as overcome the poverty
situation of their families. On the other hand education is a human capital and important in
terms of human development. The table below shows the educational level of the surveyed
households’ heads’ with their age groups. According to the GN the present generation’s

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educational level is at a considerable good level. Presently all the children who are in the age
group of schooling are attending school and also there is no any gender discrimination. But
elderly people of the village have no considerable good educational attainment.

Table 6.3. Sex, Education Level and Age of the Respondents

Sex Education Age of the Respondents
Level 20-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 60-69 70-79 Total
%
Year 1-5 1 1 17
Male

Year 6-11 2 1 1 33
GCE O/L 2 2 2 50
Total (Male) 3 4 3 2 100
Year 1-5 1 3 4 1 1 44
Female

Year 6-11 1 1 1 2 1 26
GCE O/L 3 3 1 30
Total (Female) 1 5 7 2 1 100
Source: Fieldwork (2005)

When considering the education level of the surveyed households heads’ it seems that there is
a variation between male and female. Among the male heads 50 percent have studied up to
GCE/O/L and among female heads it is only 30 percent. Many of the female heads have
gained primary education (Year 1-5) and it includes 44 percent. Meanwhile 17 percent of the
male heads have attained only primary education. This data reveals that there is a shuttle
difference between males and females educational attainment in the village. However, here it
is important to take in to consideration these people’ age groups. Because many of these
people are in the middle age groups and therefore their educational attainment may be at a
low level because of the facilities that they had in their childhoods. Further their low
educational attainment has negative impact of their present living standard and now they have
identified the value of having a good education and therefore they are trying to give a good
education to their children. According to the interviews conducted with them, they revealed
some bad experiences regarding loosing their education. These stories have been discussed in
the Chapter 8 under the “loosing opportunities to have education”.

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6.7. HEALTH FACILITIES AND HEALTH CONDITION OF THE AREA
Health condition of a person is considered as an achieved valuable functioning and therefore
health facilities are considered one of the basic needs of humans. For the people of my study
area to take medical facilities they have to go to Udadumbara town. Though there is a bus
service it is not regular. There is no any private or government medical clinic in the study
area. Udadumbara town is nearly 10 miles away from the study area. The villagers do not
have a proper transportation system to move around. Villagers’ main medical center is the
Udadumbara general hospital. There are few private medical centers around the city. But most
of interviewed households’ members take medical treatments form the government hospital of
Udadumbara. The figure below (6.3) shows the places where the villagers taking medical
facilities.

Figure 6.3 Places for Taking Medical Facilities

% 77.14%
80
70 Government hospital
60
50 Government &
private
40
Traditional medicine
30
20 11.43% Private clinic
5.71% 5.71%
10
0

Source: Fieldwork 2005

According to the figure above 77.14 percent of the interviewed households take medical
facilities from the government hospital. It seems the majority of the villagers depend on the
government’s medical facilities. Though my study area is remote and rural, the percentage of
using traditional medicine is very low. Whatever mode they used for the medical facilities
most important thing is their satisfaction of the services. It was important to explore their
satisfaction level of the services that they used. According to the people’s opinions, all of
them are satisfied the services that they are having from the government hospital or other
service. But sometimes they have faced problems due to lack of enough doctors in the

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hospital. They stressed that most of the times they have to spend more time to consult a
doctor.

The study revealed that the government hospital provides them with good service to the rural
people of the study area, which is a good sign of distributing basic needs among the rural
people to improve health condition of the area. But the main problem is the distance to the
general hospital. So if the people faced some emergency situation to go to the hospital they
have to spend time and it depends on the mode of transport they used.

For examining the health condition of the interviewed households the data was collected
through the questionnaire about how many times they have used medical facilities during the
last month. Some of them have to visit doctors once a month due to some diseases of their
family members. The figure 6.4 shows how many times they have visited to take medical
facilities during the last month. According to that only 22.86 percent households have not
taken medical facilities even once during last month. Other 77.14 percent households have
visited to take medical facilities once or more than once during last month. So what implies
this data? Are those people are not in good health condition or any other reason for this
condition of the interviewed households is a question.

Figure 6.4 Visiting Times to Take Medical Facilities during Last Month

One time
22.86% 28.57% T wo time
T hree time
14.29%
Four time
8.57% 25.71%
No

Source: Fieldwork 2005

90
According to the interview conducted with the local government officer of the area there is no
threat of spreading diseases in the village. However some elderly people specially age over
50-60 are suffering from high blood-pressure. So those people have to take medical facilities
once a month. Further some of interviewed households’ members are suffering from some
kinds of diseases like chronic asthma, epilepsy, blind and disabled. So those people have had
to take medical facilities regularly.

Further the data gathered from the local government office revealed that the villagers’ health
condition is good and there is one totally disabled person (male), one woman suffering from
hearing disability and two persons (male) in the condition of psychological problems. So the
whole health condition of the village is quite good.

6.7.1 Nutritional Consumption of the Surveyed Households

Further to get an idea of their health condition and nutritional consumption food habits can be
used as a tool. The food habits play an important role in identifying nutritional consumption.
To examine this situation in the questionnaire, asked a question about their purchasing goods
from Samurdhi benefits. According to their replies many of them buy some basic foods like
rice, sugar, dhal, etc. and some of them by soap, tooth paste etc. A few respondents do not use
the Samurdhi benefits, but they save it in the Samurdhi bank because it is not sufficient for
them to buy needed things monthly. Instead they save the money and withdraw after a few
months to buy necessary things like foods, garments, kitchen utensils etc. to the family.

Moreover as this village is far away from the country’s sea side, fish consumption of the
villagers is at very low rate. If they want to buy fish they have to travel to Udadumbara main
city. Also they have no any other fresh water fishing industry in the village or close to the
area. Some people use to eat tin fish and some use chicken but not very often due to high
prices. However their opinion and experiences about poverty revealed that many of them do
not pay special attention to their food consumption.

The health condition is a part of human development and also poverty may affect on poor
people’s health condition in many ways. Because when the people are poor they do not
concern much about their health. Further they can not consider their nutritional requirements

91
and have had to eat what ever they have and some thing which is fit for their economic
situation.

6.8. SOCIAL ASSETS

According to the livelihoods approach social networks are also important in terms of their
livelihoods and it affects on their living standard. Whether the study area’s poor households
have a good social asset or are there any difficulties they have faced to maintain their social
assets? According to Sen, being able to participate in public society is considered a valuable
functionings a person can achieve. However according to the interviews, I found that some of
the poor people have many difficulties when maintaining their social relations with rest of the
villagers. Sometimes they have no any means to join the social activities due to low income.
When taking place in some kinds of public activities in the village normally they collect little
amount of money from the villagers. One female respondent revealed her inability to join
such activities:

“You know that we do not have enough income for even maintaining our day-today life.
Sometimes we have to offer some amount of money for public activities in the village. We
know that giving away some thing is a good thing. But if we do not have even for us how can
we give away? I am thinking about the ceremony in the village temple which is going to take
place next weekend. I have to contribute some money for that, but at the moment I do not have
money to give for that and I am embarrassed about that because we have to continue living in
this village…”

That is a voice of poor women who is thinking about money to contribute to some religious
activities in the village temple. According to her if she failed to do so it is difficult to face
others in the village, and she thinks it is a shame for her family. Poor people’s always face
similar problems. She also stresses that if she unable to contribute some money for this
occasion she will not take part in that event because of her feelings about her failure to
contribute money. But she wants to take part in that event. Finally she said that “however I
will give some amount of money for the ceremony. I can borrow some money from my
neighbor.” So being unable to take part in social phenomenon is affecting rural poor people
adversely and it may lead to social exclusion.

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According to Sen’s capability approach, this situation affects a person’s well being and well
being can be considered as “wellness” of a person’s being or living, and living itself can be
seen as consisting of a set of “functioning”─ the things that a person can do or be as I
discussed in Chapter 2. Thus, the level of well being depends on the functionings, i.e. how
well a person can do or be the things he or she has reason to value; for example, how well a
person can be free from hunger or how well a person can take part in the life of a community.
The concept of capability refers that to a person’s freedom or opportunities to achieve well
being in this sense (Sen 1985).

However according to the key informants and interviewed Samurdhi beneficiaries, there is no
any discrimination of the poor people in the village. But most of the times poor themselves
feel shy and faced to the social and take part in the social activities in the village. In terms of
social network, the village has a considerable good social relationship among the villagers.
They helped each other when they faced difficult situations in their life. Most of the times
they asked help from their neighbors.

In conclusion, when considering the above discussion, it helps to identify the poor people’s
assets and their present living condition. According to the discussion, poor people in the
village have deprived in many ways. In terms of their financial assets they have no enough
income sources and it is one of the major problems they have at the moment. They earn low
income and they have lack of income generating opportunities in the village. The situation has
a close relationship with the natural assets that they have in the village. Meanwhile their
human capabilities especially elders in the village, who are the heads of households at the
moment, have attained low educational background and it is also related to their low income.
Further, their physical assets are also not in a good condition and though they have land, the
value of the lands becoming lower day by day due to unfavorable climatic condition of the
area. All these factors have adversely influenced on their present poverty condition.
Meanwhile they are maintaining somewhat good social relations with each other. In the next
Chapter I will discuss the livelihood strategies of the people in the area.

