introduced in the country and a system has to be prepared for looking after the children after school. When the whole set of opinions expressed at the Round Table Discussions is taken into consideration and reviewed, it is seen that following common problems and challenges are encountered by women in all fields. a) Anomalies in the system of distributing resources made available by the Government for rural and self-employment fields and political interference in between. b) Lack of specific and proper markets for marketing their products. c) Exorbitant prices of raw materials and their scarcity d) Difficulties faced in obtaining loans for informal economic field, difficulties in accessing credit facilities introduced by the government, ignorance in credit management and lack of a state mechanism to regulate the micro-lending institutions. e) Heavy expenses involved in transporting raw materials and products f) Minimum level of networking and organizing ability among the women in informal economic sector. Eg. Non-establishment of co-operative societies g) Inadequate knowledge on the usage of modern technology, scarcity of awareness programmes and training programmes for skill development, scarcity of exhibitions at regional, district and national level in order to encourage woman entrepreneurs. h) Lower level of women’s participation in decision making process pertaining to commercial affairs, obtaining raw materials, national trade policy control, preparation of trade agreements and trouble shooting. i) Non-allocation of specific provisions in the national budget for the informal economic sector j) Failure to create Sri Lanka’s trade policies with compatibility to the requirements of women engaged in informal economic sector. k) Non-focusing on the empowerment of women engaged in informal economic sector at national level. l) Non-availability of adequate and proper day care centres to look after the children in mother’s absence m) Inadequate market for products produced in the informal economic sectors and difficulties in marketing them due to glut of cheap imported goods. n) Ignoring the participation of women engaged in rural or informal economic sectors in policy making processes. o) Provisions set out in the Land Development Ordinance allowing discrimination against women. 28 28