SRI LANKA COUNTRY PROFILE

CHAPTER 5: DEMOGRAPHIC DYNAMICS AND SUSTAINABILITY
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CP2002-SRI LANKA PAGE 14 Of 106
Decision-Making: The Ministry of Health and Indigenous Medicine with the assistance of Population Division
make decisions regarding population and reproductive health. An important development influencing policy
planning and implementation relating to population matters in Sri Lanka was brought about with the establishment
of Provincial Councils in 1989 and consequent devolution of management responsibility to Provincial Ministries of
Health. There is also the National Health Council (NHC), which is chaired by the Prime Minister, serving as an
important Government body which makes decisions on population and health.
Programmes and Projects: Population and reproductive health programmes implemented during last 10 years
provide comprehensive information, education and services on reproductive health and family planning through
government, NGO and private sector agencies. Focused attention and alternative strategies implemented to reach
vulnerable groups of the population such as adolescents, population affected by the conflict, migrant women and
their adolescent children, young female workers in investment promotion zones, urban slum dwellers, plantation
population and geographic pockets of unmet needs. Few examples for the above programmes are as follows:
Reproductive health information, counseling and services to adolescents and youths; Improving the access and
quality of reproductive health services to population affected by conflict; and, Improving services for elderly and
ageing population. The population and reproductive health policy aims at achieving a higher quality of life for its
people by providing quality reproductive health information and services, achieving gender equality, providing
health care and social support for the elderly, promoting the economic benefits of migration and urbanization while
controlling their adverse social and health effects and reaching a stable population size in the long run.
Status: When the total population of Sri Lanka and the net annual addition to it was smaller, it was possible to
support the growing numbers of people without damaging the environment. Today, almost 19 million inhabitants
use renewable and non-renewable resources at a much higher rate than ever before. Apart from the growing
number, each person’s demand is multiplied by varying degrees due to the availability and accessibility of goods
and services and the changing patterns of consumption. Even though population growth has now declined
significantly, numbers added annually to the country’s population is still significant. In the mean time, the change
in population age structure, particularly population ageing, and maturing labour force could have major impact on
economy and consequently on environmental degradation.
Capacity-Building, Education, Training and Awareness-Raising: At the level of formal school education
population and environmental issues has been incorporated into their curricula. Apart from that students are
engaged in number of activities that provide knowledge and improve their attitudes to safe guard their own physical
environment. At the University level also physical environmental issues have been incorporated into almost all
degree programmes. Moreover there is a M.Sc Programme titled “Environmental Science” introduced recently.
Capacity building activities are particularly undertaken among the school going children in order to safeguard the
environment. Capacity building among them has strengthened through organizing activities such as poster and
speech competitions, identification of plants and protection of rare pieces and plants. Capacity building among the
business communities, particularly among the industry groups, could be considered as essential since their activities
are strongly influencing environmental degradation.
Information: Population related information is usually disseminated by the Department of Census & Statistics and
the Population Division of the Ministry of Health. Apart from these two organizations, many government
departments and organizations collect population related information in their routine activities and make available
for many sections of the population through their publications.