Abey, Rathnayake

Sivakanthan, S

Tudor Silva, K

English

IR South Eastern University of Sri Lanka

South Eastern University Arts Research Session 2015 
 
64 
A Medical Sociological Study on Prevalence of War-Related Disability in the Kilinochchi 
District 
Sivakanthan, S.
*
,  Abey Rathnayake & Tudor Silva, K 
 
Abstract 
Armed conflicts and disabilities are inextricably linked in many conflict-affected countries such as Syria, 
Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, and Iraq. The prolonged armed struggle that continued for nearly three decades in 
Sri Lanka caused enormous vulnerable conditions including disability especially in the North-East provinces and in 
other parts of the country in general. The issues of people with disabilities (PWDs) were earlier looked at entirely 
from a medical point of view. It is only recently that disability has drawn the attention of social scientists and some 
of whom are now involved in analyzing these issues from medical sociological perspectives. This research was 
conducted in four Divisional Secretariat (DS) divisions in the Kilinochchi District. The prime objective of this study 
is to assess the prevalence of war-related disability in the Kilinochchi District. This study employed a combination 
of quantitative and qualitative research methods. Quantitative data were collected through the questionnaire survey 
and survey data were analyzed using SPSS (Version 21). The sample comprised 316(n=316) respondents selected 
for the questionnaire survey. In addition, qualitative data were collected through the key informant interviews, focus 
group discussions, and case study methods. The findings of this study reveal that the prevalence of war-related 
disabilities is high in the Kilinochchi (59.87 per cent) and Mullaitivu (65.4 per cent) districts in the Northern 
Province of Sri Lanka. There were 2330 PWDs in the Kilinochchi district and among them 1395 (60%) of the 
people have become disabled due to war. The Kandawalai (63.33%) and Karachchi (62.36%)  DS divisions contain 
the higher percent of people with war-related disabilities than other DS divisions in the Kilinochchi District. This 
study has found that prevalence of war-related disability is high among men (64.9%). When considering age group, 
war-related disabilities are high (53.79%) among the age group of 21-40 years. The percent of unemployment is 
higher after disability (50.3%) than percent of unemployment before disability (35.8%) due to physical incapability 
after disability. Amputation (76%) is the most prevalence type of disability found among PWDs while spinal cord 
injury (11%) is the second prevalence of disability. More than 70% of the respondents have become disabled during 
the last phase of war. Shelling (66.8%) and landmines (18.7%) are the major weapons causing disability. Survey 
results reveal that PWDs use number of devices such as prosthetics, wheel chair, crutch, and tricycle in accordance 
with their type of disabilities. 
 
Key words: Armed Conflict, Disability, Amputation, Rehabilitation, Well-being 
  
                                                          
To whom correspondence should be addressed: sskanthan31@gmail.com 
*Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Jaffna.  


A medical sociological study on prevalence of war-related disability in the Kilinochchi district

http://ir.lib.seu.ac.lk/bitstream/123456789/1534/1/Book%20of%20Abstracts%20-%20Page%2076.pdf

A medical sociological study on prevalence of war-related disability in the Kilinochchi district

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IR South Eastern University of Sri Lanka