Liberation Movement says this is inhumane

A prison official order states that only one sanitary pad should be allocated to a female inmate per month and this is inhuman, said Attorney-at-law Swasthika Arulingam yesterday, at a protest organized in front of the Welikada prison.

The Liberation Movement also planned on handing over sanitary pads to the inmates as a mark of condemning the order.“we are doing this as a political statement to say that we will take care of our sisters at least for a month. This is just a political statement, and not charity. I don’t think we should compensate the Government’s inadequacy. Our main demand is that the Government should cover these concerns,” said Ms. Arulingam, a representative of the Liberation Movement speaking to the Daily Mirror.

“We ask Thalatha Athukorale why she has endorsed such an order,” she quizzed.

When the Daily Mirror contacted the Minister of Justice & Prison Reforms, Thalatha Athukorale she dismissed the allegations and refused to comment on the sanitary pad order. However, she assured that the welfare of the female inmates will be taken care of and that there were reforms underway of which she did not disclose specific information.

According to the Liberation Movement, which consists of predominantly females, there are only three toilets for 178 female inmates. In another section there are only two toilets for about 110 female inmates.

“Even those toilets are clogged and unusable. They leak during the rainy season,” Arulingam said.