By Yash Nanayakkara
As the pandemic slowly dies down in Sri Lanka, it is leaving the country in a state of bankruptcy. Less foreign exchange reserves, less business in the tourism and export industry, and less revenue overall. However, people have now realized that all of these problems began to arise more ferociously when the lockdowns began. So, a question lingering in the minds of some Sri Lankans is, “Were the lockdowns really worth it?”
Unlike developed countries, who had the capability and revenue to stay financially strong throughout the lockdowns, developing countries like Sri Lanka began to crumble right from the start, with our already-unstable economy teetering.
Sri Lanka’s main income was from the tourism industry, which came to a screeching halt during the lockdown, with no foreign visitors coming to the country. The tourism industry is the third-biggest industry in Sri Lanka. Over $3 billion US dollars was lost from tourism revenue, which could have helped keep the economy in shape as well as repaying the debts we have to other countries. In such a time of crisis, unemployment began to rise. About 200,000 people lost their jobs in the tourism industry alone, and over 150,200 extra jobs were lost due to the inability to pay salaries in other industries. Others had their income and salaries decreased exponentially, to the point where it became a struggle to pay their necessary taxes. Our economy growth performance in 2020 was at 3.6%, one of the worst growth performances on record! And the very first lockdown in Sri Lanka, which lasted for about three months, restricted most of the economic activities, especially in the industrial and service sectors, leading to a definite impact on the economy.
Foreign debt increased exponentially to $9,430,740,000 in 2021, about 119% of its GDP, and the country’s economy was still spiraling downwards. And this economy is still far from recovery, as prices have increased at an abnormal rate, and people are now out of sorts and fighting in rebellion against the government. Inflation increased from 29.8% in April 2022 to 39.1% in May 2022, and the bills for basic commodities, such as water and electricity, skyrocketed.
Household income dropped dramatically for many, turning people into what is known as the ‘new poor.’ A telephone survey undertaken by UNICEF and the UNDP in May 2020 confirmed how harsh and severe the household income crisis was, and further proved that the pandemic was having an effect mostly on those paid on a daily basis. 65% of daily wage workers who responded to the survey had lost their entire incomes while 31% had experienced reduced incomes. In fact, the survey also showed that 57% of respondents had begun to draw down on their savings, 35% had taken out loans or borrowed from others while 21% had pawned some of their possessions. However, by taking on loans and reducing their assets, then they simply found it even harder for them to come back to their former financial stability. Many people have suffered the fate of becoming the new poor, one such person being Niluka. Niluka was a married woman with three children living in Colombo with her husband Ramesh, who ran a small import business. Before the COVID-19 crisis, she lived what she thought to be a comfortable and secure life, with others looking at her as a middle-class woman with a lovely house, a car, and a profitable family business. However, when the country went into lockdown in March 2020, her life was dramatically changed. Their income vanished, as their business failed, with no freight coming in. On the 19th of April, Niluka withdrew her last LKR4,100 from her bank account. While she was helped by the government on leases and loans, the family had to make cuts and, on many days, the family had only two meals. In desperation, Niluka asked the bank for a LKR10,000 loan but received no response. She turned to social media and, as a result, a friend luckily heard about her situation and offered to provide a loan, giving her LKR10,000 almost immediately. She rushed to purchase essential goods for her family. Fortunately, her mother-in-law, who lives in the same house, received LKR5,000 from the government. However, all this money was still insufficient for a family of 6 to survive for even a month. Niluka and her family continue to face an uncertain future and is still desperately in need of further government support. Her family is just one example of the many people in Sri Lanka who have suddenly fallen from security to absolute insecurity. They are the new poor.
(Please note that the above story was true, but the names of the people have been changed.)
All of this family financial instability caused the ‘new poor’ to cut down on their food consumption, causing food insecurity. The same survey by UNICEF and UNDP portrayed how 30 per cent of respondents had, by early May, already reduced their food consumption, with the biggest consumption reductions in more nutritious foods, such as dairy products, meat, eggs, and fish. Many people found it difficult to put food on the table for their families. All because of the economic setbacks that the lockdowns created, which have now turned into major financial economic crises.
Education faltered as well during the lockdown. As physical school shut down for the first time on March 13th, 2020, we were sent into a world of online learning. However, studies have shown that this was not remarkably effective, due to a large set of reasons.
