HISHALINI: ONLY FOR POLITICAL AND MEDIA CONSUMPTION

On 15 August 2009, the bodies of two girls were found floating in the Torrington canal at Baudhaloka Mawatha, Colombo 07. How many of us remember this incident now?

- M.S.M.Ayub

They were 13- year-old Maduveeran Jeewarani and 16-year-old Lakshamahan Sumadhi from Maskelliya, and they had worked as domestic helpers in the houses of two businessmen at Baudhaloka Mawatha. Some reports said that they had been working in the same house.

The police who initiated investigations into these mysterious deaths claimed they found a suicide note signed by the girls, yet the families of the victims stated that the handwriting of the purported suicide note did not match their daughters’. They also noted that the water level in the canal is too low for drowning.

The huge outcry over the incident prompted the authorities to arrest a businessman. Women’s organisations issued statements and demanded protection of rights of children, domestic workers and women. It prompted the state agencies responsible for the rights of the children and domestic workers to act for few days.

The incident was soon forgotten by all concerned, including the plantation community which the girls belonged to. Everything in respect of employing domestic workers and child labour continued without protests or reservations from any quarters.

Eleven years later, interestingly in a house at the same Baudhaloka Mawatha another girl – also a teenager and from the very plantation area - has died under mysterious circumstances. She had been working at former minister Rishad Bathiudeen’s residence. Police also said that the girl has been sexually abused for the past several years. This time too, the incident has created a huge outcry over the girl’s death with estate workers launching street protests across the plantation areas. Unlike during the previous incident, the ruling coalition and the media supportive of it are also demanding justice to the girl – Hishalini.