bill: Last News

COLOMBO (News 1st) – Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe said that a bill on gender equality and women's empowerment will be submitted to Parliament soon and he also instructed the Women Parliamentarians’ Caucus to prepare the bill. The President emphasized that women's representation should be increased not only in the Parliament but also in other sectors and the public sector as well as the private sector should focus their attention in this regard. The President pointed out that the representation of women in the First Council of Sri Lanka was 2% and 91 years after universal suffrage, the representation of women in the current parliament is only 5.3%. President Ranil Wickremesinghe made these observations by joining the Committee Stage Debate on the budget proposal for the financial year 2023 in parliament on Thursday (01). Statement issued by the President's Media Division:“I expect to speak especially on the Ministry under me. We thank the Women Parliamentarians’ Caucus for commencing a 16-day campaign against Gender-Based Violence (GBV). It was in 1931 that Sri Lankans got the universal franchise.

However, the State Council did not have any female representation. The group of females including former President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s grandmother requested the Donoughmore Commission to permit the females to contest at the election as well.

At the election, not a single female won a seat. Eight months later after the demise of my great grandfather J H Meedeniya, Mrs Mollamure was appointed. On the other hand, Mrs Florence Senanayake was appointed from the opposition side.

Sri Lankans Ranil Wickremesinghe