Policy Recommendations for Post COVID-19 Lockdown Relief and Recovery: Low-income families, daily waged workers and vulnerable communities in Colombo district

22 June 2020

On the 11th of March 2020 the World Health Organisation (WHO) responding to the rapidly spreading COVID-19 virus declared the outbreak of the disease a pandemic. As with all countries across the globe Sri Lanka responded with special and extraordinary measures. These included restrictions to movement through a strictly enforced curfew resulting in an island-wide lockdown to prevent the spread of infection.

The policy recommendations that follow relate to the impact of the COVID-19 response on urban poor and low-income communities in Colombo and also highlight possible interventions in relation to other vulnerable groups such as the disabled, elderly, LGBTIQ+ community and Sex workers living in urban low-income communities.

The recommendations will centre primarily on socio-economic concerns and will not delve into the public health response vis a vis these communities. However, we wish to state at the outset that the pandemic, the nature of the responses to it and the consequences of those responses affected low income and poor communities very differently and unequally. The recommendations that follow are a reflection of these differences that are the result of deep-seated systemic and structural inequalities.

Policy Recommendations for Post COVID-19 Lockdown Relief and Recovery

ANNEX 01-Gendered Impact of the COVID-19 Response

ANNEX 02 – A Review and Recommendations Post COVID-19 lockdown