Orphans without any help
Colombo Fort is a busy town both through the day and even the night. It is a city that practically never sleeps. There are also many who can be seen sleeping on the street side taking a brief nap after a hard days work in this bustling but crowded and polluted city. There is a set of people who live in this city tat have no where to go and they spend their days and nights on the streets of Pettah or Fort. They have no help, family or friends and no home to call their own. The streets of Fort and Pettah are their only home.
Garbage issue
It is indeed an arduous task to keep this eternally bustling city clean. Lately much was been said about the uncleanliness of the Colombo city especially Fort and Pettah. Yet through our night inspections of this bustling city, we discovered that the municipality workers are in fact doing their best to clean up the mess and keep Fort and Pettah clean. We do not need to exaggerate their inefficiency or portray them as being lazy and not doing their job properly just for the sake of getting another sensational story. This is not our intention but what we intend to so is to bring to you the true nature of what exactly is taking place in these cities. Our intention is to open the eyes of the pedestrians and those who use this city, in order to make them aware that they too have to play a big role in keeping this country clean. But that certainly is not an easy task. Our people are so used to just throwing away their refuse on the streets expecting someone else to clean it. They eat on the streets and their remnant food and other garbage is left on the pavements. The streets of Fort and Pettah are eternally littered because of the bad habbits of the people as well as some shop keepers who simply dump their garbage on the streets. Then everyone blames the poor road cleaners or CMC workers who work round the clock trying to keep the city clean but never receive a word of gratitude as the people are so inconsiderate and have no desire to play their part in keeping the city clean.
Sex Workers
When the sun goes down the made up ladies of the night begin to show up on the streets. Even Martin Wickremesinghe had written about these midnight ladies in one of his novels. He had written about the 70’s and 80’s but even today these sex workers line the streets at night. It is not only the female sex workers but even the male sex workers are plenty and they have a steady flow of customers which has made this profession quite lucrative for these sex workers. While some of these sex workers are residents of the adjacent areas there are others who travel to Fort at night telling their families that they are on night duty. They arrive in Colombo Fort at night and return to their suburban homes in the morning.We met two of these young girls who engage in sex work during the nights on the streets of Fort and Pettah. One of them had taken up this profession as her husband had died of an accident at a young age when she was just 19 and she was forced to take up this profession due to her circumstances. “I have a 29 year old son who is disabled and I have no help from anyone and this is the only profession I can engage in that will allow me to earn a living so I could take care of my son.”
These sex workers have been caught by the police many a time and have had to pay the fine and obtain their release. Sometimes when they are unable to pay the fine, they are forced to do community service and work for the police. The fine imposed on them for indecent behavior is around Rs. 100.
Around 15 of them who used to live in this place called ‘Kapiri Mudukkuwa’ now live near the Fort Railway station. “If we are given alternative housing we are ready to leave this place, but other than that we have no place to go,” they said.
There are many who have come under the brutal attack of the police as well, but they have no choice but to endure these harassment as they have no where else to go. There are so many NGO’s that claim to do so much for women, yet it is puzzling how these NGO’s are so bling to the plight of such helpless women and they do nothing to help them.
However, we heard from the Colombo Fort Police that many such sex workers have now been sent for a one year rehabilitation programme in an attempt to get them off the streets. There are many a heart wrenching stories related to these sex workers roaming the streets of Pettah, Fort, etc.
Pettah Lodge
Earlier there used to be many lodges in the Fort area but the numbers have now reduced drastically. They charge their customers by the hour rangine from Rs. 600 per hour to Rs. 2000 per hour. Currently there are around 30 long standing lodges in Pettah and Fort and they claim that based on the instructions of the police they do not rent rooms to anyone under the age of 18. Some of these lodges are over 50 years in operation. These lodge owners claim that a list of customers is given to the police on a daily basis, however, we are not guaranteed that the information provided by these customers is accurate or false. It is also alleged that some of these lodges bribe the police to escape being raided. We too checked the log books of these lodges and according to the information in them the age of their customers is within the legal limit.
Although extortion from traders by underworld gangs were believed to be taking place, when we inquired from the traders, they denied that such practices are rampant. However, these lodge owners claim that their businesses have somewhat suffered a set back in comparison to the past. We highlighted especially the lodges in Fort. But there are many other stories of the many women who have been forced into the sex trade due to poverty and social difficulties.
Suspicions over the weights of fruits that are sold
One of the most common traders seen in Fort are the fruit stalls that advertise fruit lots for Rs 100 a lot. In some shops and stalls, grapes are sold from Rs. 600 per kilo upwards. In some stalls grapes are being sold for around Rs. 350 per kilo, but in these places it is almost guaranteed that the weight is tampered with. Consumers are lured by the low price and they do not check the weight of the goods in most cases and realise only later on. When we asked a traderwho was selling grapes at 700 per kilo why his grapes were more expensive, he said “I don’t cheat on the weight and the lower price is for a lower weight.”
Sale of drugs
Sale of drugs on the streets of Fort and Pettah has been happening for sometime now. One of the addicts told us that drugs have become part of his life and that he was kind of married to drugs now. He has no home to go to and no family to call his own. “I went to Sangaraja until grade 8. I lived in the Kapiri Mudukkuwa and now the fort streets are my home. There is nothing left for me to do and I cannot be without drugs. I work as a natamy and I live on the streets. In the evenings I have some drugs and survive.
The floating market
Although it was late at night young couples were seen in corners of this dark floating market. They cannot be prevented from frequenting this place as it is their right and freedom, yet it is a question of their safety. It was past midnight and they should be more mindful of their own safety.Today most of the shops at the floating market have been closed and the area is deserted making it an ideal spot for prostitution and drug sales.
Problem of safety in Fort
With many drug addicts, drunkards and unscrupulous characters roaming the streets of Fort it is certainly no place for a woman at night. A woman has to think twice before walking the streets as her safety is at risk. There are five main spots in Fort. Even while we were on the streets to do this story, we too had to encounter some unpleasant incidents which clearly showed us that the fort streets were no place for a woman to be, especially at night.
Although the police are expected to patrol the streets at regular intervals and they claim they do, we only observed that the police patrol on the streets one in about 3 hours. Although it is the duty of the police to provide security round the clock, we never saw any policemen on the streets at the time we were there. Hence we felt that Fort was not a very safe place at night especially for females as there were no police on the streets either in the event they needed assistance or encountered any difficulties.
The city of Colombo is the main hub of all activities and it reflects the country’s progress and prosperity. Yet we did not see such progress when we walked the streets of Colombo’s main financial hub Fort.The three wheeler too which we use to travel from place to place in a hurry are getting worse by the day. The safety of especially females is in jeopardy as travelling in three wheelers too has become unsafe. There is no standard and there is no mechanism in place to monitor these threewheelers.
Pic. and note By AshWaru Colombo
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