Abstract:
This paper investigates how internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Batticaloa, Sri Lanka, financed
their first year of displacement. We conducted extensive fieldwork in August 2007 in numerous
welfare centres in Batticaloa that have received persons displaced from the Mutur divisional
secretariat (DS) in the Trincomalee district. The sample was selected from the village of Sampur
in Mutur DS. The displaced from Sampur are of Tamil origin and our findings reveal certain
coping strategies that may be particular to this community, including the selling or mortgaging of
gold jewellery to address the effects of displacement. We found that the IDPs in this region rely
heavily on jewellery and other forms of savings to ensure their survival. There is also strong
evidence to support the critically important coping role played by livelihoods. These coping
strategies have enabled the IDP households in the present sample to live marginally above the
poverty line.