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94
 CHAPTER 7
LIVELIHOODS STRATEGIES OF THE POOR PEOPLE AND
EVALUATION OF THE PRESENT POVERTY ALLEVIATION
PROGRAM

7.1. INTRODUCTION
The Chapter will be considered about livelihoods strategies of the poor people in the study
area and to evaluate Sri Lanka’s the present poverty alleviation program (Samurdhi) and
people’s ideas about the program. According to the collected primary data for survival and for
escaping the poverty situation, people used various kinds of strategies. The Chapter will try to
identify these livelihoods strategies in the perspective of the livelihoods approach. And the
Chapter will answer my second and third research questions.

7.2. LIVELIHOOD STRATEGIES OF THE POOR PEOPLE’S

Although the poor have faced and are facing many problems, they are living and they are used
to their own life style. That means they are struggling to live without much care of their
poverty. How do they manage their lives with poverty? Do they have any other income
sources than their agriculture? If there is some income generating activities what are the main
challenges to continue such kinds of income generating activities? These are the questions
that should be answered here. Livelihoods strategies show how poor people use their available
assets and capabilities as means of maintaining their living conditions. According to the
collected primary and secondary data I will discuses available livelihoods strategies of the
people in the village below.

7.2.1. Livelihood Strategies of the People in the Study Area

As mentioned in Chapter 3 livelihoods comprise the capabilities, assets and activities required
for a means of living. Livelihood strategies are any kinds of activities undertaken by poor
households to provide a means of living. The main goal of these kinds of livelihood strategies
is to ensure the households economic and social security. Here I paid my attention to the
economic activities which poor are engaged in to manage their livelihoods. These strategies
are influenced by their economic situation and also social well being of them as well as others

95
in the society. Poor people use multiple activities to maintain and improve livelihoods to
escape from poverty.

(a). Agriculture as the main livelihood strategy

According to the secondary data and the collected primary data, the villagers’ main livelihood
strategy is agriculture. They cultivate multiple agricultural crops like vegetables, cereal,
tobacco, paper etc. in their agricultural lands. However, from recently they have faced a
number of problems regarding their agricultural activities. Especially because of the
unfavorable climatic conditions and land degradation of the area. Water scarcity has adversely
influenced their farming activities and therefore at present they cultivate only one season per
year. As mentioned earlier during the months of April to September, the villagers face the
problem of water scarcity.

Due to above factors some of them have abandoned their agricultural activities and have
engaged in other types of income generating activities which I discuss below. However still
they say that they are farmers. Their income level has gone down because of these problems.
At the present, they are in a vulnerable situation. But some poor families still depend on their
agricultural lands since they have no other opportunities. Therefore, they have to find extra
income generating sources in addition to their main income generating activity.

(b). Working in the garment factory

According to the available data a few of the family members in the village are employed in a
garment factory which is situated in Hunnasgiriya, about 13 miles away from Madugalla
village. Those who are working in the garment factory are mostly women and a few males.
The local government officer of the area revealed that there are 21 females and 4 males
working in the garment. This has become a main income source for some poor families in the
area as they have given up their agricultural activities.

One of the female respondents explained her family situation and their livelihood strategies:

“Now I am 64 years old. My husband is a sick person. Our main income source was
cultivating tobacco. But since last few years we had to give up because the harvest went down
and basic cultivation costs were increasing. So now we don’t cultivate tobacco. Sometimes we
cultivated vegetables but due to the problem of water supply it is not easy. My elder daughter

96
is now working at the garment factory and now we have to depend on her income. She only
studied up to year 11 and then joined the factory.”

This explanation tells us some important things. Because they have given up their agriculture
and now they are depending on their daughter’s income. It seems that there is a change in
their family situation due to her daughter’s new job opportunity. If we look at this situation in
comparison with the capability approach she should value the situation. But how she value? Is
she had a freedom to choose this job or not? It is a question. Because it is obvious that she had
not any other choices to choose her job and she have had to do this job due to low income of
her family. Who decided or asked her to do this job? In the real context poverty has lead her
to do this garment job. Yet she has stopped her school from year 11 and so has lost the chance
to study further.

Her family’s poor condition has affected her education adversely and also in the perspective
of the human development it has made a negative impact. When the people are poor they have
to give up lot of things and have to choose things but not freely. Because they have chosen
that as they have not any other way to maintain their livelihood. Nevertheless, if above
mentioned family had a good and reliable income source her daughter could complete her
education further and in future she would able to engage in a good job with good salary and
also with social respect. Because there is no good social attitudes about the women who work
in garment factories. However due to poor condition of her family she has lost many
opportunities which would be lead to overcome poverty situation of her family in future.

(c). Working as casual laborers

Also there are some other types of livelihood strategies following the poor families in the
village. Especially when they do not engage in farming activities, some of them have used to
work as casual laborers outside the village. But according to conducted interviews at present
they are also facing problems due to lack of working opportunities in and outside of the
village. What does this imply? In the present situation it is not easy to find even such kinds of
working opportunities in rural areas in Sri Lanka. Here you can see one of other female
respondent’s explanations regarding their other livelihood strategies.

“What do you mean by other income sources? We are working as farmers. But now we have
to look for other income generation activities. My husband is working as a labor outside the

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village [Colombo]. But sometimes he can’t find even such work. These days he is at home.
Now he went towards the village boutique to meet somebody to get some hints about work. He
said that if he did not find that person, he must go to Colombo tomorrow morning to find
work….”

This statement reveals the problems they are facing at present to find extra works as their
livelihood strategies. Further key informants’ interviews revealed that many poor household
members are working as casual labors in and outside the village as their livelihood strategies.
Also some poor are working as casual laborers in the village and in occasionally other
families’ agricultural lands. But at the moment, these types of job opportunities are reduced
because decreasing the profit from agricultural activities due to climatic and environmental
changes in the area. Working as a casual laborer is also not a suitable livelihood strategy
because it only gives enough for survival but not for investing in the future.

(d). Self employment

In addition to the above strategies some households have started self employment to earn
some extra money to make support to their family income and maintain the livelihoods.
Especially women have engaged in some kinds of activities to gain some extra money.
Among these kinds of strategies I found sawing garments at the house, maintain their home
garden with subsistence agricultural crops, poultry farming and raring cattle. However they
said that the money they earn from these kinds of income generating activities are also not
sufficient for fulfill their households’ needs.

Some of them have taken loans from the Samurdhi program to do these extra income
generation activities. I interviewed a female Samurdi beneficiary who is engaged in sewing
garments to villagers and she has taken a loan from Samurdhi bank to buy a sewing machine.
While conducting the interview she showed me her working place and there were only few
works for do to her:

“Though I got a loan to buy this sawing machine I do not get more works. Now I have faced a
problem to pay back the loan. Because I do not get much income by sewing garments, so it is
difficult to pay back the loan. Now most of people do not saw their cloths because they buy
readymade garments from the shops. That’s why I have got less work. However the little
amount which I earn from this is spent on my family.”

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Most income generating activities can not provide sufficient amount of money to maintain
their livelihoods. However this situation implies the importance of a good and reliable income
source for poor households to maintain their livelihoods and it is one of the main
requirements which should fulfill to eradicate rural poverty. Because when the people have
good income source it enable them to overcome many other problems which they faced due to
lack of monetary income and also to improve their capabilities to earn more income.

(e). Pawning and borrowing as a livelihoods strategy

In addition to the above discussed livelihood strategies, some people do not have any means
to maintain their livelihoods. They are forced to do some other things as they want to
maintain their living condition. But their methods have led them to stay in a poor condition:

“What else? We do not have any other extra income generating sources to maintain our
family. If we wanted to get some money for emergency reasons we have to borrow money
from neighbors. Or sometimes we pawn our jewelries, but we do not have more to do so. After
we pawn some thing it is difficult to redeem them back. People do not like to lend money to us
because as we are poor”

According to my personal observation the respondent’s house is too small and poverty is
everywhere in the small house. So how can such a poor family maintain their livelihoods and
overcome poverty. They do not have material goods or money, so it is difficult to escape from
the poverty trap without others help and assistance.

Further some other respondents revealed that sometimes after they pawned their assets like
jewelries they can not redeem them back because they are unable to spend large amount of
money at once. So they do not like to do so and they like to borrow money from others.
However any of these strategies can not be considered as good things for poor people.
Because these things increase their debt rate further and it is an extra burden to the poor
people.

(f). Illegal liquor production

Meanwhile there are other livelihood strategies which are harmful for those who engage and
the rest of the society. According to the information gathered from key informants of the
village there is some illegal liquor production (toddy) in the village. Especially during the
evening times they do this business for other villagers. Many poor family members (males)

99
can be seen among the people who used to use this type of liquor. Further some key
informants revealed that there are 15%-20% household members addicted to alcohol. So it has
created some kinds of social problems in the village. On the one hand usage of liquor makes
social problems and other hand it waste money of poor people and make them poorer. The
money which spent on alcohol could be used for the family needs. So it is very important to
think about these kinds of problems when planning poverty alleviation programs. Also there
should be awareness programs about the negative impact of the alcohol usage for the poor in
terms of overcoming poverty of such families. However the Samurdhi program has a social
security program for such people, but the problem is that the participation of the people who
have engaged in such kids of things is at zero level.

7.3. SUSTAINABILITY OF LIVELIHOODS STRATEGIES

The study revealed that there is no any sustainability of above mentioned livelihood
strategies. Though the poor people engaged such activities there is no any considerable
influence on their living standard. Only they can mange their present living standard.
Sometimes they earn money and sometimes do not. So the situation is unpredictable and all
the time poor are at a vulnerable situation in terms of their income.

