Sri Lanka's tea industry faces crisis amid wage hike and tough conditions for workers
3 months, 1 week ago

Sri Lanka's tea industry faces crisis amid wage hike and tough conditions for workers

ABC  

It's 8am and there is sleeting rain — miserable conditions to be outside, let alone work in Sri Lanka's tea fields. Sagunthla is one of many Tamil women who make up the backbone of Sri Lanka's tea industry. He is advocating for a more measured 35 per cent wage increase, because Sri Lanka's tea industry is struggling with lower productivity and higher labour costs compared to competitors such as India and Kenya. Amba Estate is a pioneer of the revenue-sharing scheme in Sri Lanka's tea industry.

Tea Sri Lanka British Tamil Estate Sri Abc Wage Libby Wage Hike Sagunthla Tea Pickers Libby Hogan Workers Industry Mr Fernando Mr Rajadurai  wage  sri  workers  industry  estate  tea  lankas  crisis  tough  hike  abc  libby  work  say  faces

History of this topic

Malaiyaha Tamils of Sri Lanka: Shackled to a legacy of tea, toil for 200 years
1 week, 2 days ago

Malaiyaha Tamils of Sri Lanka: Shackled to a legacy of tea, toil for 200 years

New Indian Express  

NUWARA ELIYA: Sixty-three-year-old Natesan Jayaraman, in his 44 years of working in a tea plantation, has learnt that avoiding unnecessary conversations is a useful strategy that kept him away from trouble with his kanganis and dorais. Jayaraman, a Malaiyaha Tamil whose ancestors were brought from India to work in tea estates, started working in a plantation when he was 18 …

Sri Lanka’s tea estate workers courted by presidential candidates
3 months ago

Sri Lanka’s tea estate workers courted by presidential candidates

Al Jazeera  

Whoever Sri Lanka’s next president is, Muthuthevarkittan Manohari isn’t expecting much to change in her daily struggle to feed the four children and elderly mother with whom she lives in a dilapidated room in a tea estate. Both leading candidates in Saturday’s presidential election are promising to give land to the country’s hundreds of thousands of tea estate workers, but …

‘Bring Manjolai tea estate, workers under TANTEA to ensure livelihood’
5 months, 1 week ago

‘Bring Manjolai tea estate, workers under TANTEA to ensure livelihood’

The Hindu  

The Manjolai Area Residents’ Welfare Association has appealed to the Tamil Nadu government to bring the Manjolai tea estates in the Western Ghats under Tamil Nadu Tea Plantation Corporation and allow the existing tea estate workforce of Manjolai to continue their work in the tea gardens as it would ensure their livelihood. In other words, the court ordered the BBTC …

Malaiyaha Tamils | Two hundred years of struggle
1 year, 6 months ago

Malaiyaha Tamils | Two hundred years of struggle

The Hindu  

Of the many tumultuous chapters in Sri Lanka’s history, the one on Malaiyaha Tamils is often glossed over. Brought down by British planters, to work at coffee and tea plantations, the Malaiyaha Tamils have played a crucial role not only in Sri Lanka’s export economy, but also in building the island’s road and railway infrastructure. The community identifies as a …

Remember our history, recognise our labour, say Sri Lanka’s Malaiyaha Tamils
1 year, 6 months ago

Remember our history, recognise our labour, say Sri Lanka’s Malaiyaha Tamils

The Hindu  

Marking 200 years since their arrival in Sri Lanka from southern India, to work in the British-run plantations, members of the island nation’s historically marginalised Malaiyaha Tamil community have sought greater recognition, political rights, and improved living and working conditions. Watch:How Sri Lanka’s economic crisis affected the Malaiyaha Tamil community Organised by the Institute of Social Development, an NGO working …

An uphill struggle in Sri Lanka’s tea country
2 years ago

An uphill struggle in Sri Lanka’s tea country

The Hindu  

Watch | How the economic crisis has hurt Sri Lanka’s hill Tamils Sathish Sumithra’s son, barely two years old, is too young to make sense of Sri Lanka’s unrelenting economic crisis, but not to escape it. “An egg costs 70 rupees now,” says Sumithra, breaking down what the country’s 70% inflation and over 80% food inflation means in her working-class …

