A meeting organised under NPC’s Sustainable Peace through Pluralism and Inclusive Service Delivery project funded by Freedom House brought together government officials from the Ratnapura District and Divisional Secretariats to discuss the issues faced by the Malaiyaha community regarding public service delivery.
Findings of research that identified the shortcomings in the public services received by the Malaiyaha community through service delivery institutions carried out by 10 government officials following the advanced certificate course on pluralism and inclusive service delivery at the University of Sabaragamuwa were presented at the meeting.
Facilitated by Mr. Ravindra Palliyaguru, a senior lecturer from Sabaragamuwa University, the session underscored the need to address promoting inclusive service delivery. The research findings identified existing shortcomings and the steps needed to bridge the service delivery gap for the Malaiyaha community.
Language barriers was an obstacle affecting the community’s access to essential services. Damayanthi Samarakoon, a researcher, highlighted this issue with an example from Madampawatte Estate where a pregnant woman said she could not fill out a form in Sinhala to get a nutritional supplement.
She also said that at banks, account related documents were available in Sinhala and Tamil but filling them out in Tamil led to rejection, highlighting the feelings of inequality and marginalisation perpetuated by language barriers.
"The Malaiyaha community is often afraid of interacting with officials but there's no need for this fear. Our goal is to provide public services to all communities including theirs. However, when Tamil speaking individuals from this community visit our institutions, they usually bring someone else for support. This practice can lead to them receiving additional monetary benefits from their companions,” Divisional Secretary of Pelmadulla Divisional Secretariat said.
He emphasised the need to bridge the gap in public service delivery and assured the community that they were ready to serve it effectively. Raising awareness about the employees and services provided by the government offices was crucial, he added.