Though there are a diversity of extra income generating activities exists in the Udadumbara
area, due to various reasons diverse of the livelihood strategies in Madugalla village (study
area) is limited. The situation has a close relationship with the geographical location of the
village and natural environmental conditions of the area. When consider the whole division
(Udadumbara Divisional Secretariat Division) especially in areas which are close to the
natural forest have number of extra income generating activates, for example extracting
multiple out puts from forest, wild flowers selling illegal cardamom cultivation in the forest,
tourist guides, bee honey, jaggery, home made garments, toddy and traditional medicinal
plants. According to the livelihoods approach livelihoods diversification is considered as a
way to overcome the poverty situation. Nevertheless, this depends on the available natural
assets and the people’s capabilities.

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7.4. EVALUATION THE SAMURDHI PROGRAM

7.4.1. Samurdhi Program and Poverty Alleviation of the Area

As mentioned in Chapter 4 the Samurdhi program was introduced in 1995 to improve the
living condition of poor families by strengthening the rural production base. It includes an
income supplement program, dry food subsidies, social security programs and saving
programs for poor families. According to the GN and the Samurdhi Development officer, 72
households are receiving Samurdhi benefits in Madugalla (North). It includes 61 percent of
the families in the village. The table 7.1 shows the distribution of Samurdhi benefits among
the poor families in the Madugalla (North) and value of the Samurdhi benefits.

60 percent of the surveyed households receive SLR 400 value of Samurdhi benefits.
According to the data which were gathered from the local government office and the
Samurdhi development office people receiving SLR 400 in Samurdhi benefits also received
benefits from the previous poverty alleviation program Janasaviya26. Also according to the
collected primary data many of them have also received the benefits from the food stamp27
scheme (see figure 7.1). This reveals the chronic poverty situation in rural areas in Sri Lanka.
Though poor received food stamps and Janasaviya, they have not been able to overcome their
poverty. Does this mean no end to the poverty or is it a weakness of the poverty alleviation
program or both? The question can’t be answered easily. It is difficult to identify the reasons
for this situation. This happens due to weaknesses in the poverty alleviation programs and in
the way the rural economy has developed.

Table 7.1. Distribution of Samurdhi Benefits in Madugalla (North)

Value of Total Percentage Surveyed Percentage
Samurdhi households households
benefits
SLR 140 28 39 08 22.86
SLR 250 03 4 01 2.86
SLR 350 06 8 03 8.57
SLR 400 28 39 21 60.00
SLR 600 07 10 02 5.71
Total 72 100 35 100
Source: Fieldwork 2005

26
Name of the poverty alleviation program from 1989-1994 (see Chapter 4)
27
Name of the poverty alleviation program before 1989 (see Chapter 4)

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Figure 7.1 Participation of previous poverty alleviation program

% 74.29%
80
70
60
50
40 25.71%
30
20
10
0
Yes No

Source: Fieldwork 2005

Those who only have become member of Samurdhi program are mostly newly established
families in the village after they get married. It is examined that many people take part in all
poverty alleviation programs which are introduced by the successive government of Sri
Lanka. Another considerable point is that when the governments change, the new
governments change the name of the poverty alleviation program, but the people, who were
members of the pervious poverty alleviation program, are only replaced to the new programs.
Then do these poverty alleviation programs work properly and help to overcome poverty of
poor people is another question. According to the survey 54.29 percent present Samurdhi
beneficiaries have received Janasaviya. Other 20 percent have received benefits from both
Janasaviya and Food Stamp and 5.71 percent have received benefits from the Food Stamp
system.

This implies that poor are trapped in poverty cycle and it is not easy to escape from it. How to
escape this poverty trap?

7.4.2. How Long Need Samurdhi Benefits

According to the respondents’ opinions regarding for how long they need Samurdhi benefits,
collected primary data shows that 40 percent of surveyed households need it ‘until stop by the
government’ and 25 percent do not know for how long they will need Samurdhi benefits.
Further 20 percent want it until a family member gets a job. Those who have answered this
category show some important thing than others. They have no any idea to depend on

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Samurdhi or any other benefits, if one of their family members gets a good job. It seems that
some people do not trust that they can manage on their own and thus do not think that they
can improve their own situation.

7.4.3. Reasons for Receiving Samurdhi Benefits

There should be a reason for receiving Samurdhi benefits for a household. So I tried to
identify about respondents opinions regarding receiving Samurdhi benefits for their families.
My questionnaire was focused on this and there was a close ended question regarding this.
When asking people why they receive Samurdhi benefits, people were reluctant to answer.
Sometimes they may not know the reason or perhaps they may not like to introduce
themselves as poor.

7.4.4. Sufficiency of the Present Samurdhi Benefits

To evaluate the present poverty alleviation program I have asked a question whether the
present Samurdhi benefits are sufficient for your family. It was revealed that 91 percent
respondents have replied as not enough and the remaining 9 percent want to increase the
benefits.

Table 7.2 Sufficiency of Samurdhi Benefits

Sufficiency of Samurdhi
benefits Frequency Percentage
(1). Good enough 0 0%
(2). Somewhat enough 0 0%
(3). Not enough 32 91.4%
(4). Should increase 3 8.6%
(5). No idea 0 0%
Total 35 100%
Source: Fieldwork 2005

This is mainly due to the fact that poor people expect more benefits than what they receive.
On the other hand if Samurdhi benefits are compared with present cost of living, it is only a

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subsidy those poor people receive for maintaining their life. It is obvious that Samurdhi
benefits not enough to maintain or fulfill household necessaries throughout a month.

Here it is important to think about poverty alleviation programs and its basic requirements.
According to respondents opinions whatever they receive it should be sufficient for them. But
most of the respondents had not thought about their own responsibilities that they should
proceed to have a better living condition and eliminate the poverty from their households.

7.4.6. Gender Dimension of Samurdhi Benefits

It is important to consider relationship between gender and poverty situation of the area.
According to the interviews and questionnaire survey, I found that among poor people women
are the persons who worry, suffer and try to escape from their poverty situation.

Many female respondents pointed out that females are suffering more from poverty than
males. Because they are the persons who engage with preparing meals, look after children and
their needs, collecting fuel wood, fetch water etc. Males are engaging in income generating
activities and females have to manage the income and sharing with all family members. So
they are the persons who are facing difficulties when they have a little income. This situation
is clearly indicated by the quotation below.

“Poverty has affected my life all the ways. I am a married woman and now I have three
children. My two sons are schooling and I have to fulfill their needs. But it is not easy to
supply their requirements due to low income of the family and high living expenses. Also my
younger son is only six months old. We have to spend lot of money on him for medical
facilities and other things. My husband is a mason. But most of days he is at home due to lack
of working opportunities in the area. He does not like to work out side the village, because of
me and children. Though we receive Samurdhi benefits it is not sufficient…”

7.4.7. Improvement of the Family Situation after Having Samurdhi Benefits

Further there was a closed ended question for examine whether any improvement of
beneficiaries family situation after receiving Samurdhi benefits. Among respondents 91.4
percent responded as ‘no’ and rest 8.5 percent said ‘yes’ (see figure 7.2). This because of
some of the respondents had started small self employment and some of them have taken

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loans from the Samurdhi bank to renovate or start building new houses. So among those
people some improvement can be identified and really they felt that they have achieved some
progress in their family situation after receiving Samurdhi benefits.

Figure 7.2 Improvement of Family Situation after Having Samurdhi Benefits

8.57%
Yes
No

91.43%

Source: Fieldwork 2005

But the problem is about others who did not experience any changes in their family situation
even after receiving benefits from the poverty alleviation program. This implies some
weaknesses of the program and further weaknesses of the beneficiaries. It is difficult to blame
the poor people, because they often see no other options. If the poverty alleviation program
gives a big push to poor families it may positively effect on their families. On the other hand
this depends on the capabilities of the poor people’s. The study revealed that the people in the
study area are not only poor in the perspective of income. They are also poor in the
capabilities which they need to achieve valuable functionings.

However according to the information gathered from the Samurdhi development officer of the
study area the program has provided loans to 36 families for self employment in 2004 and 17
in 2005. These loans has provided for various types of self employment purposes like small
retail shops, clothes sewing, cement vase production, poultry farming and agricultural
activities etc. Further the officer stressed that more than 60 percent of these loans have been
granted for agricultural related purposes. Further interviewed information revealed that those

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who are receiving Rs.140 value of Samurdhi benefits are considered as successful families
within the program. Some of them have taken loans and started self employment and due to
that they earn some money. But when compared to other families there are no more
differences. Also the officers also do not think that they have gained success. But according to
some official requirements they have reduced the value of their Samurdhi benefits.

According to the key informant interviews the progress of the Samurdhi beneficiaries in the
study area are minimum and there are not enough money to invest on them. So the
government has reduced the value of Samurdhi benefits. Also most of the people do not have
enough money to save or invest in their future. So they earn some money from the agriculture
or by supplying their labor for other work and spend on their basic needs especially on foods.

When considering the above information it seems that the present government poverty
alleviation program not very much support for poor in the study area. The main problem is
that about sufficiency of the Samurdhi benefits to poor people to escape from the poverty trap.

