Sri Lanka's Early Welfare State

How Sri Lanka achieved high literacy and life expectancy early through free education, free health care and food subsidies, well before becoming rich.

Sri Lanka, then Ceylon, invested early in social welfare.

Early policies

Universal suffrage in 1931, before independence.
Free education from 1945.
Free health care and a network of rural clinics.
Rice subsidies and rations.

Results

Literacy and life expectancy reached levels close to rich countries by the 1970s, far ahead of India.
Low maternal and infant mortality.

Low-income achievement

Sri Lanka showed that good human development was possible at low incomes, a case often cited by Amartya Sen.

The trade-off

Heavy spending on subsidies strained budgets.
Growth was slow in the early decades.

Legacy

Sri Lanka still leads South Asia on many social indicators.

The rural clinic

In the 1950s, a village mother in Sri Lanka gave birth with a trained midwife at a free rural clinic, something rare elsewhere in South Asia then.

Thinking social progress must wait for growth

Sri Lanka achieved high literacy and life expectancy while still poor.

Key takeaways

Sri Lanka had universal suffrage in 1931.
Free education and health care came early.
Literacy and life expectancy reached high levels.
Subsidies strained budgets.