TITLE:
Regional Development Disparities in Sri Lanka
AUTHORS:
Nishan Sakalasooriya
KEYWORDS:
Development Policies, Urban Biased Development, Human Wellbeing, Welfare Approach
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.9 No.7,
July
15,
2021
ABSTRACT: This article discloses the nature and the
background causes of the regional variations of development in Sri Lanka. Though Sri Lanka is a lower-middle-income country with a GDP per capita of USD
3852 (2019) and a total population of 21.8 million, the income inequalities and
the human wellbeing between the communities and regions are significantly high.
These regional gaps and regional disparities
in Sri Lanka are a chronic issue and have taken a new dimension with excessive concentration of growth in the Western
Province, the Colombo
Megalopolis while the less developed and disadvantaged other regions are awaiting to shift to a
more liberalized economic regime since 1978. The average infrastructure index
for the Western Province is 1.77 compared to less than 1.00 for all other
provinces. The study proves that the 30-year civil war between the ethnic groups and the youth unrests and merging fundamentalism
of Sri Lanka are also the results of reginal disparities of development. This article is based on secondary data and
provides some of the cases as evidence to prove the spatial and temporal
development disparities of the country. The urban biased development approach
of all the successive government and welfare approaches of the development
policies are the major causes behind the regional variations of the human
wellbeing of Sri Lanka.