7.5. PEOPLE’S PLANS TO OVERCOME POVERTY

Poor people’s future plans indicate their ability to escape from poverty. I tried to identify poor
people’s plans that they are going to use as a way of escaping poverty situation. Though poor
have thought of escaping poverty still they have not started their plans due to various types of
barriers. According to the respondents’ replies some of them have thought of starting self
employment such as small stall in front of their houses, poultry farm, etc. But still they do not
have proper ideas about what they are going to do. One of the female respondents explained
her plans:

“I was thinking about how I can escape from this terrible problem. But I could not imagine a
good solution to the problem. Now I have some hopes on my younger children. They are
about to leave from the school. Fortunately, I could give them a good education with a lot of
difficulties. So after they leave the school, they will be able to have a good job out side the
village, I hope that they may be able to upgrade our family situation”

It seems that her plan was to give a good education to her children and now she is about to
have the harvest of investing her children’s education. But can we think of her plan as a

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proper plan to overcome poverty? If her children were not able to attain good education, what
will happen to her plan? Further, after they finish their studies, if they could not get a good
income generating source (job) they have to live in poor situation.
Meanwhile, another respondent said; “You know that the main problem we face at the moment
is low income of our families. So I think if there is a training program for the poor people like
us on some kinds of profession such as mason, carpentry, small industries etc. It will help us
to increase our income”

It is a good plan in terms of overcoming their poverty situation. However if they had such a
training, their progress will also depend on the availability of such working opportunities.
Finally it seems that there are no more plans with poor people in the study area to escape their
poverty condition.

Finally their thoughts will helps to develop livelihood strategies in order to alleviate the
poverty situation of the area. At the moment though they have such plans they have not able
to launch their thoughts in practically.

In the study area people are poor in many types of assets and therefore they need more
attention and guide to overcome poverty. On the other hand though they have lands at the
moment environmental condition have influence adversely. According to the above discussion
it seems that main reason to poor condition of the villagers’ related to their lack of income
generating activities and reducing their income day by day.

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108
 CHAPTER 8
STORIES BEHIND ASSETS AND STRATEGIES

8.1. INTRODUCTION
This Chapter is the extension of the Chapter six and seven, devoted to answer the my last
research question and focuses on people’s life histories, experiences and attitudes on poverty
and their relationship with assets and livelihoods strategies. The discussion was based on the
interviews with households and key informants. The data was collected by using the interview
guide (see appendix 2 and 3). Meanwhile secondary data was used as a support to the
discussion. I interviewed twenty households’ to gather relevant data. The interview guide
focused on family histories, livelihood strategies, future hopes and how they plan to overcome
poverty and improve the human development of the family members of the interviewed
households. It is important to identify these things in order to planning and implementation
process for the future poverty alleviation and development programs. This part will help to
understand people’s strategies, their functionings and freedom and reasons for vulnerability of
the people in the area.

8.2. POOR HOUSEHOLDS AND THEIR FAMILY HISTORY

To identify the reasons for poverty of the present generations it is important to consider their
family histories. According to Sen an analysis of poverty should aim at identifying who is
poor and what the characteristics of being poor are. Identifying the main characteristics of the
poor in the study area, it is important to consider their family histories. However the main
characteristics of the rural poor in Sri Lanka could be unemployment or underemployment,
low income, poor housing condition, less assets, small scale agricultural activities and high
debt condition. Whether these things available in the study area? According to the gathered
data, most of the above characteristics can be seen in the study area and together create a
general situation of poverty.

8.2.1. Living place and poverty

According to the interviews most of the interviewees have lived in the village since their
birth. Only few interviewees (only six out of twenty) were found to have come to the village
due to their marriages and all of them were women. However before they came to the study

109
area, all of them have lived in the central province and close to the study area. Further their
husbands have lived in the village since their birth and they are insiders of the village. At the
moment all of them are used to the village background and now they are not outsiders of the
village, because they have lived several years in the village.

It has been stressed much about the income and non-income dimensions of poverty.
Examining their parents’ livelihoods is important to imagine the relationship of present
poverty situation in the area. According to their responses, their parents’ main income source
is also agriculture. Some of their parents are still alive and some passed away. Now their
agricultural lands have been shared between family members.

However according to the interviewees, during their parents’ period also they have faced lot
of problems due to the poor condition of the families. Although during the past periods they
have gained considerable amount of income than present. Further the whole village was
involved in tobacco cultivation 10-15 years back.

“Before 10-15 years back the whole village was under tobacco cultivation. My parents were
also farmers and they cultivated tobacco. But now the situation has changed. We can not
cultivate even vegetable in this land now. Lands have no longer any fertilizer and it has
started degradation. Now we cultivate only one season per year because now there is no
enough water. So sometimes we do not have water even for drinking. Due to these things we
can not earn sufficient income to maintain our family. Now I have to look after my old parents
too. Also some agricultural lands already have abandoned due to lack of water to cultivate.”

Above explanation gives important fact about their crop failure. As I discussed earlier, not
only had he mentioned above fact also many of respondents talked about scarcity of water
facilities since recently. However according to the available secondary data of the
Udadumbara area revealed that when comparing the situation now and ten years before, at the
present there is a problem regarding water supply. Wells, small streams become dried in one
season of the year. Many times water supplying for the agricultural activities and even for
drinking is a problem during that period. Deforestation, clearing extreme lands, fires is the
major causes for this water scarcity. The situation is adversely affected in areas like
Madugalla (my study area, Kalawala, Pitigoda, Dewahandiya, Dumbaragama, Bambarabadda,

110
and Rambukwella (villages close to the study area) (Udadumbara Divisional Secretariat
Division’s data base 1998/1999).

8.2.2. Family History and Poverty

When considering respondents family histories it revealed that those people who are
considered as poor, their parents or aged people of the family have received government
welfare benefits since long ago. One of another respondent talked with me like this,

You can see this old house. This house is owned by my father. I am living here from my
childhood. Then I got married and now I have two children and they are also living in this old
house. My father was a farmer. But now he can not work and I work in his land. However we
can not gain enough money to maintain our lives. Now I am thinking how to renovate this old
house because it is difficult to be inside when raining. Inside of the house is getting wet for
even a little rain. I am afraid to take a loan because I have no any reliable income source to
pay back a loan.

This indicates that since their childhood they have not been able to repair their house due to
poverty ant lack of money. Not only that even now their children also living in same house
with bad condition. According to above explanation already two generations have lived in that
poor house and third generation has also started to live in the same house. From the
interviews it is quite clear that poverty goes from one generation to the next. Will the
respondents’ children also become poor or is already they are in the poor category? This is
one characteristic of chronic poverty.

8.2.3. Loosing Opportunities to Have a Good Education

The study revealed that they have lost some valuable opportunities due to poor condition of
their families. According to the one of the respondent (male) reveled his lost opportunities
like this,

I was living this village since my childhood. My father was a farmer. He was the main
breadwinner of our family. There were eight (8) members in our family. My father tried to
school all of us but it was not successful because he did not have enough money to send all of
us to school. I schooled only up to class nine. I am the elder son of our family. Then I stopped
my schooling and started to work in the field with my father. Mother also helped to father. But

111
she did not like me to work in the field. However there was no any other option to select
because, my younger brothers and sisters were schooled during that period. They also could
not complete their studies and gave it up. Now I have got married and have three children.
Now I am facing the same problems that my father faced when I am a child. So I am thinking
how to escape from this terrible poverty situation. I have no more properties other than this
house and agricultural land which I received from my father.

This man lost his right of education due to poor condition of his family especially his father’s
low income. According to him he has joined his father to earn more money on behalf of other
family members. There had been eight members in his family. It is the general situation of
most of previous families in Sri Lanka and at the present the situation has changed. Now
average size of a family is becoming 2-3 children due to use of family planning methods.
However number of family members and poverty situation has a close relationship. Because it
might affect especially to the elderly children of the family as above story revealed. They
have to give up their opportunities behalf of others. Then behind every thing poverty plays an
important role to make this kind of situations.

Further if think of the above quotation, it is obvious that he also has lost his choice of
education. To be well educated is one of the human rights in terms of human development and
as well as being educated is one of the important functionings in the perspective of the
capability approach. Also according to the livelihoods approach education is considered as a
human capital which enables people to have good living condition. The main problem is that
due to his low education level he can not engage in any other employment opportunity at the
present and it has affected his family and children adversely. Poverty has avoided his ability
and wish and in a way he has lost means to achieve education. Other problem arisen here is
that if he had good education background, is he able to get a good job opportunity in the
village or outside of the village.

8.2.4. Women and Poverty in the Study Area

According to the UNDP more than one billion people in the world today, the great majority of
whom are women, live in unacceptable condition of poverty, mostly in the developing
countries. Further during the last few decades the number of women living in poverty has
increased disproportionately to the number of men particularly in the developing countries.

112
The feminization of the poverty has become significant problem in many countries in the
world.

When considering the history of interviewed households, women’s employment situation,

they have not engaged in any kinds of income generating activities. They have played the role
of housewives and looked after their children. Sometimes they have helped their husbands in
the field. But males were the main breadwinner of all the interviewed families. So husbands’
income is the main income source of these families. However this situation is somewhat
related to traditional attitudes of the rural people. Because they did not like to allow women to
work and they wanted to keep women at home. Though women like to work they do not get
chances to do so. Therefore in a way they have avoided to access to capital generation.
Meanwhile their educational attainment also were poor condition If the women were engaged
in any kinds of income generating activities it may help to increase the family income and
also will reduce the poverty level of the family.

