Colombo: Trudging their way through the heavy mined former LTTE areas in the east, the women deminers in Sri Lanka are a determined lot, trying to clear as many mines as possible.

"No I am not scared. I realise the grave dangers. But then we follow a safe system," a female deminer from the Eastern Trincomalee, Anusha Sandhya, told PTI.

The unobtrusive and smiling look of Sandhya hardly suggest the work she is undertaking in saving thousands of people from losing their arms and limbs.

"If women can become pilots and can be in the forefront of so many things, why can she perform the role of clearing the mines," she asks in Sinhala language with a smile.

"I have two children and my husband is a security man. I take care of them and voluntarily chose to become a deminer to render some service to the society," she said.

Able deminers even clear upto three landmines a day if they are fortunate in detecting them early.

Kaminishyam Perera, another women deminer, took pains to explain her opinion through gestures and hand signs to overcome the language problem even while speaking through an interpretation from a fellow Tamil deminer.

She said the work involved a lot of concentration and care to ensure no untoward incident takes place.

The miners are properly equipped to avert any fallouts from any possible explosions when clearing the mines.

There are over a million landmines in Sri Lanka and only 1,76,000 mines have been cleared, according to officials.

Both Sandhya and Perera have been in the profession for about three years and are going about their dangerous job in a routine manner.