Up Country Tamils: Charting a New Future in Sri Lanka Psycho-social issues related to war are not dealt with properly in Sri Lanka. Similarly, stakeholders do not recognise the psychological issues faced by Up-country women, which remain unaddressed at present. Unlike with socio-economic issues, women do not usually disclose the psychological issues experienced. The Jaffna Social Action Centre and Shanthiham in the North, and Suriya Women’s Development Centre in the East, are some of the organisations that provide counselling support to war-affected women. However, the CTFRM (2016) claims that psycho-social issues are not adequately dealt with in the war-affected areas. Similarly, there is a lack of studies on the psycho-social needs of the war-affected people in the Up-country. Permanent Relocation Households and individuals from the Up-country Tamil community have moved to the north and east of Sri Lanka on different occasions over the past 50 years, primarily at two critical points. Whenever there is an ethnic riot, some Up-country Tamils moved to the North thinking they are less vulnerable to harm in a majority Tamil-speaking region. The major relocation happened during and after riots and violence in 1958, 1977 and 1983 (UTHR-J 1993). Secondly, the Sirima–Shastri Pact of 1964 and the Sirima– Gandhi Pact of 1974, facilitated about 40 per cent of then stateless Up-country people to migrate to India. On their journey, some passed through Vavuniya on their way to the port of Talaimannar. Some among them managed to stay on in Vavuniya and evade 70