A personality card is vital to life in Sri Lanka, required for everything from casting a ballot to opening a bank account or getting a visa, going for a job interview, or sitting tests.
Be that as it may, one branch of female Buddhist monks is not qualified for a personality card. That privilege was detracted from women like them in 2004 when the nation’s persuasive prelates advised the legislature to quit giving them identity cards as “Bhikkunis“, or just not to acknowledge them anymore.
From that point forward, Buddhist Bhikkunis – what might be compared to Christianity’s nuns – have been caught in limbo: cherished by the networks they serve, however without similar rights.
For over 1,000 years, there were no Bhikkunis in Sri Lanka: their line had ceased to exist following long stretches of oppression on account of the principal Hindu southern Indian lords who had battled against the island country.
And afterwards, in 1998, the main new nuns in a thousand years were appointed. Before the year was over, there were 150. Today, it is thought there are more than 4,000, some as young as just six.
In any case, not everyone was glad. The chief prelates contended that the Bhikkuni Order couldn’t be restored until the following Buddha made an appearance, as there are no nuns with a higher appointment in the Buddhist community in Sri Lanka; and some restricted their very presence.
After six years, their privilege to an identity card was removed.
Despite the fact that there’s no lawful prerequisite to look for counsel from chief prelates, the convention has become the law. This was after court decisions over specific disagreements.
What’s more, it is to the courts since the nuns are turning: they have looked for legitimate review through petitions to the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (NHCSL) and to the Supreme Court.
Truth be told, the NHCSL has just decided in 2015 that the Ministry of Buddhist Affairs disregarded Sri Lanka’s constitution.
Be that as it may, so far nothing has changed.
