Recognition of Transgender Community in Domestic Legal Regime: A Comparative Analysis between Sri Lanka and India

Transgender is an Umbrella term to define the people whose gender identity and gender expression differ from their gender assign at birth. At present, the concept of transgender has acquired a great attention in the western world and the number of territories legally validate the transgender community and their rights through national legislations. Concerning South Asian context, the third gender concept is recognized by the Indian Supreme Court but unfortunately, the legal system of Sri Lanka is reluctant to amend the laws to ameliorate the position of the transgender community. This research mainly focused on transgender identity and the laws relating to the transgender community in Sri Lanka and India. The purpose of the research is to examine the existing laws relating to transgender identity in both countries. Moreover, this piece of work tries to identify the contribution of law in improving the position of the transgender community in these territories. Further, this work mainly used the comparative research method and based on internet retrieved documents. Through this work it suggests and identifies the ways and means to improve the condition of Sri Lankan transgender community. Recommendations will be made in this respect. Keywords: transgender community, third gender, legal system, legal recognition, society

A Scrutiny to Pre-School Children’ Activity Fostering the Fundamental Aspect of Literacy

The purpose of this seven-month study is to closely examine the pre-school children’s activity which represents the stepping stone of reading interest as the fundamental aspect of literacy. The subject chosen were 38 students of two Prekindergarten–Kindergarten in Landungsari village, a citified area of Malang city, East Java Province, Indonesia. Doing initial survey, holding structured interview, reinvigorating the existing facilities, and networking with the local social units were the integrated approach done to intensify the study performed. Furthermore, the role of family and volunteers whose attention was dedicated to children development was also observed to find out their support in nurturing children to love reading. Aside from pilot data and primary data, secondary data from the local government recording the people’s education within the environment of the observed subjects were used as references to the prevalent reading culture. The result of the research disclosed that 28 and 15 children attending the two Prekindergarten–Kindergartens exposed their self-development through creativity based on their imagination after listening to the selected storytelling materials. Additionally, building visual communication and increasing numeric vocabularies were crucial indicators of the research subjects to love reading. The rise of this reading interest, nevertheless, cannot be detached from the collaboration between teachers or guides of the pre-schoolers and the individuals who are committed to the education of early age children; not to mention a conducive atmosphere and supporting programs from both formal and informal institutions. Keywords: Pre-school children, reading interest, fundamental aspect of literacy, education

“Hush, Girl! Don’t Share Your Family Troubles with the Outside World”

Domestic abuse is a significant problem in Sri Lanka with government statistics showing that 17% of ever-married women between the ages of 15 to 49 have experienced some form of domestic abuse. However, this number could be higher in reality, given the prevalence of physical and emotional abuse in situations where partners live together without being married, in situations where the woman is under 15 years of age (Sri Lanka has a 2% child marriage rate), and due to low self-reportage. Although Sri Lankans can only be married after they reach 18 years of age, the war and economic conditions have resulted in a high number of child marriages in recent times. In this paper, I look at two main questions: What is the correlation between child marriage and the beginning of abuse? What is the correlation between pregnancy and the beginning of abuse? The paper draws from desk research. The paper looks only at physical abuse: It is acknowledged that the arena of emotional abuse was recognized only in 2005 after the Prevention of Domestic Violence Act was introduced in 2005 and that even now, such abuse is not given the prominence it deserves in conversations on domestic abuse. However, it was not possible in this research to examine emotional abuse due to time and resource constraints and also because even today the aspect of domestic physical abuse is also not accepted as a problem in Sri Lanka. Keywords: Domestic abuse; intimate partner violence; silencing women in intimate partnerships, child marriages, marital rape