Women in Sri Lanka Women in Sri Lanka make up to 52.09% of the population according to the 2012 census of Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan women have contributed greatly to the country's development, in many areas. Historically, a masculine bias has dominated Sri Lankan cultu ...

have had

suffrage Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise, is the right to vote in representative democracy, public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally i ...

since 1931.

Agnes De Silva Agnes Marion de Silva ( Nell; 1885-1961) was a Sri Lankan women's activist from a progressive society who, during the 1930s, pioneered issues related to women and in particular adult suffrage or franchise for women in Sri Lanka. She was instrume ...

was secretary of the Ceylon

Women's Franchise Union The Women's Franchise Union (WFU), was an organization for Women's suffrage in Sri Lanka, founded in 1927.{{Cite book , last=Rappaport , first=Helen , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rpuSzowmIkgC&pg=PA803 , title=Encyclopedia of Women Social ...

, which had been founded in 1927, and a prominent activist for women's suffrage. She led an organized delegation of women members of the Franchise Union to present their case at the 1928 Donoughmare Commission on Constitutional Reform which the

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then in control of the island had constituted. They advocated for suffrage to be granted to women thirty years of age and older. The reforms she introduced later became a part of new constitution established in 1931. After the new constitution came into force the adult franchise was extended to women above the age of 21, regardless of their educational status. The subsection 12.(1) of the Sri Lankan constitution guarantees equality before the law and equal protection of the law to all citizens. Subsection 12.(2) further states that "no citizen shall be discriminated against on the grounds of race, religion, language, caste, sex, political opinion rplace of birth ..." (Cooray Sept. 1989, 12).

References

{{Suffrage

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

History of women in Sri Lanka Political history of Sri Lanka Women's rights in Sri Lanka