But women are participating to make necessary arrangements to take governments benefits,
participation for the relevant meetings, engaging with taking loans etc. Most of the times male
do not take part in these kinds of meetings or other things. Why is that? Why women only
very much interesting in these poverty alleviation programs than male? However they played
an important role to make social capital for their families.

There is a clear answer for the above question. Women suffer more from poverty than men in
many aspects. Especially when they have children they have to feed them and give good
nutrition’s for the well being of them. Further they are the persons most of the times engaging
preparing food at home. So they feel poverty more than men in the family. So having these
benefits (Samurdhi) is valuing by women and meanwhile men sometimes talking about these
things in negative perspectives.

There were many female interviewees in my research and they reflected the above features
well in their experiences on poverty. But some of the women in the study area is especially
present younger generation have engaged with some kinds of income generating activities.
They have understood the value of having some income generating sources to overcome the
poverty situation of their families. But the problem is that those who have engaged in such
kinds of income generating activities have stopped their education in the middle. On the one

113
hand they receive some amount of income and they can spend it on their family’s well being
and perhaps could save little amount for their future. But if they continue their education
further they could get a better job than their present job. If it happens so they may escape from
the poverty trap in future. But now their family situations change very slowly. These things
related to their income generating activities of women of the study area.

8.3. PEOPLE’S EXPERIENCES OF POVERTY

As poverty has number of definition and perspectives poor people have various kinds of ideas
on poverty and they have experienced poverty in many ways throughout their life. These ideas
and experiences may help to identify different dimensions of poverty and influences on their
assets. To examine their ideas and experiences on poverty I have asked an open ended
question at last in my questionnaire and the respondents have replied to the question in many
ways.

8.3.1. Children and Education

It is noticeable that female respondents always have talk about their children when discussing
their own situation. That means women are thinking much about their children and fulfill their
requirements than others requirements of the households’. Throughout their replies they have
stressed the problems regarding schooling their children. Though their children are schooling
according to their own ideas they have many difficulties to send them to school like providing
necessary school equipments. Two of the female’s replies can illustrate this:

“We are poor from the birth. We do not have enough money to do what ever we like to or
want to do. I have to send my two children to school. It is not easy to do any thing without
money nowadays. They need some money every day to buy some books pencils etc. So their
father and I work hard in the field. But we can not get sufficient income for living for all of us.
It is not like past now. We can not cultivate crops twice per year due to this unfavorable
climate condition.”

“There are three members in this family. My daughter is the main breadwinner of the family. I
can not work now as my old age. My daughter has a small child. She just started schooling. It
is difficult to send her to school because there are lots of things we have to supply for school
works. My daughter’s husband is living with other woman in the village and he does not help

114
her or even this little girl. Daughter is working at the garment factory at Hunnasgiriya. We
all depend on her small salary. Even this home and land is not belonging to us and it is under
government.”

The two quotations above reveal that people are facing difficulties due to low income.
Especially when they have children who are schooling, the poor people face difficulties than
those who do not have children. Because sending a child to a school their parents have to
fulfill their basic requirements. However in Sri Lanka school uniforms and basic text books
are provided to all school children. But other things should be supplied by parents.

The lack of basic needs which they needs to schooling may be discouraged children’s
schooling. United Nations Millennium Development Goals have also paid their attention to
give a full primary education for all girls and boys. However entering a child to a school is not
only solution for increase primary education. Though those poor children attended to the
school they should have fulfilled their other needs to complete their education successfully.

Though the situation like that they had manage to send their children to school because they
want to give a good education to their children and they have big hopes about their children
and their future. It was revealed that some respondents have given up their education due to
poverty condition of their family. So they won’t to be happen the same thing for their
children. So they feel their children’s problem.

8.3.2. Income
“We do not have enough money to do what ever we like to or want to do” This is about
loosing their choices and access to the resource. Though the poor want to do a lot of things
they have had to give up those things due to lack of money and other necessary things.
However according to the respondents ideas on poverty their main problem is low income.
Other things related to their low income.

One female respondent explain her experiences on poverty like this. “After my husband died I
had to look after my son. Husband died when my son was in year 10 in the school. Then I had
to go to the field and work. But it was not easy to work in sunlight and however I did it on
behalf of my son. During that period I had to borrow money from relations and neighbors.

115
But they did not like to give money to me, because they knew that there is no any guarantee to
get them back as I did not have a job. I can remember that once I sold my earrings to take
medicine for my son. However now he is a youngster and work as a laborer. I still feel sorry
because I could not give him a good education. Now I depend on him.”

When considering above description as she became a widow she has not been able to give her
son good education and still she is suffering from the missing opportunity. Not only that case
many experiences of villagers about poverty is related to low income or missing income
generating sources due to various reasons.

So it is clear that the income of a household is more important than any other thing. When
households have good income source they can manage their basic needs without any problem.
But the income should be sufficient for all family members. On the other hand if there is good
income sources managing the income may be a problem if the education level is low. It means
that should be combined with human development. Further at the same time infrastructure
facilities of the village should increase.

Another women respondent revealed the difficulty of fine out extra works to manage their
livelihoods as;

“My husband does not have a job. He works as a laborer. But he does not get works every
day. Some times we have to wait without any work. There is no any other income for my
family. Some times I faced lot of problems when I am working in the kitchen. Whether we had
a job these children should be fed by something. You can see what we have in the kitchen if
you go inside…”

The above answer gives a comprehensive idea and experiences of their suffering due to lack
of basic income generating activities. Whatever problems the poor faced most of those
problems are related to income. By considering all these facts by providing a reliable income
source for the poor families will lead to reduce the rural poverty.

The picture below shows one surveyed households’ kitchen.

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Picture 8.1 and 8.2

Inside of a poor household’s kitchen in the study area

Source: Fieldwork 2005

8.3.3. Attitudes
The way that poor people think and feel about poverty and poverty alleviation can change
their life style. I wanted to understand how poor people are thinking about poverty. The
conducted interviews revealed that many poor people have pessimistic perceptions about
poverty and poverty alleviation and while some have optimistic ideas. Those who think
optimistically about poverty and poverty alleviation, have more ability to overcome the
problem. But they have many barriers to succeed. On the other hand this is related to
achieving functionings which need for a good living standard. One of the respondents
explained his opinion about poverty as,

“Poverty? It is a question. Not easy to give a clear answer. But I know that it is not easy to
overcome for people like us. That because of we poor people, do not have any kinds of
reliable income sources or even we do not have any assets to make extra income to fulfill our
basic needs. We are receiving Samurdhi benefits but I have not taken any loan from the
Samurdhi bank up to now. My children are still small and they are schooling. There is no
means to save money for future needs. We have to build a house. Though there is no way to
do it. All the money that we earn, we have to spent on our children and daily needs. Because,
we have to give a good education for our children and should give them chance to have a
good education for better tomorrow. So until they finished it is difficult to think to change this
situation of our family.”

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The above story implies the pessimistic attitudes of the poor people. Still she has not been
able do much to improve the life of the family. But in a way at the moment she is investing in
her family’s future by providing good education for her children and therefore she wants only
make her children educated, because if she spent their money on other things such as building
a new house, it may affect on children’s education. Poverty creates dilemmas in such
situations and it is difficult to get the maximum benefits out of the available opportunities.

In order to alleviate poverty in the study area as well as in the developing countries, negative
attitudes of poor people should be eliminated. It is important to make confidence among all
poor people as they are valuable persons. Further make them aware of the poverty and its
negative impacts on them and others, would help to overcome such negative attitudes of the
poor people. Until poor people think to escape from poverty, it is difficult to overcome the
poverty.

Another respondent (male) talked with me like this and he seemed very frustrated with his
life:

“Now we are becoming old. We will live for another few years. So what to do for this short
period. I experienced poverty for a long time. I could not do so many things due to lack of
money and poor situation of our family. This is the reality and nature of our lives. So it can
not change easily.”

What does this story tells us? Actually though he talked like above he is now in his 40s. But
he has traditional thoughts about life and he does not seem to want to escape from the present
situation. These kinds of thoughts are not suitable for him and also his children. Because been
a poor man at the present has affected on all other family members. So if he did not try to
overcome this problem his children may also suffer from poverty in future and already now
they are experiencing poverty together with their parents. Further this shows that one of the
inherent feature of the poverty. This person had experience poverty from his past. And also at
the present he is experiencing poverty and future also will same as now. It seems the difficulty
of escape from poverty after once fell in to the poverty situation. Meanwhile females think
that the situation is their fate. But in a way they are trying to overcome the situation than
males, because they are the persons who experiencing poverty when maintaining households.

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Yet, it is may be use full if explore the causes for such kinds of thoughts of poor people. Have
these ideas come from generation to generation or has it emerged due to social phenomenon?
If every poor person thinks like that, what will happen to the poverty rate of the country?
Moreover according to some key informant interview revealed that people’s attitudes have
harmfully affected on the poverty alleviation of the area.

8.3.4. People’s Definitions

What is poverty? It is obvious that there are number of dimensions available about poverty.
Also vast amount of literature, research, plans for poverty eradication exist all around the
world. Developing and developed nations have considered poverty as a major problem which
should be addressed by all the nations of the world. Meanwhile, what does poverty mean for
the poor? Though the concept of poverty is widespread do the poor understand poverty the
same way as the planners and the academics?

