Social, economic and cultural challenges confronting gypsies in Aligambai village, Sri Lanka

Abstract

Tribal groups in various parts of the world living with serious social, economic and cultural problems, especially in developing countries. As a developing nation, in Sri Lanka, a Gypsies or tribes living in different parts of the country. There is a big challenge to find accurate period or evident of their arrival to Sri Lanka. However, the Gypsies who arrived in Sri Lanka approximately during the period of 14th and 15th centuries, and established their settlement particularly in the coastal villages. In this backdrop, this study has been carried out based on Gypsies who are living in Aligambai village in the southeastern region of Ampara district, Sri Lanka. The government and non-governmental organizations are very keen in implementing development projects for majority groups in the island, but the attention of this development is comparatively poor among tribal groups, especially in the study community. The Gypsies were excluded from main stream of the society in the study area. Thus, this study aimed to explore what types of challenges confronting Gypsies in Aligambai village. The data for this research were basically gathered by using both primary and secondary data collection techniques. Finally, this study found that the Gypsies in Aligambai mainly facing many challenges related to economy including poverty and begging, lack of primary education, health and housing, lack of social status, and language barriers which are crucial issues to determine their identity and assimilation.