The Sinhala community will become a minority in Sri Lankan within a century warned the Sri Lankan minister Champika Ranawaka, the Asian Mirror reports.
"It will take another 160 years to double the population of the Sinhalese in Sri Lanka," said Ranawaka, the minister for technology and research, and leader of the government's coalition partner, the JHU.
Warning that the population rates amongst different ethnicities was asymmetrical, he stated that the growth of the Sinhala population was slowest.
His comments echo that of Minister Mervyn Silva who said in June that the "Sinhala race is rapidly becoming a minority".
"My only request to the Sinhalese is to produce children as much as possible to avoid extinction of their race," said Silva.
In April, Silva pledged to assist Sinhalese family who wished to raise more children. See here for more.
These warnings come however, amid persistent reports of Tamil women in the North-East being coerced into using long-acting contraceptive methods.
An investigative report by Jaffna based organisation, The Social Architects (TSA), published at the end of last year, confirmed that public health officials committed serious violations of women’s rights to informed consent, reproductive autonomy and health.
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