It is a known fact that 95% of Sri Lankan schools are in rural areas. Therefore, most students come from under-privileged backgrounds, and so their education was harshly affected by the era of virtual learning. Many families living in poverty may not have access to computers, laptops or phones and tabs, so it was impossible to continue their children’s education properly online. Studies show that only 22.2% of Sri Lanka’s student population have laptops, which clearly indicates that most of Sri Lanka’s children would have to make do with mobile phones or tabs, or simply not join into online school if they had no device to join with. How can such children keep up their studies online when they do not have the resources to even join virtual learning?
Assessments and exams cannot be trusted to be conducted online anymore, for many students began to copy and plagiarize during tests, knowing that teachers could not monitor what they are doing at home. This led to unfair results and put the honest children in challenging situations while the cheaters cheated even more without a care in the world. The lockdowns completely disarranged the educational childhoods of many young students in Sri Lanka as well, when they could have excelled in extra-curricular activities as well as studies in physical school.
Physical school is needed very much by young children, as they then learn to socialize and make friends with fellow students. This builds their social skills and allows them to feel less isolated socially among other people. The switch to online school for 2 years certainly hindered these abilities in young children and students alike. This would obviously affect their future as adults, and so would completely disarrange their social life later on.
Furthermore, many students developed mental illnesses due to excessive screentime during online school. Many began to suffer from depression, fear, irritation, anxiety, etc. A main cause of this was shown to be social isolation. Physical school is not only an establishment for learning, but for having fun and meeting with your friends as well, something which could not be done in the restricting form of virtual learning.
In addition, considering the developing status of Sri Lanka, an educated next generation could be what is needed to help Sri Lanka start excelling in other industries! However, this shows little hope of being successful, with all the setbacks in education that Sri Lankan children have faced due to the pandemic lockdowns.
The lockdowns have also accelerated the development of mental health problems, as well as physical health issues.
Across the world, there have been increased reports of mental health issues, such as depression and anxiety, that are linked to social isolation, substantial life disruptions, and existential dread over the state of the world. Unlike lost dollars, mental health problems leave real and lasting damage which could lead to long-term complications later in life, even self-harm or suicide.
Two years of lockdowns and isolation have left many Sri Lankans in a fragile mental state. There was a case in Avissawella, where a woman attacked her husband, who abused her in a drunken state. She was said to have violently clubbed her husband to death while he was sleeping. Now, take this incident into account. This lady’s husband had abused her before, but why hadn’t she done such an action before the lockdown? This might be because the lockdown made her stressed, depressed, angered, and finally resulted in her taking action in accordance with her feelings and thoughts.
Furthermore, the number of self-poisoned patients in hospitals rapidly increased. As stated before, the possible mental damage caused to people by the lockdowns resulted in increased suicidal tendencies, thus the rise in self-poisoning rate. In between January 1st, 2019, and August 31st, 2020, 1416 individuals were admitted to hospital due to self-poisoning. Isn’t it unnerving that so many people could have died like this, possibly because of depression and ever-growing unstable mental health?
Many people resort to domestic violence, primarily child abuse, when frustrated and depressed due to confinement. The lockdowns simply accelerated this dangerous nature in many people, thus resulting in more violence, more stress, more anxiety, and therefore an even weaker mental stability. It was proved that, during the lockdown period, there was an increase in the number of calls made to the 24 hour 1938 national women’s hotline, which indicated that more abuse was occurring in that period compared to before the lockdowns. This stands to be similar for Sri Lanka. Therefore, this portrays the descent of people’s mental health during the pandemic.
As much as mental health spiraled downwards during the lockdowns, physical health too has dropped considerably in many Sri Lankans.
Lots of citizens in Sri Lanka were involved in sports of some sorts, or had a daily jog around a park, or simply did exercises elsewhere. But after the lockdowns were initiated, most of these daily exercises had to be put on hold, with outdoor activities restricted, as well as all classes closed. People soon began to on the one hand become malnourished, gaining obesity and/or other illnesses related to a lack of physical activities to indulge in. In a study conducted in Sri Lanka, more than half of the respondents (52.4%) reported decreased exercise levels, 63.5% of which had increased sitting time and 82.7% of which had increased screen time. And if this wasn’t bad enough, only a little over 50% of the population even performed exercises or indulged in sports!
As we see the above tragedies, faults and downfalls of Sri Lanka, it is clear that the lockdowns weren’t worth such hardships and difficulties, and it will take longer for Sri Lanka to come back to its former stable status.
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