Exploited, discriminated against and unrecognised: the plight of Sri Lanka’s woman plantation workers.
In 2023, tea exports from Sri Lanka were valued at approximately $1.3 billion and rubber exports at $930 million[1]. Nearly half a million people in Sri Lanka work in tea and rubber plantation, around 4.3% of Sri Lanka’s population.[2] The tea and rubber plantation industry are sustained by the back-breaking work of tens of thousands of workers from the Malaiyaha Tamil community, an ethnic minority group in Sri Lanka.
A significant portion of tea and rubber plantation workers are women, who face a lifetime of discrimination. Generations of families and workers are born and die on the plantations[3]. This continues to perpetuate a cycle of poverty, that started during the British colonial period, whereby tea pickers (predominately Tamils from Southern India) were brought over to Sri Lanka (then the British Ceylon) as indentured labourers. Workers continue to live in crowded shacks and lack access to basic sanitation facilities[4]. Adding to these conditions is the fact that workers must collect 18 kilogrammes (40 pounds) of tea leaves to earn a daily wage of 700 Sri Lanka rupees (equivalent to USD2.29). To meet these targets, workers often engage their children in the picking work to earn more money. Women born into these families face little choice but to work for the farms, as educational opportunities are rare in the isolated plantation areas. Similarly, many of the young women in these families feel ‘pressure from their families and communities to marry at earlier ages than they wanted’[5]. The isolated conditions of the plantations contribute to increased instances of sexual harassment and discrimination, with ‘83% of tea estate women [suffering] from domestic violence’[6]. Additionally, women workers are estimated to be paid 20% less in wages than male workers[7], and their wages are ‘routinely handed over to the males (husbands/fathers) by the management’[8].
Recently, a historic Tribunal was set up by the Ceylon Workers’ Red Flag Union, whereby international judges heard about the horrific conditions faced by 11 workers employed in tea and rubber plantations across central and southern Sri Lanka. Judges heard primarily from women workers, who detailed targets tied to their wages, and the absence of basic sanitation facilities. At the core of this mistreatment lies the inability of the State or the plantation companies to effectively ensure and enforce a daily wage, which should be LKR1,000. Indeed, the Tribunal noted ‘that workers experience abysmal pay, extremely slow progression in wage increases and blatant non-implementation of wage increases’[9].
Sri Lanka’s recent economic crisis has only exacerbated already tough conditions – prices of food, fuel and medicine soared while wages remained stagnant[10]. A 2023 Guardian investigation found that supervisors refused to pay workers what they were owed, resulting in workers skipping meals and putting their children into work[11]. The Guardian investigation also had the effect of compelling some of the world’s leading tea manufacturers to conduct investigations into the conditions of workers in Sri Lankan farms.[12]
The recommendations of the Tribunal reflect an incredibly dire situation. While women workers on plantations are finding their voices through avenues like trade union and workers’ Tribunals, broader and meaningful recognition of these workers’ plight and conditions is necessary to shake off out-dated and regressive notions of the value of women’s work and in recognising women as economic actors in their own right.
By Smriti Roy
Sources:
[1] Adaderana Sri Lanka, “‘Horrified’ by plight of Sri Lanka’s plantation workers, says tribunal’”12 June 2024 <https://www.adaderana.lk/news.php?nid=99821>
[2] Daily Mirror Sri Lanka, ‘At first-ever Workers’ Tribunal: Judges recommend govt. to uphold dignity, rights of plantation workers’ 11 June 2024 <https://www.dailymirror.lk/print/news-features/At-first-ever-Workers-Tribunal-Judges-recommend-govt-to-uphold-dignity-rights-of-plantation-workers/131-284560>
[3] Philips, A. (2003). Rethinking culture and development: marriage and gender among the tea plantation workers in Sri Lanka. Gender & Development, 11(2), 20–29. https://doi.org/10.1080/741954313
[4] Laura Fornell, Nanu Oya, DW, ‘Sri Lanka’s Ceylon tea workers face a legacy of exploitation’ 22 September 2020 <https://www.dw.com/en/sri-lanka-tea-workers-and-a-legacy-of-exploitation/a-55006963>
[5] London School of Economics Blog, Christopher Finnigan ‘Sri Lanka’s rural tea plantations: Brewing a new blend of gender equality’ 21 January 2019 <https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/southasia/2019/01/21/sri-lankas-rural-tea-plantations-brewing-a-new-blend-of-gender-equality/>
[6] Tea Leaf Trust, ‘Estate Life’ <https://tealeaftrust.com/beginnings-estate/>
[7] Sri Lanka Brief, Mathavakala Mathavan, Discrimination and sufferings of female workers in Sri Lanka plantation Sector’ 24 February 2023 <https://srilankabrief.org/discrimination-sufferings-of-female-workers-in-sri-lanka-plantation-sector-mathavakala-mathavan/>
[8] Ibid.
[9] Adaderana Sri Lanka, “‘Horrified’ by plight of Sri Lanka’s plantation workers, says tribunal’”12 June 2024 <https://www.adaderana.lk/news.php?nid=99821>
[10] The Guardian, Jeevan Ravindran “‘We give our blood so they live comfortably’: Sri Lanka’s tea pickers say they go hungry and live in squalor” 23 May 2023 <https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/may/23/we-give-our-blood-so-they-live-comfortably-sri-lankas-tea-pickers-say-they-go-hungry-and-live-in-squalor>
[11] Ibid.
[12] Ibid.