Many respondents had not any clear idea regarding what poverty is, but they have
experienced poverty. According to them their main attention is towards basic needs. Because
poverty is starting from the problem of supplying basic needs and people feel the loose basic
needs more than anything else.

“I do not know how to explain poverty. You can see the poverty if you go to inside the kitchen.
I have to think about all the times what I could prepare to eat. As I said previously I have
separated from my husband and now he is living with other women. So I have to manage all
the things of this home.”

“I think poverty is lack of money. If we have enough money we can manage our lives as we
want.”

I noticed that many respondents replied that poverty is lack of money. According to them if
they had money they will not be poor. Previously many of the respondents have replied as the
scarcity of income generation sources is the main problem.

I could notice that many respondents wanted to explain their experiences of poverty than
giving an explanation of poverty. Yet some other respondents talked about poverty as some

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thing more than having the low income. They stressed their lack of opportunities,
vulnerability, hopelessness about future and deficiency of assets. It implies that the poverty is
not a narrowed concept and poverty as a broadened concept with multidimensional. If they
had enough assets and income they won’t be participants for the government poverty
alleviation program.

“We are living with thousands of problems. Who will help us to get rid of this terrible
situation? No income, no jobs, and some period even we have no water to drink. Harvest is
drying up due to water scarcity of the area. So there is no any help for poor like us.”

It seems that poverty affects people in many ways and there are different types of problems
poor have faced due to poverty condition of their families. By the side of institutional,
consider about these different a kind of problems of poor is important when they plan to
tackle with poverty. Because interviews revealed that the needs of poor families depend on
their present situation. Some poor have assets but others do not. Though they had assets it is
difficult to get benefits from them due to problems like the degradation of land and water
scarcity in the village. All the poor are not in the same category. So that when the process of
planning consider these various types of categories are important.

8.4. Key Informants’ Thoughts about People’s Attitudes

The study revealed that some key informants have negative perceptions about people in the
area. Therefore it is difficult to justify whether people’s attitudes correct or officers attitudes
correct. One of the key informants said about people’s perception on poverty alleviation as,

“People are always like to have some thing freely. We know that some people are very much
lazy. They won’t like to work. Sometimes every day they use liquor. But they do not think to
earn some money and about their family situation. There are possibilities to do some kinds of
self employments in the village. But they do not like to start. Always they expect large amount
of profit at the beginning.”

Moreover, other important information found through the key informants interviews. Though
some poor have to idea to overcome the problem, there are many problems have arisen when
work with them. When the people are grouping for some kinds of official purposes in the

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development program it has become controversial. Sometimes political influences make
problems. Further they revealed that about the difficulty of changing people’s traditional
attitudes. In addition to these things there are close relationship with poverty alleviation
program and the political in the area. They (key informants) stressed that the political
influences should remove from the poverty alleviation programs and should distribute the
benefits in fair manner. Also they had paid their attention about the selection of Samurdhi
beneficiaries of the area. Another significant problem they have faced is that the many poor
people have not involved taking maximum benefits from the Samurdhi program and they just
want to receive some thing from the program.

However people’s backwardness is not only fault of themselves according to the key
informants’ information. They revealed that there are some kinds of institutional problems.
According to them on the one hand there are no more opportunities to poor in the area.
Because many poor are farmers and at present all the farmers of the area are in a risk due to
various kinds of problems like reducing their harvest, land degradation, water scarcity,
increasing the basic cost of agriculture etc. So it is impossible to afford all these problems to
the poor people. From the institutional side there are many responsibilities to solve these
problems in order to upgrade rural livelihoods. Because at the time being it seems that the
difficulty of improving the agricultural activities of the area as above mentioned reasons. All
these things have negatively influenced on people’s freedom and their functionings. However
there are many other possibilities to improve rural livelihoods by providing some kinds of
extra income generating activities like self employments. From the institutional side it is
important to consider these facts and provide some vocational training programs to the poor.

They emphasized that the importance of making solutions to above problems are parallel to
the poverty alleviation programs. Especially though there are responsible institutions for such
kinds of problems they have not paid their attention to these questions. It is one of the major
problems when thinking about the institutional side. If there are agricultural organizations
there are no strong connections among those institutes. Further they revealed that there are no
enough infrastructural facilities to train poor people of the area. They have been repeatedly
stressed that to change poor people’s traditional idea is not easy as well as in order to change
their traditional ideas there is a great responsibility on the institutional side. So there should
be awareness programs prior to the poverty alleviation programs and should encourage
people’s mind and should value them as they are capable persons to overcome poverty.

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Further key informants explained that it is a not an easy task for the institutions to consider
and deal with large amount of poor people. Because of all the poor people are not in the same
category. So there should be separate attentions on different types of poor people and should
identify their capabilities to overcome poverty.

Another key informants revealed that his personal view of the present poverty alleviation and
people’s attitudes like this,

“We have to make a systematic program for poverty alleviation in Sri Lanka. Present system
is not suitable as a mean of poverty alleviation. I think this system should be changed. Instead
of providing welfare and subsidies, we should increase the supplying bank loans and benefits.
Also it is difficult to upgrade large number of poor families at once and there are not enough
financial and other facilities to do so. I suppose that if we paid our comprehensive attention
to few poor families at once and we will able to upgrade their situation. Further it is
important to have assessment after providing loans and other necessary things. If not poor
people can not mange their livelihood properly. Also should provide necessary infrastructure
facilities to them.”

It is obvious that dealing with large number of poor people is not easy. His ideas are correct in
that perspective. Concentration on few poor families will be make successful than paying
attention to all the poor. But it will take more times to solve the problem because the number
of poor is increasing day by day. According to my personal view of above idea, it is
somewhat narrow and not easy to implement. Sometimes it may lead to social unrest because
when having small number of poor people benefits from the poverty alleviation program
others those who do not receive benefits may demonstrate.

In conclusion, people’s own attitudes are important in many ways to overcome the poverty
situation of the area. Also on the other hand rural development policies should aim at poverty
alleviation. Further institutional and rural economy restructure is an important thing in terms
of rural poverty alleviation.

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 CHAPTER 9
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS

9.1. INTRODUCTION
The Chapter discusses the finding and the suggested solutions of the research on rural poverty
and human development in Kandy district in Sri Lanka. Further the Chapter considers the
present living condition of the selected study area (Madugalla North). Also causes for the
poverty condition and the impacts of poverty on human development identified through the
field study and possible solutions for identified problems will be presented. Additionally, the
role of the government and people themselves in overcoming poverty will be considered. To
eradicate poverty combining the roles of the government and the people is required. At last
the Chapter discusses the possibilities to increase the living standard of the poor people in the
study area as well as in the country.

9.2. RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE THEORETICAL APPROACHES AND THE

STUDY
For this study I engaged two main theoretical approaches namely the capability approach and
the livelihoods approach. During the past few decades these two approaches have been used
for many poverty and human development related studies. These approaches have considered
whole aspects of the problem. The capability approach pays attention to the relationship
between poverty and human development. Meanwhile the livelihoods approach considered as
a way of making the capability operational.

According to the capability approach poverty is considered as capability deprivation. It helps

to identify the deprived capabilities of people in the study area. The study revealed that in
terms of available opportunities the people in the study area have faced many difficulties
especially the employment side. Though there are many arguments regarding monetary
measurement of poverty, a person’s income plays an important role as a way of eradicating
poverty. According to the capability approach income is one of the main causes of poverty
and human capabilities are the most important factors when increasing people’s living
standard.

123
However, the study revealed there is a relationship between the income and capabilities in the
village. As Sen argued income is one of the main barriers to the people in the study area and
people have deprived by the income generating activities due to various factors. Due to the
lowness of income they have faced number of difficult situation in their life.

In terms of capabilities or opportunities the people of the study area have lost many
opportunities which are essential to achieve valuable functionings. On the other hand
unavailability of the opportunities have negatively influence on their livelihoods strategies.
According to the capability approach functionings are important to gain a good living
standard. Many of the interviewed persons have lost their opportunity to achieve some basic
functionings. Specially many of the respondents have lost their education due to various
factors.

Accordingly, other assets like the natural and physical assets are limited in the study area,
especially because of the geographical location of the area and environmental degradation of
the area. Further their social capital also not at considerable level. According to the
respondents some of the poor people in the area have faced various types of problems to make
good social relations and taking part in social activities in the village.

Finally, all these things have led them to be poor and their achieved functionings and the
living standard though their livelihoods strategies are not at good level and can not be
considered as they are spending an unproblematic life style.

9.3. CONCLUSION OF THE STUDY

The study was focused on the rural poverty and human development in Sri Lanka. The main
attention was paid to the present poverty alleviation and identifying the present poverty and
human development context of the study area. The study area was rural and remote village
form main cities of the district and mainly agricultural society.

9.3.1. Summary of the Present Poverty and Human Development Situation of the Area
According to the study the study area has a high level of poverty. The living condition of the
area revealed characteristics of the chronic poverty situation of the people in the village.
Because it was identified that many poor people of the area those who are still considered as

124
poor have been in the same condition since long period and their situation has not changed
much during the last few decades. At the time being two generations have been suffering from
poverty and now the third generation is also facing the problem of poverty.

