The Ahikuntaka

Table 10: Distribution of number of persons employed per family and the nature of employment
(income generation)
Source of income 1 2 - 3 3 - 4 5 and above Total
Traditional Employment 157 81 39 2 279
Non traditional employment 4 2 - - 6
Farming 18 2 - - 20
Self employment/ business 8 - - - 8
Samurdhi benefits 15 - - - 15
Other income source 26 3 - - 29
Total 228 88 39 2 357
Table 10 indicates the number of people employed in a family which varies from one person per family to 5 or more, although only a
couple of families fall under the second category 0.56%. Majority of the families have one person employed, 63.86% which is followed
by the families where 2-3 people are employed 24.64%. Their sources of income generation too vary from traditional employment to
non-traditional employment as well as those who live on Samurdhi benefits. A clear majority of those surveyed adhere to traditional
employment as their main source of income generation amounting to 78.15%. The second most common source of income generation
falls within other income sources which constitutes 8.12%, while 5.6% of the sample under survey has taken up farming as their main
source of income generation. Samurdhi beneficiaries in the community amount to 4.2% an extremely small percentage of 2.24 engage
in self employment.
The analysis reveals that a significantly large section of the community still are engaged in their traditional occupations and that
the tendency to break away from traditional occupations is slow either due to their reluctance to do so or due perhaps to the nonavailability
of opportunities to do so.
Table 11: Distribution of the respondents’ surveyed in relation to their average total family income
per month
Average monthly income (LKR) Frequency % of total
Less than 5000 26 7.28
5000 - 10000 68 19.04
10001 - 15000 161 45.09
15001 - 20000 70 19.61
20001 - 25000 11 3.08
25001 - 30000 9 2.52
30001 - 35000 7 1.96
35001 - 40000 2 0.56
40001 and above 3 0.84
Total 357 100
The Ahikuntaka
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