Traditional Folk Communication among Upcountry Tamil Community in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Traditional folk communication is essential for empowering various communities in Sri Lanka such as Sinhala and Tamil communities since it emerges from the surroundings based on the available resources, socio-cultural, spiritual and religious beliefs, norms, traditions, values and practices. Therefore, the purpose of the study is to investigate the use of traditional folk communication for empowering Upcountry Tamil community in Sri Lanka. The specific objective is to examine the use of traditional folk communication in empowering communities to address struggles, issues and needs in their day-to-day lives. Community Based Communication (CBC) is the main conceptual and theoretical framework of the study. The study used the qualitative approach to obtain data using Focused Group Discussions (FGDs), participatory observation method and interview method. The samples were selected from Nepier Estate, Hali- Ela in Badulla district. The qualitative data were analysed thematically. The results showed that the traditional folk communications were used to find solutions for the day-to-day struggles, issues and needs of the communities such as low income, lack of infrastructure facilities including lack of land rights, poor housing (line rooms), disaster risks such as landslides, childhood marriages, illegal affairs, extramarital affairs, health issues including alcohol/ drugs consumption, family planning, school dropouts, cultural marginalization, post-war challenges etc. Therefore, the findings also showed that the community based traditional folk communication mechanism was successfully used to empower its own communities economically, socially, morally and culturally. In this context, the responsible authorities should find solutions for the challenges faced by the communities.