A prominent monk has ignited a firestorm by alleging a decades-long, foreign-driven sterilization campaign targeting Sri Lankan mothers, calling it a silent crisis.
Venerable Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Thero has made a staggering claim, stating that nearly 877,000 mothers in Sri Lanka have been sterilized in recent years. He labeled this an organized program serving foreign interests and a serious demographic threat.
The Thero revealed these allegations at a Mothers’ Front discussion. He traced the origins of what he called organized sterilization to international NGOs like Population Services Lanka and Marie Stopes. He claimed these groups acted on a 1973 world population control proposal, implementing initiatives since the 1980s.
A key point of contention he raised involves reproductive health policies. Thero stated the program aggressively targeted young mothers, allowing women under 26 with two children to undergo permanent sterilization surgeries. He provided a specific figure, noting that “in 2012 alone, more than 6,700 mothers underwent sterilization surgeries,” suggesting a systematic family planning drive.
Shifting to broader criticism, the monk lamented Sri Lanka’s outdated education system and missed opportunities in agricultural development compared to nations like Japan and Korea. He also condemned modern gender reassignment procedures, calling them a form of “terrorism.”
In his concluding remarks, Gnanasara Thero framed these issues as multifaceted attacks on the nation’s social fabric. He emphasized that the drug epidemic and these ideological and medical processes pose terrorist influences that must be defeated to protect Sri Lanka’s cultural values and future generations.
