AN OVERVIEW OF HOW RECENT CRISES HAVE IMPACTED
THE QUALITY OF LIFE OF COLOMBO’S WORKING CLASS POOR
From 2020, multiple lockdowns meant that many daily wage earners were unable to earn an income to feed their family. This, combined with rising costs in the form of food, fuel and utilities has led to cash in hand being stretched across increasing and competing expenses.
Since mid-2020, Researchers at Colombo Urban Lab have been working on a multi-country research study ‘Living Off-Grid Food and Infrastructure Collaboration’ exploring the nexus between food and infrastructure, specifically access to the grid. The findings depicted below are a result of three years of research, working closely with communities in two settlements in Wanathamulla, Colombo: Seevalipura, a watte, and Sirisara Uyana, a high rise housing complex built by the government.
The timeline follows the lives of two families from Wanathamulla and depicts the ways in which their lives have been impacted over the past three years.
COVID-19 and the subsequent economic crisis led to multiple shocks, leaving Colombo’s working class poor battling increased levels of precarity with little Government support.
These crises have disproportionately affected Colombo’s working class poor, with the impacts being felt instantly but also gradually building up over time. This also means that families are having to use a host of strategies and means to try and deal with the direct and indirect impacts.
Prior to the crisis, it is important to remember that these families were eating three meals a day, were able to pay utility bills and send their children for tuition. This is no longer the case with families being forced to choose between essential items every day based on the cash they have in hand. Sometimes, even borrowing on high interest to make ends meet.
Reducing the quantity and quality of meals, foregoing meat, fish, fruits and eggs ⠀
Unplugging devices and in some cases disconnecting from the grid
Not sending children to school due to unaffordability of school related costs
Pawning jewelry and taking high-interest loans to manage expenses
Foregoing essential medicine no longer available for free at Government clinics
Undertaking an additional job to help manage household expenditure
This page was conceptualised and led by Anisha Gooneratne with research support from Arani Cooray, designed by Ruwani Rajapakse, and developed by Manuja Mallikarachchi.
We are grateful to all the households in our research sites who gave us their valuable time over the years to share and discuss their lived experiences. In Colombo, the research was led by Iromi Perera along with Meghal Perera, Anisha Gooneratne and Channaka Jayasinghe who were part of the research team that conducted these interviews with households. The Living Off-Grid Food and Infrastructure Collaboration (LOGIC) is a project funded by UK Research and Innovation Global Challenges Research Fund, and is a collaboration between the Institute of Development Studies; the African Centre for Cities, University of Cape Town; the Indian Institute of Human Settlements, Bangalore; Colombo Urban Lab and the University of Ghana, Accra.
