Women have to play a pivotal role in forming the new government, which is strong enough to take the country forward in achieving economic, social, educational, health and other goals.The President said that organisations established for women including NGOs do not utter a single word about the difficulties faced by women going for foreign employment.

“It has been revealed that women who go for foreign employment face many difficulties. But it is regrettable that some of those so called women’s organisations never stand for protecting women. The only motive of many of these women’s organisations is to collect money,” the President added.The President said the harassment of women in certain developed countries is far higher than in Sri Lanka.

However, women should not be subjected to physical or mental harassment. The President added that housemaids bring in a great amount of foreign exchange to the country. “Attention should be paid to send more professionals for foreign employment while minimizing the number of housemaids. This cannot be done at once. The Philippines sends more nurses for foreign employment than housemaids while India has stopped sending housemaids,” he said.

He further added that unlike in Sri Lanka, the Philippines accords special protection and rights to foreign employees.Besides, in the foreign employment sector womens contribution is very high in several other sectors including garment, agriculture, plantation, animal husbandry etc.President Sirisena said that women will be given their due place to reach high positions in the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP).