Review of Welfare Activities of Sri Lanka (1948-1977)

Review of welfare activities in Sri Lanka (1948 -1977)

In 1948, Sri Lanka achieved a historically significant and most awaited landmark in historical evolution, which is Independence. Well, before that Sri Lanka has been ruled by different foreign forces for many years. With the achievement of independence, Sri Lanka adopted a New Westminster style constitution in 1948, modeled on the British structure. From the influences comprised by the late colonial state, the newly independent government of Sri Lanka continued to develop its welfare state based on the earlier social policy initiatives. The Sri Lankan welfare programs were mainly built around three major pillars.

1.      Education sector

2.      National insurance

3.      National Health

All the welfare activities were logically based on the above three pillars as same as The colonial state. The welfare initiatives from 1948 to 1968 which were based on the high three components (education, health, transport, food subsidies, and public welfare assistance) carried around 40% of total public expenditure (Kelagma, 2004).

Education sector

Education is one of the most essential welfare activities for a particular economy. Without a proper education system, such a country cannot achieve growth or at least survive as a country. A sound education system enhances reasoning ability, develop cognitive skills, improves problem-solving, and develops language and mathematical capabilities (Kelagma, 2004). Therefore investing in education is a much more important fact that should take into account by the policymakers. Kannangara report (1943) cited by Kelagama (2004), it’s recommending a system of universal and compulsory free education from kindergarten to the university. Thereby it is established that welfare activities in Sri Lanka were based on universalized principles.

Educational policies such as the introduction of free education, switching of the medium of instruction to Sinhala and Tamil, the takeover of assisted schools, and the extension of science teaching into rural areas, open up new paths to the a society such as medicine and law which were previously dominated by the western Educated in the middle classes. In addition to the above policies, school midday meal and scholarships, textbooks and a set of uniforms had been supplied as student Welfare activities in this period.
Further school transport was subsidized by The government (Ministry of Education, 2013). Apart from that in the 1960s, Curriculum Development Centre (CDC) was established to develop the curricula for all the subjects and help in teacher development as well.

Education facilities in this era were much more available as such people can get on with Competitive jobs. According to the population census of 1946 cited by Kelagama (2004), the general literacy level of the male was 70 percent, and female was 44 percent, thereby the education system was aimed to develop the general literacy level of the society and turning out persons for middle-class occupations.

When analyzed the government expenditure on education as percentage Gross Domestic Product (GDP), it is noted that investing in education had gradually increased. In 1950, government expenditure as a ratio GDP recorded at 2.5 percent whereas in 1971 it is increased up to 4.1 percent. The total number of government schools was gradually increased from 1950 to 1980. It was recorded that in 1950, 3,188 government schools were enrolling around 1.3 million students and in 1981 It was raised up to 9,521 with a student base approximately 3.4 million. Meanwhile, the number of teachers in the government schools was gradually increased from 25,581 To 141,186 in the period above. When looked into the higher education sector, it is noted that several students who are entering the universities are getting increased year by year. Accordingly, in 1950, it is stated that there were 2,036 university undergraduates and university staff of 157, whereas in 1981, there were 17,656 university students and 1,609 university staff (refer to Table 3).

Health sector

If The people who live in the country is unhealthy, so as the economy. Therefore being healthy is very much important fact that helps to grow the economy. When analyzing the social policy documents, the Compton Report in 1950 had made a significant impact on the enactment of Health Services Act of 1952. There were three main achievements in that report, which were,

1.      The abolition of private practice for doctors in the state sector

2.      Enabling the development concurrently of preventive  and curative services

3.      Outlining the rationale for equitable universal health service as a matter of right

Specialists In the government, the sector had allowed treating private patients up to 1970s, but it later banned until the economic liberalization in 1977. From 1977 consultants were free to see individual patients in their off-hours, and this led to the popularity of the word “channeling.”

After 1948, development of health services continued and were expanded gradually.  In 1950 it was recorded 263 hospitals and 19,959 Beds and in 1980 they were raised to 380 hospitals and 42,275 beds. Further, in 1950 doctors, assistant medical practitioners, and nurses recorded as 674,675 and 1387 respectively whereas in 1980 it was increased up to 2055, 1018 and 6834 respectively (refer Table 1).

When looked into the health indexes such as maternal mortality and infant mortality, Sri Lanka has achieved significant progress in those areas (Lakshman, 1997). The successfulness of those indicators mostly based on two national policies relating to health: free health care in the public sector and the provision of services close to the client From the 1930s onwards (Kelagma, 2004).
Further Kelagama (2004) stated that with the rapid development of these indicators, they lead to appreciate many other factors, including literacy rate, women empowerment and widespread The network of health care facilities. Additionally, he stated that, even though such improvements had been achieved, the ratio of government health expenditure to GDP in Sri Lanka has been low but Sri Lanka was cited as a healthy country as a result of supportive social policy (refer to Table 2).

