Sri Lankan Member of Parliament (Colombo District) Mano Ganesan, has appealed to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin to provide a livelihood assistance package to Indian-origin Tamils in Sri Lanka in education, by building a teacher training college and a nursing college in the island nation.
Speaking to The Hindu, Mr. Ganesan said that the education levels of Indian-origin Tamils in Sri Lanka continue to be very low . He also said that Sri Lankan Tamils cannot have complete claim over the Sri Lankan Tamil identity and that Indian-origin Tamils are also a part of that identity.
“I want the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu to provide a special package for livelihood assistance to the Indian-origin Tamils, especially plantation workers. And I have made the same request to the Government of India also,” he said.
“Our schools are finding it difficult to find teachers who can teach Science, Maths and English. So, we are planning to establish a teacher training college in Colombo and I request the government of Tamil Nadu to support us to construct the college and send experts to train our teachers in the plantations,” Mr. Ganesan further said and appealed to the government of Tamil Nadu to establish campuses of prominent universities in Sri Lanka.
“Also, our young women work in Sri Lanka as domestic workers and some go to Middle Eastern countries. They have faced a lot of harassment. So, we want the government of Tamil Nadu to establish a nurses training college to train our young girls as nurses,” said Mr. Ganesan.
The MP said that, as a leader of the Tamil Progressive Alliance and the Colombo District MP, he wanted to flag the “pathetic political, economical, social and cultural conditions of Indian origin Tamils” [as this] should be understood, recognised and responded [to] by the people and Government of Tamil Nadu.
“Until now, when we speak of Sri Lanka, the government of Tamil Nadu, people and political parties always think about Sri Lankan Tamils who live in the North and Eastern parts of Sri Lanka -- due to the war, LTTE armed struggle, ethnic issues etc..
The people I represent are Indian-Tamils, who have roots in Tamil Nadu and were taken to Sri Lanka by the British 200 years ago. They came from southern Tamil Nadu from places such as Tiruchi, Nagercoil, Madurai, Ramanathapuram and Nagappatinam.
I am an Indian-origin Tamil who is a Sri Lankan. But unfortunately, our issues are ignored and the Eelam Tamil politicians who frequently visit Tamil Nadu maintain a systematic silence and don’t speak about our issues. They give the impression that Tamils live only in Northern and Eastern provinces. This is not true as 50% of Tamils live outside North and East,” he said.
