Business, healthcare and civic leadership unite to drive Sri Lanka’s fight against cervical cancer

In a powerful demonstration of how responsible business, public healthcare and civic leadership can work together for national good, Sri Lanka this week renewed its commitment to eliminating cervical cancer through an expanded screening programme backed by corporate funding, Rotary leadership and the Ministry of Health.

The initiative, supported by Dilmah, the Rotary Club of Colombo, the Family Health Bureau and the Sri Lanka Cancer Society, aims to strengthen nationwide HPV DNA screening, public awareness and prevention efforts at a time when cervical cancer continues to claim hundreds of lives annually despite being one of the most preventable forms of cancer.

Dilmah Chairman/CEO Dilhan C. Fernando said the programme reflects the values of his late father, Merrill J. Fernando, who believed companies exist not merely to generate profit, but to create lasting value for society.

He added:”Businesses do not exist to make profit. Businesses exist to create value. Value begins with people and livelihoods, continues through nature, and only then earns the right to secure economic value.”

Fernando announced a fresh commitment of Rs. 50 million this year, which will fund 20,160 screenings, following an earlier Rs. 75 million pledge made in January 2024 under a Memorandum of Understanding signed with the Ministry of Health and Rotary.

“That value may seem like a big number, but it is insignificant when you consider that it has saved thousands of women from the scourge of cancer,” he said.

He described the continued deaths from a preventable disease as deeply troubling.

“Learning that so many women were losing their lives annually to cervical cancer was something really quite abhorrent to us,” Fernando said.

Representing the Rotary Club of Colombo, K.R. Ravindran said the campaign is proof that strategic partnerships can change national health outcomes.

“This is not a discussion. This is a promise of early detection,” Ravindran said. “Cancer, especially cervical cancer, does not arrive with a bell ringing or a warning. It whispers, and so often by the time it is heard, it is too late.”

He said Rotary’s own experience operating early detection centres for breast, cervical and oral cancer had shown the life-saving value of screening.

“Early detection is not just saving lives. It transforms fear into hope, into possibility,” he said.

Ravindran noted that Sri Lanka’s economic crisis had once threatened to halt testing services because of shortages in funding for diagnostic kits, but private sector intervention prevented disruption.

“Without the money, the whole thing would have gone awry. That is when Dilmah stepped in,” he said.

“They did something far greater than simply giving money. They made scale possible. They made continuation possible. They made impact possible.”

Ravindran expressed confidence that Sri Lanka can become one of the first countries in the world to eliminate cervical cancer as a public health threat by 2030, citing the nation’s literacy, public health network, school vaccination system and midwife service.

“I think this country can become one of the first countries to be rid of this disease,” he said.

Consultant Community Physician Dr. Nadija Herath of the Family Health Bureau said cervical cancer is caused mainly by persistent infection with the Human Papillomavirus (HPV), but can be prevented through vaccination and early detection.

She said Sri Lanka’s Well Woman Clinic programme, launched in 1996, screens women primarily in the 35 and 45 age groups, and is now expanding the use of HPV DNA testing, which is more accurate than conventional cytology methods.

“The most important thing about this cancer is that it is preventable,” Dr. Herath said. “If pre-cancerous changes are identified early, they can be fully treated and women can live normal lives.”

She said new funding would also support outreach clinics, especially in workplaces and underserved areas.

President of the Sri Lanka Cancer Society Anoja Karunaratne said awareness remains a major challenge, with stigma and fear discouraging many women from seeking screening.

“We need to take this message beyond hospitals and clinics—into schools, workplaces, religious institutions and community groups,” she said.

She stressed that women should view screening as a routine part of healthcare rather than something to fear.

Speakers at the event said the collaboration stands as a model for corporate Sri Lanka, showing how businesses can contribute meaningfully to national wellbeing.

Fernando praised Sri Lanka’s healthcare system for continuing to innovate despite adversity.

“Whatever anyone may say about systems or governance, the fact is Sri Lanka’s healthcare system has an enviable track record,” he said.

By Ifham Nizam

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Eran takes guard as Interim Committee takes charge

Smooth transition of power in Sri Lanka Cricket are about as rare as a tailender’s century and history offers precious little comfort. When Ana Punchihewa was bundled out just days after the 1996 World Cup triumph, the game’s corridors of power stooped to all kinds of underhand work. Four years later, strongmen stood guard at Maitland Place as the tussle between Thilanga Sumathipala and Clifford Ratwatte boiled over, forcing the State to step in and send special forces.

