Vani Susai, a 31-year-old schoolteacher working in Batticaloa, Sri Lanka’s eastern province, recalls the early signs of an economic crisis in the last week of January. “That Sunday morning, my gas ran out. I called the agency. I was told that they would not be able to deliver cylinders for several days. I was busy arranging cylinders, visiting several shops one after the other. I finally got a cylinder after three hours.”
After two months, the supply of LPG is reduced to once a week. “Everyone goes to this place on Sundays and stands in a queue which starts forming at 4 in the morning. They give 300 tokens at a time, while there are more than 1,000 people in the queue.” Susai says, as a working woman and mother, she cannot find time to stand in the queue. Her husband works in the Gulf country. “If I get a chance, I’ll leave.”
Last week, over a dozen people fled from Lanka to Tamil Nadu under economic pressure. The country is facing one of its worst economic conditions since April 2019 due to the Easter Sunday blasts, two Covid waves and now the Russo-Ukraine war. The backbone of Lanka’s economy has been hit hard by the country’s tourism industry. The island country is struggling hard to manage supplies with almost everything imported from outside.
Susai says that her normal expenditure on the family of three, her mother, daughter and the things they needed was around 30,000 Sri Lankan rupees per month. “But this month, I have already spent Rs 83,000. There is a shortage of milk powder. One has to struggle for rice and pulses. There is load shedding for seven hours but there is no candle. A strip of 12 tablets of Paracetamol costs Rs 420 and many medicines have gone missing in the market. My salary is Rs 55,000 and we can manage with the cash sent by my husband. But can we eat money?”
Dr. Samantha Kumara, a dental surgeon from Kurunegala North-Western Province, has a similar situation. His son is studying in Australia and he has not been able to send him money. “All dollar accounts have been closed,” says Dr. Kumnara.
Rahman Thaslim, who worked as a taxi driver, has now taken up carpentry work in the western coastal city of Negombo. He wonders whether India will give him asylum or should he try for Dubai. Thaslim, who changed five jobs in the last three years, says he is struggling to run a household. “I got some firewood due to lack of gas and fuel, but my wife never cooked on firewood. And it takes much longer to cook on firewood; She also works.”