{"id":75895,"date":"2022-01-30T00:44:12","date_gmt":"2022-01-30T04:44:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=75895"},"modified":"2022-01-30T21:53:40","modified_gmt":"2022-01-31T01:53:40","slug":"pathetic-plight-of-sri-lankas-poorly-paid-plantation-workers-during-current-economic-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=75895","title":{"rendered":"Pathetic Plight of Sri Lanka’s Poorly Paid Plantation Workers During Current Economic Crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Meera Srinivasan<\/strong><\/p>\n

In recent weeks, he has cut his usual two cups of tea a day to one. \u201cMilk powder is not easily available. When it is available it is not affordable. There is no other option but to cut down our tea,\u201d said the resident of Doloswala village in Sri Lanka\u2019s southern Ratnapura District. Besides the irony of a tea plantation worker, producing the famed \u201cCeylon tea\u201d, rationing his own tea intake, Sundararajan\u2019s reality lays bare the severity of Sri Lanka\u2019s current economic meltdown.<\/p>\n

Rising inflation<\/strong><\/p>\n

The country\u2019s fast-depleting foreign reserves \u2013 $ 3.1 billion at the end of 2021 \u2013 have pushed the Rajapaksa administration into a corner. The Government needs dollars to import basic food items, fuel, and medicines, which have frequently been in shortage in recent months. As has milk powder, which Sri Lanka mostly imported and widely consumed in place of fresh milk.<\/p>\n

Scores of consumers are struggling to afford essentials such as rice, pulses, vegetables, fish, and meat whose prices are soaring, amid import restrictions imposed to save foreign exchange. Consumer price inflation hit 14% last week. Finding liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cylinders, in short supply, remains a challenge.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

And if the consumer is a daily-wage worker like Sundararajan, where his hard-won Rs. 1,000 wage is tied to tedious production targets, forgoing a cup of tea or even a meal, like in the case of many poor families, is the only option.<\/p>\n

The story of Sri Lanka\u2019s economic crisis came to the fore amid the pandemic, which dealt a severe blow to the country\u2019s crucial foreign exchange earning sectors. Colombo has foreign debt obligations totalling nearly $ 7 billion this year, and Sri Lanka is \u201ctrying all options\u201d to avoid a default, Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa recently told the Financial Times.<\/p>\n

India and China have extended emergency assistance by way of loans and currency swaps, but Sri Lanka is still on the edge. The national polity, policymakers, and think tanks are debating if the country should opt for an International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout. Some analysts are even arguing that Sri Lanka must prepare to default, and subsequently restructure its debt, although the Government is determined to keep the country\u2019s unblemished record in foreign debt servicing.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka\u2019s plantation workers, like the nearly 900 employed in tea and rubber estates in Doloswala village, did not have to wait until the pandemic to know deprivation.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the last few years, the Rs. 1,000 wage struggle of our workers was in focus. They won the wage, but there are 1,000 other problems facing the community for decades,\u201d said Anthony Masilamani, who works at the local administrative authority. He was speaking at a recent event organised by the Catholic church in the village, to remember local heroes who had died fighting for the community\u2019s rights.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur people are still living in crammed line room housing, no matter how big their families are. Our schools don\u2019t have mathematics and science teachers for higher classes. We don\u2019t have enough toilets. This is our reality,\u201d he said, pointing out that the country\u2019s recent economic downturn aggravated the workers\u2019 misery, and didn\u2019t create it.<\/p>\n

Several youth who were employed in shops and restaurants in capital Colombo have returned to the village jobless after the pandemic struck, said Rev. Fr. Jeewantha Peiris, who organised the event. \u201cPhysical distancing is impossible in their line room accommodation. Many children were already malnourished. The situation has only got worse due to the current shortages.\u201d Speaking of the event, he said it was \u201cjust to remember our local figures\u201d who asserted the community\u2019s rights in the past. \u201cThey didn\u2019t fit into big movements, so they aren\u2019t usually commemorated the same way,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Even otherwise, Sri Lanka\u2019s rubber estate workers get much less attention, compared to their counterparts working in the tea estates largely in the central highlands. This, despite rubber being the third largest item in Sri Lanka\u2019s exports basket, after apparels and tea, and fetching nearly $ 1 billion in exports last year.<\/p>\n

Lourde Manila works in a local rubber factory and says she must put in three people\u2019s work to earn the maximum wage. \u201cI have three children, and their education and future depend on what I am able to spend today,\u201d she said. \u201cBut when the cost of living is so high and wages are stagnant, how are we supposed to feed our children and pay for their education?\u201d<\/p>\n

Workers also spoke of long-denied land rights of the community that has left them economically vulnerable for generations. \u201cIf we had a piece of land to call our own, we might build a small home, grow some vegetables, seek a bank loan showing our documents to start a small business. With no ownership, we can\u2019t do any of that. We can\u2019t even cut the branches of a tree in front of our house to make a roof,\u201d said A. Anton.<\/p>\n

Most non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working on plantation sector rights tend to focus on the tea estates in the upcountry districts, according to Masilamani. \u201cWe live here, down south amidst a majority of Sinhala people. Sometimes even our own people elsewhere don\u2019t consider us Malaiyaha (hill country) Tamils. It\u2019s like we are invisible,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Courtesy:The Morning<\/em><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Meera Srinivasan In recent weeks, he has cut his usual two cups of tea a day to one. \u201cMilk powder is not easily available. When it is available it is not affordable. There is no other option but to cut down our tea,\u201d said the resident of Doloswala village in Sri Lanka\u2019s southern Ratnapura …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Pathetic Plight of Sri Lanka’s Poorly Paid Plantation Workers During Current Economic Crisis’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75895"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=75895"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75895\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75900,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75895\/revisions\/75900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=75895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=75895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=75895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}