by Himangi Jayasundere
Despite promises made and broken by politicians people are still hopeful of improvement and women who comprise more than half Sri Lanka’s population have many expectations for an improvement to their living conditions from a new government.

Representatives of Women’s groups who spoke to "The Island" were seeking for peace in the country, a relief to the high cost of living and an enhancement of the human rights conditions of women.

Sunila Abeysekera, Executive Director of INFORM said that they were hoping to push the new government on two issues, the setting up of a national commission for women and the criminalisation of domestic violence.

"Our past experience shows that political parties make all kinds of promises before an election and afterwards delivery is rather neglected". But she added that as civil society groups they were aware that no government will honour their promises until enough pressure is exercised upon them.

The creation of a National Commission for women was in the Women’s Charter tabled in parliament in 1993. But we have been waiting for its implementation since 1993, she said. The proposed commission which will be similar to the Human Rights Commission will create a specific and separate body which will monitor women’s human rights.

There is already draft legislation to criminalise domestic violence, which has been prepared by a group of senior lawyers. The draft copy has been discussed with different groups, Abeysekera said. However we did not have an opportunity to push it for parliament and hope to do so now, she said.

Chairperson of the Women’s Chamber of Commerce, Daya Jayaratne said that entrepreneurs required more incentive to develop entrepreneurship in and around Colombo and also in the rural areas. Apart from good incentives which would draw more people to venture into setting up businesses an atmosphere of stability is needed for them to stay in business she said.

"If a person starts a project at the end of it she must be able to see some sun shine and not be just burdened with taxes" she pointed out.

She said that businesses especially the small ones required assistance from the banking and financial sector.

"We were all waiting for a change for the better , we hope the change will happen very soon", she said.

Commenting on discussions for the setting up of an all party government, she said that there can be improvement if a government can continue without interruption and all parties can agree on the main policies.

Chairperson of the House Wives Association, Indra Ambawatte said that an end to the war and peace was upper most in her mind. If the government takes an initiative we will all support a peaceful solution. As mothers we don’t support war"

"A war doesn’t have to end with fighting it can end with negotiations" she added.