CONTROVERSY | Fears in Sri Lanka over Tamil Nadu decision to scrap Tantea plantations
2 years, 1 month ago

CONTROVERSY | Fears in Sri Lanka over Tamil Nadu decision to scrap Tantea plantations

The Hindu  

Published : Nov 17, 2022 10:30 IST A Tamil Nadu government order issued in October this year to hand back tea plantation land to the Forest Department has caused anxiety and concern among plantation Tamils in Sri Lanka. Soon after Sri Lanka gained independence in 1948, it refused citizenship rights for plantation Tamils and demanded that India take back over …

Sri Lanka crisis: How do you fix a broken country?
2 years, 5 months ago

Sri Lanka crisis: How do you fix a broken country?

CNN  

CNN — For years it had been one of Sri Lanka’s grandest and most heavily guarded buildings, serving as the official residence and state office of the President. “People are tired, hungry and angry … And they are demanding change and accountability because they are sick of seeing the same faces in charge.” ‘We can’t afford to pick or choose’ …

Sri Lanka: People running out of food, fuel and medicine
2 years, 7 months ago

Sri Lanka: People running out of food, fuel and medicine

The Hindu  

"I have a 10-month-old baby. I couldn't even buy medicines for her when she was sick last week," said Gunarathna Vaani, who resides in the suburbs of Sri Lanka's capital Colombo. A dire economic crisis Many of Sri Lanka's 22 million people are facing acute shortages of food, fuel and medicine as the island nation finds itself battling one of …

No gas, no medicine, no food: Life in crisis-hit Sri Lanka | Exclusive
2 years, 8 months ago

No gas, no medicine, no food: Life in crisis-hit Sri Lanka | Exclusive

India Today  

As the economic crisis in Sri Lanka spirals out of control, 69-year-old Thomos from Colombo told India Today that petrol is unavailable, medicines are difficult to find and essential food items are being sold at extremely high prices in the country. ECONOMIC CRISIS IN SRI LANKA With huge debt obligations and dwindling foreign reserves, Sri Lanka has found itself unable …

Sri Lanka’s rage: The Hindu Editorial on the island nation’s economic woes
2 years, 8 months ago

Sri Lanka’s rage: The Hindu Editorial on the island nation’s economic woes

The Hindu  

As irate protesters gathered near the house of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in a desperate bid to highlight their suffering, the worsening economic crisis in Sri Lanka has possibly reached its crescendo. The roots of the crisis may not lie wholly in the policies of Mr. Gotabaya, who was swept to power in 2019 as President on a platform of strong …

Economic crisis tightens grip on Sri Lanka’s hinterland
2 years, 10 months ago

Economic crisis tightens grip on Sri Lanka’s hinterland

The Hindu  

As Sri Lanka’s economic crisis makes global headlines, estate worker B. Sundararajan is watching it manifest in his teacup. Besides the irony of a tea plantation worker, producing the famed ‘Ceylon tea’, rationing his own tea intake, Mr. Sundararajan’s reality lays bare the severity of Sri Lanka’s current economic meltdown. Colombo has foreign debt obligations totalling nearly $7 billion this …

The plight of Tamils of Indian origin in Sri Lanka
3 years ago

The plight of Tamils of Indian origin in Sri Lanka

New Indian Express  

In a highly commendable move, the Rajapaksa brothers, who hold the reins of power in Sri Lanka, invited the UN Human Rights Council dealing with contemporary forms of slavery to visit Sri Lanka, study the living conditions of the most exploited sections of society like people working in garment firms in export promotion zones, tea plantation workers and migrants. Tomoya …

Sri Lanka’s Malaiyaha Tamils living in inhumane, degrading conditions: U.N. expert
3 years ago

Sri Lanka’s Malaiyaha Tamils living in inhumane, degrading conditions: U.N. expert

The Hindu  

Sri Lanka’s Malaiyaha Tamil workers, whose labour in tea plantations fetches precious foreign exchange to the country, are living in “inhumane and degrading” conditions, a U.N. expert has said. Pointing to the workers’ colonial-era line room accommodation, where up to 10 people live in a 10x12 space, poor sanitation, and the persisting denial of land rights to the community, Mr. …

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