Event Report: Deepening Crisis in the Plantation Sector in Sri Lanka by Dr. A. S. Chandrabose

The Center for Asia Studies organized a discussion on “Deepening Crisis in the Plantation Sector in Sri Lanka" on February 27, 2016. Dr. A. S. Chandrabose, Senior Lecturer in Social Studies, Department of Social Studies, Open University of Sri Lanka, initiated discussion.

Cmde. R. S. Vasan, Head, Strategy and Security Studies, Center for Asia Studies opened the floor for discussion by introducing the speaker and greeted Sri Lankan High Commissioner Amb. Vadivel Krishnamoorthy for his gracious presence.

Dr. Suryanarayan moderated the discussion and gave a brief introduction to the subject. He pointed out that the working classes suffer a lot in plantation sector, the tea production has come down and fragmentations of the tea estates are taking place. The children in plantation areas are relatively more educated today. He mentioned that many workers in order to retain the houses in the plantation work in plantations only for few days. Rest of the days they will come out and stand in the main highway and they wait for the truck and go for work in vegetable farms. They earn relatively more in vegetable farms than in tea plantations. In addition to high wages, they get breakfast and lunch also. The main problem facing community for long was to get Sri Lanka citizenship. This has been achieved after protracted parliamentary and extra-parliamentary struggles. Now, the problems facing the community are permanent housing and upward mobility through education.

Dr. Chandra Bose initiated the discussion by thanking Prof. Suryanarayan for his guidance during his education days and recalled that he knew Dr. Suryanarayanan from 1985. He categorized his presentation into five parts; 1) Plantations in Sri Lanka 2) Structural Changes 3) Plantation Community 4) Deepening crisis and 5) Conclusion.

Plantation in Sri Lanka

The tea plantations in Sri Lanka were started by British planters in 1840s. In late 1870s and 1880s, rubber and coconut plantation system were also initiated. These plantations required large amount of land and hard working labor.

In 19th century, plantation was considered as modern industry in every country. It was highly looked labor intensive sector and was maintained by multinational countries. In 1948 it was estimated that 36% of GDP was contributed by tea plantation sector and the gross export of tea was 90% of total exports. Due to diversification of industry the contribution of tea to GDP has come down. Migration of labor from the plantations to urban areas has been taking place during recent years, this has led to decline, in tea production. An export of tea is also declined. Presently, it is 3.1% of GDP.

Structural changes

After independence the Sri Lankan government nationalized the tea industry and implemented land reforms in 1972 and 1975.

Around 75 per cent of the nationalized plantations were distributed to government corporations such as JEDB/SLSPC. The marginal land of around 10,000 hectares was distributed to landless community in Sinhalese rural areas. Opportunities were provided to the rural unemployed communities to be employed in the plantation sector, through implementation of Diversification project (NADSA) and Medium Term Investment Programme (MTIP). They also initiated estate welfare programme and it was brought about by a labor ordinance. However, the JEDB/SLSPC miserably failed in managing the nationalized estates.

The government initiated the programme of Privatization of JEDB and SLPC estates in 1992. Thus, RPC was formed in 1992. The JEDB and SLSPC estates were distributed to the 23 Regional Companies. It was leased for 55 years. Tax was reduced. Collective Agreements were made for wage negotiations. Plantation Human Development Trust (PHDT) was established to look after the welfare of the estate workers. From the same year there was a expansion of Tea Smallholdings. As a result, Sri Lanka contributes 26% of world export of tea.

Geographically the tea plantation can be classified into three areas. 1) High grown 2) Mid grown 3) lower grown. The high grown and mid grown tea are famous for its taste and aroma. Basically, the lower grown tea will contain more color but will be bitter in taste. Notably, lands of these low grown tea plots are located such as Ratnapura and Kalathura. The area and cultivation increased from 66,000 to 1, 09,000 hectares. A proper land survey was conducted in 1994. Thus, the government relies heavily on the contribution on tea industry for economic development.

Plantation Community

Recruitment of Workers

The Kandyan Kingdom recruited labor under Rajakarya System. This system was abolished by the British government. In 1830s South Indian workers were recruited basically for tea industries. Initially the workers used to walk from Thalaimannar to Matale which was around 300 km. Dr. A. S. Chandrabose referred the book The long walk: Indian plantation labor in Sri Lanka in the nineteenth century authored By I. H. Venden Driesen. According to 1911 census the, migrant Tamils were referred to as ‘Indian Tamils’. Further in 1927, Migrant Labor (Indian) Ordinance was enacted. Many amendments were introduced in later years but the community is still referred to as Indian Tamils.

Migration of Workers

After the conclusion of Sirima-Shastri Pact in 1964 and Indira Gandhi-Bandarunayaka pact in 1974, large number of Indian Tamil workers returned to India as Indian citizens. In addition after ethnic tension, the Indian tamils migrated from Ratnapura, Kegalla, Kandy, Matale, Monarangala to the northern province. This migration got a momentum after riots in 1978, 1981 and 1983.

Tamil Population

As a result of changes, which took place in the post independence period, the official statistics contained in census data does not reflect the reality about the Indian Tamil community. The census mentions the Indian Tamils to be around 4.1% of the population but according to informed sources the Indian Tamil population should the around 6.4%. Many Indian Tamils referred to themselves as Sri Lankan Tamils.

As a result of these changes and closer interaction with Sinhalese community the Indian Tamils communities are slowly losing their separate identity. For example, the slangs of their speeches do change. They frequent use ‘Thanah’ Sinhalese word instead of ‘Thevasam’ in Tamil. They call their children as ‘thutha’ and ‘Duva’ instead of ‘magan and magal’ in Tamil.

Housing

Sri Lanka has successfully solved the problem of housing for the rural Sinhalese. Unfortunately, the estate sector remains untouched. The government conducted has housing projects for the rural community, but this did not extend to the estate sector. 65 % of the workers continue to live in line rooms. The PHDT has recently provided the facilities for the construction single houses for estate workers. Around 23,000 houses have been constructed from 1992 to 2014 unfortunately the estate workers are not the owners of these houses.

The present government has decided to provide 7 perch of land for construction of houses for the estate workers and the program is been implemented by the Ministry of New Village and Estate Infrastructure Sector’. It is gratifying to note that the Indian government is also constructing around 4000 houses for estate workers.

Political Representation

All plantation workers today above the age of eighteen have the right to vote. And under propositional system of representation they have 9 members in parliament; two of them are members of cabinet. In addition Indian Tamil community also sends representatives to provisional and local councils. The total number of elected representation is around twenty five.

Wage & Income

The Plantation workers come under the category of Wage laborers and their wages are determined by collective agreement. The daily wage includes the basic wage and allowances. At present the wage is Rs 450 per day. Workers receive additional allowances (Rs.30 + Rs140) of Rs.170 if they complete for more than 75% task given by the estate management. Management believes that the average worker can earn around Rs.15, 000 per month.

According to an in depth study the wages of the plantation workers are as follows.

• 27% are earning less than only Rs.6500 per month

• 44% are earning between Rs 6500 to Rs.8500 per month

• 12 % are earning between Rs 8500 to Rs.10, 500 per month

• 17 % are earning between Rs 10,500 to Rs.15, 500 per month

The last two categories have other sources of income mainly from the members working outside the estates. The estate workers also supplement their income by remittances from family members, working in urban areas and also in West Asian countries.

Employment

It is a highly labor intensity sector but after privatization the registered labor intensity is reduced. In 1990, it was 500,000 laborers and now it is reduced to 232,000. 40% of the workers are temporary workers. The young workers invariably migrate to urban areas. They also migrate to Middle Eastern countries.

Education

Estate schools were nationalized during 1980s. Around 60 % of them drop outs after ten years of schooling. There is very limited opportunity for GCE A/L education in the estate areas. Children have to travel 6 to 15 kilometers and minimum requirements for transport will be Rs.150/- per day. Only around 150-200 students are enrolled in the universities.

Creation of Small Holdings

Most of the small-scale farmers have been mainly involved in cultivation of coconut, areca nut, pepper and other spices. The land reforms of 1972-75 gave a boost to small tea holdings. At present there are 400,000 small holders which constitute around 60 per cent to 131,000 hectares of total tea land. These are mainly located in the low region of the country. 88.2 per cent of the Tea smallholdings are less than ½ hectare in size. The distribution of the tea smallholders in the districts are as follows.

Ratnapura97,984Galle90,524Matara67,613Kalutara38,263Badulla29,679N Eliya17,547

Conclusion

In conclusion Dr. Chandrabose, highlighted two vital aspects of the present crisis in the plantations 1) tea production is coming down and 2) workers are migrating to urban areas.

Prof. Suryanarayan’s Final Comments

In his concluding remarks Prof. Suryanarayan highlighted few important aspects of Indian Tamil community. Attempts made by various militant organizations to have a foothold in the plantation areas didn’t succeed and the hill country remained an oasis of peace. During the prolonged ethnic conflict, however due to sustained campaign by organizations like Gandhian estate workers, began to migrate to Northern Province after communal riots in 1977. They were lured by the slogan of integrated living with the Sri Lankan Tamils but the result was these hapless people become landless labors in the Northern Province. What is more, when the ethnic conflict started in 1983, they were caught between Sinhalese lions and Tamil tigers.

Many of them continue to live on government doles in the relief centers in Vavuniya, unfortunately their sad state of affairs has not attracted the attention of the government agencies including the leadership of the Indian Tamils.

According to informed sources LTTE was able to recruit around 500 Indian Tamil youth into the militant organization. Their main job was to translate vital information contained in the Sinhalese media into Tamil.

Prof. Suryanarayan also highlighted the fact that, the major problem afflicting the Indian community in the absence of committed political leadership. While senior Thondaiman was able to extract citizenship from a reluctant Sinhalese leadership through protractor struggles, the present leadership lacks political acumen.

Compiled by Vithiyapathy P, Research Officer, Center for Asia Studies.