Consequences of Poverty and Vulnerability in Eravur Pattu DS Division in Batticaloa

Abstract

Poverty in Sri Lanka is still largely a rural phenomenon. Poorer households tend to have higher dependency ratios, fewer years of schooling, lower participation in the labor force, and significantly higher unemployment. The poverty head count index dropped down to 7.6 in 2009 (Department of Census and Statistics) in Sri Lanka. But it is not only one dimension of poverty, there are many dimen5ions contributing to the poverty. Eravur Pattu DS Division in Batticaloa of the Eastern Province was selected to analyze the poverty and vulnerability aspects of the people. This DS division includes 3 GN divisions and 76442 Total populations. 56.23 % of total families come under Samurdi programme. The objective of the study is to analyzed the consequences of poverty and vulnerability. 100 samples were selected to the analysis using primary and secondary data. Descriptive statistics analysis was done to analyze the result using SPSS lxl.0. The finding reveals that nearly more than half of the poor depend on agriculture for livelihood. Another 30 percent depend on other rural nonagricultural activities male-heated household5 are associated with greater poverty. Poorer hou5eholds tend to have higher dependency ratios, fewer years of schooling, lower rates of participation the labor force, and significantly higher rates of unemployment. The high percentage SJ the sample, major livelihood is the labour and their income between the ranges of Rs 5000 to Rs 10000. This reflects the income poverty and deprivation. Regarding the education level of the family heads, it is mostly primary and this also contribute5 to the lower level of living standard. Economic grow could reduce poverty considerably. Developing sustainable ways obtain crops, livestock, fish and forest products are necessary to reduce the pressures own women and children. The governments together with the private sector and/or international organizations can develop and improve irrigation channels to increase agricultural productivity