The study revealed that the many of the studied households are very poor quality and they
don’t seem any sign of escaping poor condition of their families. When considering the
housing units of the interviewed families many hosing units were in bad quality and they have
no more chances to upgrade their housing units than demolish them. Though housing is a
basic human need, many of the villages do not have proper housing units to live. Further
though they have a house, they do not have enough rooms for all the family members.

The study revealed that the main reason for poverty condition of the study is related to the
income scarcity of the villagers. Many of the villagers do not have enough money to
overcome their poverty situation. Low income is connected to the employment opportunities
of the village. Many of the villagers main income source is agriculture and at the present they
have faced many difficulties due to unfavorable climatic condition of the area. Some have
abandoned their agricultural activities at the moment. Others who are still engaged in
agricultural activities gain low harvest and low income.

In terms of human development, especially lack of education of elderly people has affected
their present human development. The study revealed that many of the interviewed people
have not been able to complete their education. Especially this situation is one of the main
barriers to overcome the poverty situation of these families. Because as they have not gain
good educational background it is difficult to them to engage any other types of employment
activities. Also at the moment most of them are at their middle and old ages, hence now it is
difficult to engage tem to new income generating activities. The collected data shows that
many of the interviewed people have lost the opportunity to have a good education because of
the poor condition of their families during their childhoods. The situation clearly represented
people’s experiences of poverty.

One of the objectives of the research was to evaluate the present government’s poverty
alleviation program (Samurdhi program). Accordingly the study the program has not provided
considerable help to overcome the poverty situation of the study area. Meanwhile there are
only a few people who have tried to take maximum benefits from the program. But many of

125
the Samurdhi beneficiaries have not achieved any improvement of their family situation after
receiving the benefits form the Samurdhi program. The Samurdhi beneficiaries’ ideas about
the program were not positive and they talked about it in a frustrated manner. Though they
have the benefits from the program still they have not able to overcome their poverty
condition.

Another important thing I found that the many of the Samurdhi beneficiaries said that the
benefits are not sufficient for their family members. They talked about the situation by
comparing the present cost of living. People can not save for the future or invest in income
generating activities for developing sustainable livelihoods.

Many people express negative attitudes about their poverty situation and therefore they do not
try to escape from the present situation. Many of the interviewed households’ members think
about their present situation as their fate. They have accepted that they are poor and no ways
to escape from poverty than living with poverty situation. Due to their negative thinking they
do not want to take any loans to start any kinds of self employment or to renovate their
houses.

In terms of the health condition of the villagers’ they are in a good position. But they do not
have good health facilities according to their ideas. To take medical facilities they have to
travel about 10 miles from the village. A few people in the village suffer from some chronic
disease, but there are no spreading diseases in the village.

Further in terms of livelihood strategies the villagers do not have many opportunities to
engage in. It is a result of the geographical location of the village and low infrastructure
facilities of the village. Though the village has electricity and water supply facilities, there are
no any industries have been established in the village by using electricity. Also if there is a
water supplying system the villagers do not receive regular water supply. The water scarcity is
one of the main problems to provide safe and reliable water supply to the villagers.

It seems that there is no good guidance for the poor people of the area. As many of the people
in the village have the negative ideas about their poverty situation, there should be stronger
guidance for the people. Without such a strengthening of the people it is difficult to upgrade

126
peoples’ living standard. If there is awareness programs and if give some kinds of training
programs it will be helpful to overcome their poverty conditions.

9.4. PROBLEMS TO OVERCOME POVERTY SITUATION OF THE AREA

The study revealed that there are number of causes affect on poverty situation of the area.
Until get a clear solution for these problems it is difficult to reduce the poverty level of the
study area. These cause are relate to various factors such as socio economic back ground of
the area, environmental conditions of the area, national policies regarding poverty alleviation,
poor peoples’ attitudes etc.

9.4.1 Economy and related problems

(a). Low income

Low income is one of the main barriers to eradicate poverty condition of the area. All
Samurdhi beneficiaries of the area receive low income and also they do not have monthly
income as they are farmers. Because they cultivate only one or two seasons per year and they
have to manage their income for rest of the year.

(b). Unemployment
Though the most of villagers are farmers at the time being due to various reasons many of
them have to give up their farming activities. So that unemployment rate has become high.
Also among younger family members the rate of unemployment ate is at a high rate.

(c). Lack of Access to Assets

The study revealed that the many of the poor households do not have more assets or
properties. So it is not easy to poor people to invest or some times even to do agricultural
activities due to lack of assets such as land and other relevant equipments. On the other hand
though they have some kinds of assets they can’t take profit (monetary or non-monetary) from
them.

(d). Fewer saving

There is no good saving habits among the interviewed households. However all the
interviewed households head or Samurdhi beneficiary have compulsory savings which is as a
part of the Samurdhi program. But these savings comes under the Samurdhi program and not
a large amount. Also they have no extra money to save for using their future activities. Some

127
times this situation adversely affect on the poor people especially when they need money for
emergency cases. According to the conducted interview revealed that when such occasions
they are pawning their jewelries or what ever valuable things they have.

9.4.2. Social back ground and related problems

(a). Low educational attainment of the present households’ heads

According to the study many of the present households’ heads have attained low educational
background. The situation is influence on them when they try to find out employment
opportunities and also poverty alleviation program. As they have low educational background
it is difficult to change their traditional attitudes on poverty. Further, learning ability of some
kinds of extra income generating activities (example: trainings) are at a very low rate.

(b). Infrastructure facilities of the area

There are no more infrastructure facilities in the village. Only the village has electricity and
water supply facilities. But the water project is not working properly due to scarcity of the
water facilities in the area. Communication facilities and transportation facilities are not at
considerable good level.

(c). Housing condition

Housing condition is one of the factors which can be used for evaluate the poverty situation of
a person. In this sense most of the housing units of the area are in bad condition. Many of the
housing units are very old and should be renovate soon. But the poor villagers do not have
enough monetary facilities to do it.

(d). Negative attitudes

This is one of the major social barriers to overcome the poverty situation of the area. Many of
the poor people have negative thoughts of poverty and their present living condition. By now
they have used to their present lifestyle and they won’t change it. They are satisfied what they
have gained already.

(e). Less opportunity

In terms of opportunity aspect, the villagers have less opportunity to engage in income
generating activity, participation for training programs, educational program, etc. This
situation is another cause for the poverty situation of the area.

128
(f). Harmful livelihood strategies
Some people in the village have engaged in illicit liquor production. This has affected
harmfully whole village and especially poor people. Because the study revealed that those
who have used to use these kinds of liquor are poor. So it has adverse social impacts and also
increases the poverty level of the poor people.

9.4.3 Environmental related problems

(a). Water scarcity

This is the main problem related to the environment of the area. This has influences on the
villagers’ main income source agriculture. Not only have that during the dry season of the
year people had to face the problem of drinking water also.

(b). Land degradation

Due to land degradation, villagers’ agricultural production has been reduced during the last
few years. Further some of the villagers have to give up their agricultural activities due to
unfavorable climatic condition of the area.

(c). Extreme geographical location

The study area is a mountainous area and therefore it is difficult to convert many lands to the
agricultural purposes. Also this situation has affected to the development of the infrastructure
facilities of the area specially road net work.

9.4.4. National policies

(a). Poverty alleviation program

The study revealed that the most of the present Samurdhi beneficiaries have received benefits
from previous poverty alleviation programs. Some of them have take part in all the previous
poverty alleviation programs which was introduced successive governments after the
independence of Sri Lanka. But their poverty level has not reduced or they have not able to
poverty trap for a long period. If the government poverty alleviation programs worked well
they should have overcome the poverty condition of their families. So it implies the poor
quality and also lack of monitoring and evaluation systems have made this situation. The
main thing I noticed that when the governments are changing they change the name of the
poverty alleviation program and sometimes change the face of the poverty alleviation
program.

129
(b) Rural Development
Rural development policies should aim eradication of poverty. Though most of the rural
development programs have targeted poor people, sometimes poor don’t receive benefits form
such program. Because the trickle down effect of these programs are at a minimum level and
therefore others take more benefits than poor people.

9.5. RECOMMENDATIONS TO OVERCOME THE POVERTY SITUATION OF THE

STUDY AREA
According to the study there are number of causes have affected on the poverty situation of
the area. To overcome the situation it is important to address these key problems.

1. Increase income generating activities

2. Solve the agricultural related problems
3. Introduced new crops varieties which use less water
4. Create new employment opportunities
5. Give vocational trainings for the younger generation
6. Provide awareness program about the Samurdhi program
7. Increase the loan facilities and encourage the poor to take loan
8. Make guidance to start self employment
9. Introduced the housing loan schemes
10. Provide a big push to the poor families
11. Increase the benefits for short term

Finally, poverty can be affect any time any people. Behind poverty there are multiple reasons
can be identified. According to the study, the rural poverty alleviation is one of the most
important things for the county’s development process. Rural poor are always living in the
vulnerable situation. Therefore it is important to pay especial attention on rural poor people to
improve their living standard and human development.

130
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 Appendix 1

Questionnaire on Impacts of Poverty on Rural Human Development in Sri Lanka (The

Case Study in Kandy District Udadumbara Divisional Secretariat Division)
Serial No…………………. Date…………………..