Fast forward to 2023 and Shammi Silva turned to the courts like a batter reviewing a dubious LBW, armed with the sharpest legal minds from Hulftsdorp, to overturn his ouster. Most Presidents counsel that you see on a Tuesdays at St. Anthony’s shrine were seated next to

Shammi that day. But this time, there was no last-ditch appeal, no gloves-off scrap. Shammi and his committee walked off quietly, no fuss, no fireworks, leaving the field without contest.

Whispers suggest this was no accident. A carefully crafted innings, some say, with every loose end tied up and no room for late drama. Sri Lanka Cricket confirmed via a media release that its President and Executive Committee had stepped down yesterday. The Sports Ministry, quick to raise the flag, accepted the resignations and took the game under its wing. By stumps, Eran Wickramaratne had been handed the captaincy as Chairman of the Interim Committee.

A product of Royal College Colombo, he later traded bat for balance sheets, serving as CEO of Nations Trust Bank for nearly a decade before entering Parliament via the UNP National List in 2010. When he faced the electorate in Colombo, he didn’t just scrape through, he was hugely popular, polling over 82,000 votes. A former Deputy Finance Minister, he now steps into cricket’s hot seat with the nation desperate for reversal of fortunes.

The supporting cast reads like a well-balanced XI. Roshan Mahanama, Sidath Wettimuny and Kumar Sangakkara bring pedigree and poise, while names like Thushira Radella, Avanthi Colombage, Prakash Schaffter, Upul Kumarapperuma and Dinal Philips add administrative nous and experience.

Interim Committees, of course, are not new to Sri Lanka’s cricketing playbook. When the board hit rock bottom after the 1999 World Cup debacle, President Chandrika Kumaratunga stepped in, removing Sumathipala and handing the reins to banker Rienzie Wijetilleke. It proved a masterstroke. Wijetilleke played to his strengths, tightening the screws on finances while surrounding himself with sharp cricketing minds; Michael Tissera, Wettimuny, S. Skandakumar, Ashantha de Mel and Kushil Gunasekara. Within a year, Sri Lanka were back punching above their weight, toppling heavyweights like India, Australia, England and South Africa.

Another reset followed in 2002, with Vijaya Malalasekera at the helm. The team responded with a record 10-Test winning streak, a purple patch that still stands tall in the record books. A third committee under Hemaka Amarasuriya kept the ship steady, steering Sri Lanka to a World Cup semi-final.

But when Mahinda Rajapaksa took charge of the country, the template changed. Interim Committees became less about merit and more about manoeuvre, offering a backdoor entry for those who had lost at the ballot. Mahinda always took care of friends and family. As a result, lines between cricket and politics blurred and the game often paid the price with Mahinda’s sons winning the lucrative television rights.

There was a brief return to cricketing sanity in 2015 when Naveen Dissanayake brought in Wettimuny, but that innings was cut short and politics once again tightened its grip.

Now, the latest committee arrives with a promise; less politics, more purpose. Whether that holds will depend on how they play the conditions. The tenure, the roadmap and the ability to clean up a system long mired in off-field drama remain the real tests.

by Rex Clementine

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Concept of living wage and cost of living

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) now defines a living wage as the wage level necessary for workers and their families to afford a decent standard of living, given national circumstances, for normal hours of work. This standard of living is operationalised through the cost of essential goods and services, typically including food, housing, healthcare, education, transport, and a modest allowance for contingencies and social participation.

In contrast, “cost of living” in economics is a broader price index concept that tracks the overall prices of a representative consumption basket but is not inherently normative about what constitutes decency or dignity.

Living wage methodologies effectively translate a cost-of-living basket, specified for a given family size and living standard, into a monthly income requirement for workers, thereby linking real wages to human development objectives rather than only to market productivity.

Methodologies for computing a living wage

Most contemporary living wage estimates follow a structured “cost of a basic but decent life” approach built around three steps: defining a reference family, costing a normative consumption basket, and converting that cost into a wage per worker.

The Anker methodology, widely used in global supply chains and in Sri Lanka, is a leading example: it defines a model family (e.g., 2 adults and approximately 2–3 children), estimates the cost of a low-cost nutritious diet, adequate housing, and non-food essentials, and then allocates that cost over expected number of full-time workers per family.

