Sirimavo Bandaranaike Biography - Birth date, Achievements, Career, Family, Awards

Bhandarnayake was born on 17 April 1916 at Sirwala Ravatte in Ilaawala Walwa, Ratnapura in British Ceylon. His mother Roshelind Hilda Mahavalaten Kumarihami was an eminent Ayurvedic physician, and his father Barnes Ravatte was a politician. Sirima was the eldest in a family of six children.

Sirimavo Bhandarnayake died of a heart attack on 10 October 2000 (age 84 years) in Kadawatha, Western Province, Sri Lanka. When she was visiting Colombo at her home.

In the year 1941, Sirimavo Bhandarnayake joined the country's largest women's voluntary organization Lanka Mahila Samiti (Lanka Women's Association). She participated in many social projects launched by the Mahila Samiti for the empowerment of rural women and disaster relief. One of his first projects was an agricultural program to meet food production shortages. His first office, as secretary of the organization, attended meetings with agricultural experts to develop new methods for the production of rice crops. Over time Bhandarnayake served as vice-president, vice-president, and eventually chairman of the Women's Committee, which focused on girls' education, women's political rights, and family planning issues. She was also a member of the All Ceylon Buddhist Woman's Association, the Cancer Society, the Ceylon National Association for Prevention of Tuberculosis and the Women's Welfare Association. He was also appointed as Health Minister In 1951, he was persuaded to resign from the United National Party and to establish the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (Freedom Party, SLFP).

Sirimavo Bhandarnayake during the 1952 parliamentary election S.W.R.D. Campaigned in K Attangalla constituency while he also traveled across the country to gain support. Although the Freedom Party won only nine seats during that election, S.W.R.D. Was elected to parliament and became leader of the opposition. When new elections were called by Prime Minister Sir John Kottewala in 1956, S.W.R.D. On one occasion the sensation spread and formed a four-party alliance, Mahajana Ekasath Peramuna (MEP), to contest the 1956 elections. In May 1960, Bhandarnayake was unanimously elected party president by the Freedom Party executive committee. On 21 July 1960, after a resounding victory for the Independence Party, Bandaranaike was sworn in as the world's first female Prime Minister as well as Defense and Foreign Minister. In September 1964, Bandaranaike led a delegation from India to discuss the repatriation of 975,000 stateless Tamils ​​living in Ceylon. In the 1965 elections, Bandaranaike won a seat in the House of Representatives from the Attanagalla electoral district. With her party getting 41 seats, she became the Leader of the Opposition, the first woman to hold the post.