Background information of the household

1. Please provide the following information

House hold Sex (M/F) Age Education Occupation Marital Monthly

members statues Income (Rs)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Codes for education level: Year 1-5-(1), Year 6-11-(2), GCE O/L-(3), GCE A/L- (4), Tertiary-(5)
Codes for occupation: Peasant farmer-(6), self employment-(7), Government servant-(7), Private sector-(8),
Unemployed-(9), Other-(10) and please specify.
Codes for income: Less than 2000 SLR-(11), 2000-5000 SLR-(12), 5000-7500 SLR-(13), Above 7500-(14), No
income-(15)

*Please write your main income source………………………….

About Samurdhi program

2. When did your family start receiving benefits from Samurdhi program? ………………..
2.1 What is the value of your Samurdhi benefits?
(1) Rs. 140 □
(2) Rs. 250 □
(3) Rs. 350 □
(4) Rs. 400 □
(5) Rs. 600 □
(6) Rs. 1000 □

2.2 Did you receive any other benefits from the government before receiving Samurdhi
benefits? Yes □ No □

2.3.1 If yes please specify the name of the

program?........................................................

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2.4. Why did you receive Samurdhi benefit? (Your opinion)
As your family poor □ As you are a labour □
As you are a farmer □ Other □
As your low income □ I don’t know □

2.5. Do you think present samurdhi benefits are sufficient for your family?
(1) Enough □
(2) Somewhat enough□
(3) Not enough □
(4) Should increase □
(5) No idea □

•If the answer is ‘not enough’ how do you maintain your basic needs?(Please
explain)
…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………
………………

2.6. For how long do you need Samurdhi benefits? (Your personal opinion)
For another one year □ More than four years □
Two years □ Until receive a job to family member □
Three years □ Until stop by the government □
Four years □ I don’t know □

2.7. What are the extra income generating sources of your family?
1………………………………. 3…………………………….
2………………………………. 4…………………………….

2.8. How much of money do you earn from extra income generating activities?
………………………………………………………………………………………..

2.9. If you don’t have any extra income generating activities, how do you find money
when you faced a difficult situation or for day- today- life,
Do you borrow money from others? Yes □ No □

2.10. If yes from whom do you borrow money?

From neighbour’s □ From relations □ Other □
From a bank □ Other □

2.11. Can you buy enough foods for a month with samurdhi benefits?

Yes □ No □

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 2.12. What kinds of foods do you buy from cooperative shop (from Samurdhi
benefit)?
1………………… 6…………………….
2………………… 7……………………..
3…………………. 8……………………..
4…………………. 9……………………..
5…………………. 10……………………

2.13 Have you gained any development in your family situation after receiving the
benefits of Samurdhi? Yes □ No □

2.14 “Samurdhi programme can help to reduce the poverty level of the country” Your
opinion;

(1) I strongly agree □ (4) I strongly disagree □

(2) I Agree □ (5) I have no idea| □
(3) I disagree □

Heath condition of the family

3. Does Samurdhi program has helped to improve your family’s heath condition in any way?
Yes □ No □

* If yes please explain how?

…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………
………………

3.1. Do any of your family members suffer from chronic disease?

Yes □ No □
* If yes please give the name of diseases?
…………………………………………………………………………………………

3.2. From where do you take medical facilities for your family members?

(1) Government hospital □ (2) Private clinic □

(3) Traditional medicine □ (4) Other □ (Specify)…………….

3.3. If you take medical facilities from the government hospitals are you satisfy with
their services?
(1) Generally satisfied□ (2) Somewhat satisfied □ (5) No Idea □
(3) Satisfied □ (4) Dissatisfied □

3.4 during the last month how many times did you or your family members take
medical facilities?
(1) One □ (4) Four □
(2) Two □ (5) Five □
(3) Three □ (6) More than five time □

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Living condition
3. Type of the house
Type code
1.Structure of the house
2.Wall
3.Roof
4.Floor
5.Electricity (yes/no)
6.Water
7. Sanitation
Codes for structure: Single unit-(1), Double story-(2), Hut-(3), Slums-(4)
Codes for wall: Brick-(5), Block stone-(6), Wood-(7), Other-(8)
Codes for roof: tiles-(9), Asbestos-(10), Concrete-(11), Other-(12)
Codes for floor: Cement-(13), Tiles-(14), Clay-(15), Sand-(16), Other-(17)
Codes for water: Well-(18), Pipe born water-(19), Lake-(20), Stream-(21)

3.1 Do you own the house? (Who is the owner of the house?)
…………………………………………………………………………………………………

3.2 Did you get any loan to build/repair the house recently?
Yes □ No □
*if yes from whom?……………………………………….

3.3 Do you have any other properties other than this house?
Yes □ No □
* If yes please indicate………………………………………………………………………..

Perception about poverty

4. Can you explain something about poverty and your own experiences?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………

4.1 What is your opinion about present government poverty alleviation program and what is
your personal view of poverty alleviation?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………….

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 Appendix 2

Interview guide for the poor house holds

Basic information
Age
Sex
Education background
Occupation

Household information
Who is the owner of the household?
Whether the house builds by you?
How long have you lived in this house?
How many members in your (in this household) family?

Economic situation
Main income source of the family
Monthly income of the family
Are there any other income generating sources?
What are they?
Do you earn same amount of money by using extra income generating activities for every
month?
When you need additional money for emergency situation how do you fulfill your
requirements?
(Explain the methods)

Opinions about the Samurdhi program

When did you start receiving Samurdhi benefits?
Why did you apply for Samurdhi program?
Do you receive any other benefits from the government or other NGOs?
Did you receive benefits from previous poverty alleviation programs?
What are they?
Then why did you become a member of Samurdhi program?
Is all these programs are same?
What kinds of benefits do you receive under the Samurdhi program?
Is Samurdhi program support to overcome your poverty situation?
For how long do you need the Samurdhi benefits?
If you did not receive Samurdhi benefits how would you manage your family needs?

Family history
Information regarding previous generation of the family
Their occupation
Their economic background
Their assets
Their social conditions

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Education back ground of other family members
Interviewee’s family members’ education background
Their employment situation

Plan for the future

Have you planed your future livelihoods?
Do you have any plan for your children?
Do you hope to invest your savings in future?
Have you plan to migrate from the village in future? (To abroad or to any other villages in the
country)
If yes please explain your plans and why did you select such kinds of plan for your future?
Do you think it will help for overcome your poverty situation in future forever?
Why did your plans failure until now?

Own perception
How do you explain poverty?
What are the bad experiences of poverty you have faced?
How did poverty affect on your education when you are studying?
How did you manage those problems?
Have you given up your choices due to your poverty situation?

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 Appendix 3

Interview guide for key informants

Code of interviewee:
Sex:
Age:
Type of interviewee:
Place of interview:
Date of interview:
Duration of interview:
Purpose of the interview:
Background information about informant
• Age of the informant
• Sex of the informant
• Profession
• Is the informant insider of research area or out slider? (Is he/she a person of the
area or not)
• Job description and responsibilities
• How long have been working in the relevant field
• Informant’s attitudes about his profession (satisfy with work or not) and reasons
• Informant’s knowledge about the area which research is carrying out (geographical
back ground)

General information of people who live in the research area

Economic activities
• major income sources of the villagers
• additional income generating activities of the villagers
• average monthly income of a house hold
• employment opportunities in the area
• do they earn sufficient income
• type of job opportunities people who are engaging out side of the village
• informant’s perception of villager’s monthly income (Sufficient/insufficient)

Types of programs/services supply from informant’s organization for the people in the
study area
• names of programs
• nature of the programs/services
• types of special programs/services/attentions paid for poor people in the area
• selection methods of beneficiaries
• reasons for conducting such kind of programs/services/attentions
• time duration of these programs/services
• coast of these kinds of programs
• expectations of providing such a programs/services
• successfulness or failure of the programs
• causes for success or failure

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Poor people’s/ villagers’ participation of such kinds of programs
• is people interested to take part in these programs
• people’s response for these things
• relationship between people and organization
• how often do they gather with officially with officers of the organization
• regularity of the participation of poor people for meeting or discussions conducted
by the organization (if possible take percentage)
• poor people’s ideas about these programs (in informant’s point of view)

Success stories (about people who over came from poverty situation due to
organization’s special programs)
• details of families who overcome poverty
• causes for their successful
• present situation of such families
• their stability or strength (are their any possibility to become fast situation)
• how others (still could not get success) should engage with programs?(informant’s
ideas)

Organizational evaluation methods of poverty and their programs

• evaluation types (how do you evaluate Poor’s successful)
• frequency of evaluating process (regularly, often, very often)
• future tends (what would be the future tends of present programs)

Problems facing the organization

• types of problems(details)
• causes for such kinds of problems
• solutions(explaining)

Future poverty related planning of the organization

• forms of future planning (programs)
• who will be the beneficiaries of future programs
• selection method
• reasons (why is that)

Interrelation with other poverty alleviation project of the study area

• identify other institute or organization which are working on poverty in study area
• linkages between other organizations
• important of the interrelation
• people’s attitude of other organizations
• your thinking about other organizations
• is it important to have more institute or organizations for the similar purpose
• how it become important

Informant’s own thought of poverty and poor people in the area

• reasons for their poverty
• people’s feelings about poverty
• ways to eradicate poverty

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• What is the process that people go through as they attempt to move out of their
poverty?
• From the perspective of those who involve escaping from the poverty, what are the
significant barriers to overcome the problem?
• What do you think about the government policy and present poverty alleviation
program?
• According to your idea how can alleviate rural poverty?

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