Sri Lanka economic crisis: Citizens face severe scarcity, forced to use candles

By Ravi Jalhotra
Colombo [Sri lanka], April 12 : As Sri Lanka faces its worst economic crisis in decades, common citizens are facing a severe scarcity of essentials including fuel and food and people are forced to use candles in the absence of electricity.
Locals in even the capital Colombo claimed that they are facing more than four hours of power cuts as well as acute shortages of fuel and food supply.
"I have four kids to take care of. We are not giving proper food to feed them. We are drinking tea without milk because there is no milk in the market. My husband is an auto driver but during the present crisis situation his earnings have come down to zero. There is a 4-hour power cut every day so we're using candlelight," Ayesha, a local in Colombo said.
"My husband is sitting at home and we have no money to feed our children. We have no gas left to cook food. We are in a devastated state. It is a difficult condition for everyone," she added.
Ayesha's husband is unable to earn any money due to a shortage of diesel and long queues at fuel stations, he is unable to ferry passengers in his auto and his earnings are zero.
Locals said that the situation they are in at present is only because of their government. They are hoping things will get better soon so at least people get food to eat.
Many in the country face such a situation for the first time in their lives. Ayesha said that she has never seen something like this where the entire country is collapsing, adding that, this makes her worry about her children's future.
Sri Lanka is battling a severe economic crisis with food and fuel scarcity affecting a large number of the people in the island nation resulting in massive protests over the government's handling of the situation.
The economy has been in a free-fall since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, affecting tourism.
Sri Lanka is also facing a foreign exchange shortage, which has affected its capacity to import food and fuel. The shortage of essential goods forced Sri Lanka to seek assistance from friendly countries.
The economic situation has led to huge protests with demands for the resignation of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
Earlier, in a special address to the nation on Monday, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa requested people to remain patient and stop taking to the streets in order to enable the government to resolve the situation.