Colombo Urban Lab

From rising electricity tariffs to shrinking coping capacities, how are Colombo’s low-income households navigating Sri Lanka’s ongoing polycrisis?

At the 'Poverty and Development in Times of Crisis' conference hosted by Centre for Poverty Analysis, Colombo Urban Lab Research Associate Meghal Perera presented her paper based on findings from CUL’s long-term research with low-income communities across Colombo between 2021-2026.

The paper highlights how repeated economic shocks and energy tariff revisions have reshaped everyday electricity use, deepened vulnerabilities, and strained already fragile household coping mechanisms. It calls for energy policies that centre the lived realities of the urban poor in times of crisis.

On May Day, we celebrate labour. But whose labour do we see, and whose do we leave out?

Domestic workers sustain households, power the care economy, and enable others to participate in the workforce. Yet their work remains invisible, excluded from labour protections, undervalued in policy, and rarely recognised as essential economic contribution.

Ensuring minimum wages, paid leave, maternity benefits, formal contracts, and access to social security is not just about policy reform, it is about recognising domestic work as dignified work.

This May Day, let’s expand our understanding of labour, and push for systems that recognise, protect, and value domestic workers.

For Colombo’s working-class households, vulnerability is cumulative - shocks don’t come one at a time.

Cyclone-induced floods, lost income, post-disaster illness, rising electricity costs, and limited access to relief intersect, leaving families with little room to recover.

What looks like “coping” is often forced survival, shaped by overlapping crises and gaps in social protection.

📊 Our latest policy brief draws on household surveys, qualitative research, and ongoing engagement with communities across Colombo.

🔗 Read it here: https://www.csf-asia.org/nothing-left-to-pawn-impact-of-polycrisis-on-colombos-working-class-poor/

Domestic workers are the invisible infrastructure that keeps Colombo running. They enable women’s participation in the workforce, hold together fragile urban care systems, and fill gaps left by limited public childcare. Yet they remain excluded from minimum wage protections, EPF/ETF, paid leave and pensions.

Colombo Urban Lab's Junior Researcher Piyumi Wattuhewa explores domestic work as essential urban care infrastructure, workers' lived realities in Colombo and what meaningful social protection for them can look like.
Read the article here: https://www.csf-asia.org/domestic-workers-as-care-infrastructure-in-cities/