Fighting the estate workers’ problems in parliament - EDITORIAL

The tea estate workers continue to be in the news, but their lives haven’t changed much. This is a country which has promised them much. Lawmakers have spoken aloud in parliament about them, but the main matter concerning them-the salary- has been akin to cold tea. 

Just the other day Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP Palani Digambaram underscored the plight of estate workers and proposed the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) to give these workers an addition of Rs 5000. Digambaram cited the state sector employees being given that money and wanted the same for the estate workers. 
The presence of an Indian Government influence in the estate sector is a boon for them. The Modi government has worked on providing housing for tea estate workers and delivered on its promise. 

The Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) must realise that this group of minority Tamils also has its grievances and must be counted when solving the national question. 
Sri Lanka boasts of its fine teas and its share in the export market. This is all possible because of workers and their commitment to their task. The welfare schemes and perks offered to workers in the garment industry is much more when compared to what the estate sector employees receive. For any industry to flourish its workers must have the feeling of being looked after. 

Tamil estate workers don’t have that feeling. Receiving less than Rs 1000 a day doesn’t put them in a position where they can love their work. This is why the next generation of these Tamil estate workers are moving away from tea plucking and looking for jobs in Colombo and other commercially developed areas where their are better employment opportunities. 
Food is an issue in the estate sector where workers cannot have more than one solid meal a day. The risk of this aspect of their lives is that children are exposed to ending up malnourished; their growth can also be stunted as a result. 
Recently the Government promised to provide 15 kg of flour to estate workers, but that too didn’t materialise. This was also another aspect which Digambaram highlighted in his speech in parliament. 

"Sri Lanka boasts of its fine teas and its share in the export market. This is all possible because of workers and their commitment to their task. The welfare schemes and perks offered to workers in the garment industry is much more when compared to what the estate sector employees receive"

Then Digambaram also underscored the fact that all individuals must be treated equally in this country. This was more to do with the Rs 5000 given to state sector workers and not to the Tamil estate workers. But there is a message between the lines that had to be picked up when this member of parliament aired his views about estate workers. What he meant was that estate workers are not third class citizens in this nation despite their job being one of the most challenging manual jobs an individual can engage in. The bitter cold, bites by leeches and the challenges up on the mountains- where getting from point A to point B can be a choice between falling off a high terrain or slipping on an unsteady surface- sum up what a day in the life of estate tea plucker could be.  

The estate sector that employs them promises them health and insurance care, but countless are the stories associated with these workers where the middleman takes his share home just by organising things for these workers who are often illiterate or so backward. 
MPs like Digambaram must fight their case in parliament and keep the estate sector employees’ problems in the news. It’s high time that these workers received a decent wage and some recognition for keeping Sri Lanka on the world map of tea.