Mr. Prasanna Munasinghe, President of Sri Lanka Massage Institute (SPA) Owners Association, said that massage centers or spas are abundant in every city today.
He said that there was a licensing system to run these centers in this country until 2019 and it has been suspended since that year, so this business has gone astray.
He said that the existing governments have been informed of the need for a program to regulate massage centers in Sri Lanka and a discussion was held with the current President Mr. Anura Kumara Dissanayake and a Director General has been assigned to work with that office.
He said this according to a complaint that they have made to the Human Rights Commission today (30).
Accordingly, a representative of the Inspector General of Police, the officials of the relevant institutions such as the Ministry of Health and the Department of Ayurveda have been called before this commission and they hope for justice there, he said.
Mr. Prasanna Munasinghe further said,
This movement is not only in Sri Lanka but also a strong movement internationally. Both men and women take massage therapy for a healthy life. The image of this business in our country has been distorted by the fact that it has been classified as a brothel. We emphasize that this is not the case. We are working with the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute to provide NVQ Level 4 training to the children working here and the first group will leave next December after completing the training course. A group of employees with such standards are working in these massage centers. The second group is being prepared for training.
Today, tour guides are afraid to bring foreigners to a spa, something that is in special demand in the tourism industry. Because they run away from the police and get caught, foreigners go to the nearby countries of Malaysia, Thailand and India to get massages. Therefore, we request the new government to establish standards to streamline this business as it was before. Make this a sector of value to the business, owners and employees. Spas are not brothels. We have no problem with taking legal action for such things. Today, in many places, people who work like this without a court decision are publicly shown in the media as prostitutes. These are violations of human rights.
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