By Nasriya Naffin 

Sri Lanka had a booming economy with plenty of jobs and financial security a few years ago. The island nation was a center of attraction to many tourists. Today the country's economy has collapsed and relies on aid from India and other countries. Sri Lanka’s leaders are trying hard to negotiate a bailout with the International Monetary Fund. 

Sri Lanka is facing the worst financial crisis and it is way too complicated than the financial crises that developed countries face. People are struggling to buy food, medicine, fuel and other necessities, which has led to political unrest and violence.  

The economy started plunging with the Easter bomb attack in 2019, then it was hit hard by the pandemic and COVID-19 had a negative effect on tourism, which is one of the largest foreign income generators. It also decreased the flow of foreign currency from the Sri Lankans working abroad. Despite the heavy debts the country possessed the government cut down on taxes which negatively affected the reserves in the treasury. At this point many experts pointed out that the country should start discussions with the International Monetary Fund to ease the situation but the government denied the idea and stayed away from the IMF. Later the country ran out of money to pay for its imports and the depreciation of the Sri Lankan rupee became uncontrollable.  

The decision taken by the government on using 100 percent organic fertilizers for agriculture turned out to be a disaster, and left many farmers stranded as they couldn’t cultivate their regular crops. Scarcity of food led to a spike in the price of vegetables, fruits, poultry, dairy and rice.  

Inflation is skyrocketing in this island nation at present hitting nearly 60 percent on food, and over 30 percent on consumer prices.  

According to the U.N. Humanitarian Office (OCHA), Sri Lanka is at a risk of heading into a full-blown humanitarian crisis as the country is suffering from its worst economic crisis in decades.  

A population of 22 million Sri Lankans are paying the price right now by standing in queues for days for cooking gas and fuel for their vehicles. Queues of vehicles near fuel stations have become a common site and these queues go beyond 2km. People stay overnight in their vehicles until a fuel load arrives at these fuel stations. In the outskirts the situation is worst where the people stay over for more than three days in these queues.  Few deaths also have been reported in these queues due to the stress and dehydration. Although people stand in queues there is no assurance that people will definitely get fuel and gas. There were many instances where while standing in queues the supplies ran out and people returned home empty handed.

The middle class is the worst hit, roughly 15-20 percent of the country’s population. They enjoyed financial security and a standard of life until all this chaos began.  

The government has closed down schools and has declared Friday a holiday for government workers due to the fuel shortage. Many Sri Lankans have switched to wood fire or charcoal stoves for cooking and have started riding bicycles. Food price hike has cut down the food consumption which is leading to malnutrition especially among the children. Many families cannot afford to use electric induction or infrared cookers with the increasing electricity charges. Even if one could afford it, they cannot totally depend on these stoves with the daily blackouts.   

Constant stress over the fuel and energy shortage in the country and a higher cost of living have led the frustrated civilians to protest blocking roads and they are in a constant conflict with the police. Some have even started fighting over jumping queues as well. 

To survive the price hikes of essentials people have started borrowing or lending money, withdrawing savings, pawning belongings and selling properties. Poor or the day workers, fishermen and migrant workers are highly affected. Most of them have a reduced income or no income at present.

According to a recent report by the World Food Program food insecurity in households has increased among the poor. The health industry has been hit hard as the country imports 80 percent of its essential medicine. With the present dollar crisis many government hospitals have run out of essential medicines and people's lives are at greater risk.  

Many Sri Lankans believe that this is a man-made disaster and whoever is responsible for this catastrophe should be punished. The situation has become a humanitarian disaster and needs proper solutions to balance economic, political, social, geopolitical dimensions and dynamics. The solutions should be tailor made and should improve the lives of the most vulnerable and restore the living standards of Sri Lankans. If the government does not act fast very soon the country will fall into political unrest and the standard of the country will further deteriorate.