Social security / National insurance

Social security or social services emerged with the Social Services Commission Report in 1947 (Lakshman, 1997). Its main focus was on policy questions relating to social security, unemployment, financial distress, old age, and disability destitution. With the effects of its recommendations, it was decided to establish a plan that would be benefited financially to the wage earners in the public and commercial sectors. According to this recommendation, Employee’s Provident Fund (EPF) was established in 1958, which provide lump sum benefit to be paid to the worker at retirement following the contribution made. In the beginning, it was dedicated to cover the institutions which had more than 5 employees whereas it was banned after 1971 regardless of the number of employees in the organization.

Apart From the above three pillars, another significant aspect of the Sri Lankan welfare policy relates to housing, public utilities, and personal social services.  The housing policy mainly considered in alleviating difficulties of the middle and low-income groups in the urban sector (Kelagma, 2004). The concept of housing policy was primarily ignored because of the low rates of urbanization in Sri Lanka. Accordingly, the establishment of the Ministry of Housing in 1953, and the passing of the National Housing Act in 1954 marked a special milestone in the development of housing policy.

The Public utilities such as water, electricity, transportation, etc. are the same as significant as other welfare activities. In the modern world,, these are identified as social infrastructure facilities. In the late 1950s and 1960s, the nationalization of road passenger services and the aid for transport was seen as having separate social welfare benefits. With the help of cheap and extended transportation facilities, other welfare services like education, health, and other services will also be facilitated.

Personal Social services are the services which are provided to vulnerable people in a country. Vulnerable people who are pure of help from someone, for an example disabled, children, old aged people. The personal social services, however, remained neglected as an aspect of public policy (Kelagma, 2004). Unlike the other social welfare activities, countries were not paid much attention to those particular groups, because the mindfulness of them would be supplied by their family or kin networks. Alailima (1995) cited by Kelagama (2004) stated that the total cost of public welfare and social security schemes constituted less than one percent of public expenditure.

Conclusion

As A whole, when analyzing the welfare activities, it depicts the effect to one of the primary economic indicators in the economy. That is per capita income of Sri Lanka in US $ had shown an increasing trend from 1965 to 1977 (refer figure 1). The impact of spending on education, health, and other welfare activities would have been a majorly contributed to such a trend. If further expanded, expenditures on education cause a lower unemployment rate, growth in literacy rates, thereby increasing the output of the economy, which leads to developing the per capita income. Additionally, spend on infrastructure facilities would cause growth in the productivity of the country, since it has facilitated the daily routines of the people utilizing utilities such as electricity, transport, etc. Finally, it is noted that from 1948 to 1977, there were several welfare activities conducted which eventually benefited the Sri Lankan economy as a whole.

Appendix - 01

Table 1: Growth of health facilities and personnel, 1950-1980

Category/Year	1950	1960	1970	1980
Beds	19,959	29,816	37,735	42,275
Hospitals(a)	263	289	326	380
Doctors(b)	674	1,173	1,932	2,055
Assistant Medical Practitioners	676	1,107	1,205	1,018
Nurses	1,387	3,232	5,542	6,834

Notes: a – Excluding maternity homes

            b - in the Department of Health

Source: Health Administration Reports as quoted in Dilemmas of Development: Fifty Years of Economic Change in Sri Lanka (1997)

Table 2: GHE/GDP ratio and health indicators

Decade	GHE/GDP	Year	Maternal mortality rate	Infant mortality rate
The 1950s	1.95	1950	55.3	82.3
The 1960s	2.12	1960	30.2	57
The 1970s	1.81	1970	14.5	47.5

Notes: GHE – Government health expenditure

Source: WHO (2002a) as quoted in Economic Policy in Sri Lanka: Issues and Debates (2004)

Table 3: Trends in education provisions and attainment, 1950-1981

Category/Year	1950	1960	1971	1981
Government Schools	3,188	4,394	8,585	9,521
Students in government schools	1,349,345	2,192,379	2,828,070	3,451,358
Teachers in government schools	38,086	69,658	94,858	135,869
Education expenditure as a % of GDP	2.5	4.4	4.1	2.4
University students	2,036	3,684	12,239	17,656
University staff	157	269	1,109	1,609
Adult literacy rate	65.4	71.6	78.5	87.2
·         Male	75.9	79.3	85.6	91.1
·         Female	53.6	63.2	70.9	83.2

Note: Literacy rates are for 1953 and 1963 respectively

Source: Department of Census and Statistics; Ministry of Education; Central Bank of Sri Lanka; University Grants Commission as quoted in  Economic Policy in Sri Lanka: Issues and Debates (2004)