Within the Anker framework, the food component is based on locally appropriate diets meeting caloric and nutritional norms, priced using local market surveys and adjusted for waste and home preparation.

Housing costs are derived from standards for minimally acceptable housing (e.g., durable materials, sufficient space, basic services), using rents or imputed rental values from empirical fieldwork. Other essential expenditures, health, education, transport, clothing, and a small margin for unexpected events, are typically estimated as a percentage mark-up over food and housing costs, derived from national household survey data.

Finally, the methodology sets a reference number of workers per family, divides total family living costs by this number to get a net living wage, and then adjusts to a gross living wage by adding payroll taxes and mandatory deductions. Periodic updates are made using consumer price indices (CPIs) to reflect inflation or deflation and, where necessary, new field surveys to capture structural shifts in prices and consumption patterns.

Sri Lanka’s living wage estimates and their link to cost of living (Anker Methodology)

Sri Lanka has been the subject of several living wage studies, notably for the tea estate sector and for urban and rural areas, using the Anker methodology.

In the tea estate sector, an updated 2024 Anker report estimates the cost of a “basic but decent” standard of living for a typical family at about LKR 78,067 per month (approximately USD 260), implying a gross living wage of LKR 48,584 per month (USD 160) and a net, take-home living wage of LKR 44,357.

For urban Sri Lanka, the Anker Living Wage Reference Value was originally set at LKR 84,231 per month in April 2022, corresponding to a net living wage of LKR 77,492 plus social security contributions. After cumulative inflation of about 36.9 percent between April 2022 and June 2025, the updated gross urban living wage is estimated at approximately LKR 115,291 per month (around USD 385), consisting of a net living wage of LKR 106,068 and social security contributions of LKR 9,223

These Sri Lankan figures are explicitly derived from cost-of-living calculations: they incorporate the cost of food, housing, utilities, health, education, and other essentials at local prices and then convert these into wages per adult worker, assuming roughly 1.7–1.8 full-time earners per family. Because living wage estimates are indexed to actual price dynamics, periods of high inflation, as Sri Lanka experienced in 2022–2023, translate almost mechanically into sharp upward revisions in living wages, underlining the tight coupling between living wage levels and the evolving cost of living.

Comparative living wages: Sri Lanka and other countries

Cross-country comparisons require careful normalisation because living wages reflect local prices, family structures, and social norms, but several datasets provide a structured basis for comparison. [asia.floorwage](https://asia.floorwage.org/living-wage/calculating-a-living-wage/)

The Asia Floor Wage Alliance, for example, publishes a regional living wage benchmark expressed in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms, with a 2024 benchmark of 1,750.54 PPP dollars per month converted into local currencies using country-specific PPP exchange rates.

Using this PPP-based approach, the 2024 living wage equivalent for Sri Lanka is estimated at around LKR 158,353 per month, assuming a PPP exchange rate of about 90.5 Sri Lankan rupees per PPP dollar.

This PPP-normalised figure is substantially higher than the Anker 2024–2025 estate-sector and urban living wage estimates in nominal rupees, partly because the Asia Floor Wage benchmark is set to ensure a more harmonised standard across Asian garment-producing economies and uses a single PPP wage target.

These figures indicate that, within this PPP-based framework, Sri Lanka’s living wage in local currency is relatively high compared to countries such as India and Bangladesh, but the comparison reflects both different PPP exchange rates and domestic price structures.

From a cost-of-living perspective, this pattern is consistent with Sri Lanka being a lower-middle-income country with relatively higher prices for some essentials compared with low-income South Asian economies, especially after recent macroeconomic and inflationary shocks.

Global patterns and high-income economies

Global datasets covering more than 200 countries show that typical-family living wage levels, whether calculated in PPP or nominal terms, tend to correlate positively with national income levels, with North America, Western Europe, and Australia displaying the highest living wage values.

In this global distribution, living wages in middle- and low-income regions of Asia, Africa, and Latin America are lower in absolute terms, though the ratio of living wage to median wages or statutory minimum wages can be high, underscoring the gap between decent-work standards and prevailing labour market outcomes.

Interestingly, some studies note that rural living wage estimates can be relatively high in poorer countries because limited infrastructure and service availability raise the cost of accessing a given standard of living, such as safe water, transport, and education.

For Sri Lanka, rural Anker living wage benchmarks similarly reveal the importance of non-food costs, such as transportation to schools, health facilities, and workplaces, in shaping the total family budget, despite lower nominal rents in many rural areas.

