Sri Lanka's new cabinet on Thursday vowed to amend laws to increase the number of women in local politics and state institutions.
Addressing a weekly briefing in the capital, Media Minister and co-cabinet spokesperson Gayantha Karunathilaka said that following a proposal made by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, the cabinet had agreed to amend the Local Authorities Act in view of having more involvement of women in local politics, Xinhua news agency reported.
"Although about 50 percent to 51 percent of the Sri Lankan population is women, they bear only about 5 percent from the total number elected to parliament and local government institutions," the minister said.
President Maithripala Sirisena had earlier this year proposed to increase the number of women in his government in order to have more minority and women representation.
However, following a parliamentary poll held in August which formed Sirisena's unity government, international election observers noted that female candidates participating in the poll had been extremely low and Sri Lanka needed more female representation.
According to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, Sri Lanka with less than six percent representation of women in parliament ranks 128th out of 140 countries.