"It is estimated that 50 million women are missing from the population statistics of South Asia; women who are not alive as a consequence of violence and discrimination," said Allison Aldred, regional director, Oxfam GB. "This statistic undermines social and economic achievements over decades."

Speaker after speaker reiterated the gravity of this crisis, especially domestic violence, at the launch ceremony and looked at the issue from a South Asian, national and district-level perspective. The key speakers at the launch included: Allison Aldred, Oxfam GB’s Regional Director; Phil Esmonde, Oxfam GB’s Programme Representative (Sri Lanka); Pearl Stephen, Women’s Development Centre (Kandy); Manarf, SHADE (Vavuniya); Douglas, SEEDO (Badalkubura) and Ambika Sathkunanathan, International Centre for Ethnic Studies (Colombo).

The Sri Lanka campaign has been conceived, facilitated and resourced by Oxfam GB. It is a response to the growing incidents of violence against women in spite of immense efforts by women’s groups as well as local, national and international organisations to eliminate it.

Its objective is to bring about a change in current gender-biased attitudes, beliefs and practices in three years by creating an enabling environment for public dialogue on violence against women and by generating a collective as well as a visible stand against it.

The campaign is unique as it has been developed by community organisations working all over the country. The campaign strategy has been chalked out by a steering committee that consists of ten national NGOs and a National Alliance that comprises a larger group of non-government and community-based organisations.

The campaign, which is part of a larger South Asia regional effort by Oxfam, will be carried forward at the district and grassroots level by community-based organisations. At the national level the campaign will endeavour to give media exposure to the work done at the community level. Each district will have a public event to launch the campaign at the community level.

Several reports point to the fact that in Sri Lanka around 60 per cent of women are subjected to domestic violence. According to statistics compiled by the Sri Lanka police based on complaints, there were 2,155 cases of violence against women during 2003, of these 690 cases (32 per cent) were of battering, assault and injury.

The statistics also indicate that out of these, 1,006 women (47 per cent) had reported sexual abuse and harassment. The maximum number of cases was reported from Kegalle, where 66 complaints were registered, followed by 64 in Galle. In the capital Colombo, 31 such cases were reported to the police.

However, these statistics do not include figures from areas that are not under the control of the government in the north and the east. Also, a large number of cases go unrecorded as both the survivor and the family fail to report the matter to the police and law enforcement authorities, fearing social stigma. Lengthy and delayed legal proceedings are the other reasons for not registering complaints.

The campaign aims to bring this crisis into public domain and debate and help women find a voice. It will also encourage men and women to join forces to put an end to such abuse.