Living wage, social policy, and Sri Lanka’s development trajectory

The emerging international consensus around a living wage is rooted in the human rights-based notion of a “decent life” rather than a subsistence minimum or an arbitrarily set statutory floor.

From a social science perspective, incorporating living wage benchmarks into wage-setting institutions, collective bargaining, and social dialogue reorients labour markets toward social reproduction, intergenerational mobility, and social cohesion, rather than merely cost competitiveness.

For Sri Lanka, where recent crises have eroded real wages and increased household vulnerability, living wage estimates such as the Anker urban and estate-sector benchmarks provide an analytically rigorous yardstick for evaluating whether current wage policies and social transfers are adequate relative to the actual cost of a basic but decent life.

Comparisons with regional PPP-based benchmarks like the Asia Floor Wage suggest that, while Sri Lanka’s living wage requirement in local currency is relatively high, the country also faces significant affordability challenges, especially for low-paid workers in export sectors and informal employment, whose earnings often fall short of these normative thresholds.

In policy terms, the living wage framework highlights the need for coordinated approaches that combine wage-setting reforms, inflation-sensitive social protection, and productivity-enhancing investments, so that rising living-cost-consistent wages do not simply translate into inflationary spirals or employment losses.

For empirical research in Sri Lanka, these benchmarks open avenues for micro-level analysis of wage gaps, household coping strategies, gendered labour outcomes, and the distributional effects of macroeconomic adjustment, all anchored to a transparent and internationally recognised living wage methodology.

(The writer, a senior Chartered Accountant and professional banker, is Professor at SLIIT, Malabe. The views and opinions expressed in this article are personal.)

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Quality of ‘A’ team cricketers impress coach Priyanjan

Sri Lanka ‘A’ signed off a near-flawless campaign this week, outplaying New Zealand ‘A’ with the assurance of a side batting on a different pitch. The islanders not only completed a 3-0 whitewash in the limited-overs leg, but also sealed the unofficial Test series 1-0, wrapping up the second game in Galle by an innings before lunch on day four, a result that underlined skill and depth.

It was Ashan Priyanjan’s first assignment as Head Coach of Sri Lanka ‘A’, and the former international came away convinced that several players are no longer knocking politely but banging the door down for national honours.

“There are several of them who stood up when the chips were down,” Priyanjan told The Island. “I feel each one of them is ready to step up to the senior side and deliver.”

Sri Lanka ‘A’ were made to earn their stripes. Throughout the one-day series, they found themselves in tight corners but refused to throw in the towel. Even with the series in the bag, there was no easing off the accelerator. In the third ODI, a dead rubber on paper, they chased down 303 with more than three overs to spare.

The second game had already set the tone. A muscular 368 for nine was posted, with several young batsmen cashing in once they got their eye in, showing the kind of appetite selectors crave.

“Our plan was simple, keep churning out 300-plus totals,” Priyanjan said. “The Powerplay wasn’t our issue. It was the middle overs, between the 11th and 40th, where we had been losing momentum. We addressed that and the results followed.”

Flat decks offered value for shots, but they also demanded sharper thinking from the bowlers, a test Priyanjan believes his attack passed with distinction.

“When you play on good batting surfaces, bowlers have to go back to the drawing board,” he noted. “It was a proper workout, a learning curve and a necessary one.”

The red-ball leg provided its own narrative arc. After the opening unofficial Test in Suriyawewa petered out into a draw, Sri Lanka ‘A’ hit back hard in Galle. Top-order batter Kamil Mishara compiled a fluent 174 at better than a run a ball, while left-arm spinner Dilum Sudeera ran through the visitors with a ten-wicket match bag, a performance that turned the game on its head.

“Our bowlers learned the art of containment in Suriyawewa when the opposition got on top,” Priyanjan said. “That experience helped them in Galle. And it’s encouraging to see batters hungry for big hundreds, that’s the currency at the highest level.”

Fielding, often the poor cousin in development squads, was another box ticked emphatically. Priyanjan was quick to credit improved fitness levels for sharper work in the ring and on the boundary.

“Our fitness standards were high, and that reflected in the fielding,” he said. “The players have put in the hard yards, full credit to them.”

With India ‘A’ due in Sri Lanka in June before a tour of Ireland, the nation’s young cricketers have been kept busy.

by Rex Clementine

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