RTI in action: the lack of Tamil representation in government organizations

Shanthan* of the Haldummulla area faced many challenges and inconveniences due to the lack of Tamil speaking staff members at the Haldummulla Divisional Secretariat Office. Haldummulla is an area with a significant Tamil speaking population given its many Muslim and Hindu residents.

The reason as to why there is no allocation of staff members by the government to facilitate the needs of minority speakers was a burning question Shanthan had.  It even violates the national language principle which maintains that Sinhala and Tamil are the two official and national languages while English is the link language. Thus, all government organizations that adopt the national language policy should be fulfilling these requirements.

However, given the lack of human resources and the majority of Sinhala speakers in the country that is taken for granted government organizations have failed to live up to the policy in practice. However, it is expected that government organizations in areas where the residents are a significant number of minority speakers the language facility is made available.

Shanthan, eager to know the reason for this lack of Tamil speaking staff in an area with such a significant Tamil speaking community filed an RTI as he learnt of the act at a workshop conducted by the Sri Lanka Press Institute funded by USAID through its Strengthening Democratic Governance and Accountability project activity.

Shanthan filed an RTI application with the Haldummulla Divisional Secretariat office in October 2018. He wanted answers to the following:

1. The number of applications for employment over the last five years
2. The number of applications over the last five years based on ethnicity
3. Eligibility of accepted applications
4. Deficiencies of rejected applications
5. Numbers of accepted and rejected applications
6. Details of Selection on the basis of ethnicity

Shanthan received a response from the District Council saying that they did not possess the requested information. He was asked to contact the Office of the Assistant Commissioner of the Local Government to obtain the required information.

The SLPI staff contacted Shanthan in February for follow up on the subject. We learnt that he would file an application to the Office of the Assistant Commissioner of Local Government in the immediate future.   Shanthan hopes that this would be an impetus for minority groups who are not privileged by fundamental rights to exercise their right to know and seek justice.

Furthermore, Shanthan said that with the RTI knowledge he gained he can fearlessly ask questions about the deprivations he faced in any context. He added that he is empowered to use RTI for the benefit of the masses in his area of residence.

*Identity has been changed in order to protect the individual’s privacy. 

This update was prepared by participants of the Information and Communication Training Workshop conducted by the Sri Lanka Press Institute (SLPI) through a grant funded by the United States Agency for International Development through the Strengthening Democratic Governance and Accountability Project Activity.

“The contents of this post are the sole responsibility of SLPI and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.”