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 (supervisors) and dorais (a colonial term still used by many to refer to estate managers).
It is therefore after a lot of hesitation that he started talking when TNIE met him on the way from Hatton to Nuwara Eliya in the Central Province of Sri Lanka.
Jayaraman, a Malaiyaha Tamil whose ancestors were brought from India to work in tea estates, started working in a plantation when he was 18 for a daily wage of LKR 5. The daily wage for an estate worker was recently increased from LKR 1,000 to LKR 1,350 (close to Rs 400 in INR). Despite doing the same amount of work, Natesan still earns only LKR 1,000 since he has technically crossed the retirement age of 60.
Even that income is on the condition that applies to all workers that they pluck at least 20 kilos of tea leaves a day, failing which the daily wage gets cut proportionately. “I have to pluck 24 kilos in fact since the remaining four kilos are counted as commission,” he said.
Jayaraman, his wife, who is also a plantation worker, and two children still live in a Layam, as the “line houses” constructed since the British period for housing the workers within the estates are locally called. He and his wife are still the breadwinners since his son and daughter, who could not progress much in education with their limited opportunities, are yet to obtain regular employment.
“My wife is turning 60 soon. I am worried that her daily salary will also be cut from 1,350 to 1,000,” he said. The story of Jayaram is representative of the plight of the Malaiyaha Tamils (Hill country, up-country or Indian-origin Tamils) in Sri Lanka, whose ancestors were taken as labourers from Tamil Nadu by the British 200 years ago to create tea estates in the country.
The tea industry has since grown by leaps and bounds, making the country the third largest exporter of tea and thereby being a key engine of its economy. However, the life of Malaiyaha Tamils, the main foot soldiers of this industry, who are the fourth largest ethnic group in Sri Lanka with more than a million in population, has remained largely unchanged.
Deprived of citizenship in 1948, the community had to struggle for more than half a century to secure the right, during which around half a million people were sent back to India as per the Sirimavo-Shastri Pact of 1964.
Today, the community lags behind others in all socio-economic indicators. For instance, stunting among children is 31.7 % in the community compared to the national average of 17.3 %. More than 50 % of the over 2.2 lakh families in the estates lacked water and sanitation facilities while around 80 % needed better housing, as per a report of the Ministry of Hill Country New Villages, Infrastructure and Community Development (MHCNV).
Nuwara Eliya (23.9) and Badulla (28), where the majority of the Malaiyaha Tamils live, are the districts with the highest percentage of poor holds while the national average is 11.7 as per the Economic Statistics of Sril Lanka 2024 brought out by the Department of Census.
Thirty-year-old Jeevan Thondaman, a fourth-generation politician from the influential Thondaman family, which has led the largest trade union cum political party – Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) – representing the community, for more than seven decades since the time of his great grandfather Savumiamoorthy Thondaman, said it wouldn’t be inappropriate to say that the community is seen as the “children of a lesser god”.
Last year, a large group of Malaiyaha Tamils led a march from Talaimannar to Matale, to trace the journey of the first Indian-origin Tamils 200 years ago, and to demand swift redressal of their long-pending demands, which mainly included housing, land ownership, and affirmative action in education and employment to address historic injustices.
Mu Sivalingam, a prominent writer from the community, who grew up in a layam since his parents were estate workers, described the line of houses, each roughly measuring 100 to 200 square feet in size, as bird cages.
“There is just one entry and no ventilation. The British wanted them to come back to these cages, eat, sleep and get back to work the next morning,” he said, adding that it is unacceptable that the people have to live in such inhumane conditions even today.
V Ramasundari (46) from Battalgalla near Hatton had spent her entire life in one such house. “I have requested all the politicians for a house. However, nothing has changed for the people in this locality,” she said, while cooking her lunch with firewood, which still remained the primary fuel used for cooking by majority of the families in these houses.
Some of these houses are more than a century old and are in a dilapidated state.
S Sathaiya (74), who toiled throughout his life in a tea estate, lifted his hand to touch the roof of his house to show how the land on which the houses stand has sunk gradually due to rats.
“When I was a youngster, I couldn’t touch the roof. Now it has come down at least by a feet. There is a huge rat population underneath, which keep burrowing the ground, resulting in this sinking,” he said.
A section of people, who have managed to save money, have, however, renovated and expanded the line houses on their own in the limited space available.
The latest report available on the Ministry of Hill Country New Villages, Infrastructure and Community Development said that, as of 2018, there was a need to build around 1.86 lakh houses, of which India had assured to build 14,000. However, the construction has progressed at a snail’s pace with not even 40 % of even the India-funded houses getting completed yet.
A 2022 report by the Auditor General of Sri Lanka poked several holes in the implementation of the project, including mismanagement of funds and lack of transparency in the selection of beneficiaries.
The people living in these line houses often hesitate to reveal the trade union they are with, fearing denial of benefits if the stranger enquiring is with another union. Enrollment in a trade union, all of which were started to fight for workers’ rights with the estate companies and transformed into political parties as well, is de facto mandatory for all workers in the estates.
The oldest and the largest is CWC while the other major ones among the Tamil workers are National Union of Workers (NUW) and Up-Country People’s Front (UCF). The salary slip of a worker showed that LKR 333 each month is deducted from their monthly salaries towards subscription fees for the trade union they belonged. “We paid the fee even during Covid-19 when we were asked to work,” said one of the workers, who did not want to be named.
While these unions-cum-political parties have contributed notably to the welfare of the community, they have also encouraged strong patronage-based politics.
While all the housing projects are government-funded, almost every beneficiary of a housing project that TNIE spoke to said their houses were constructed either by “Thiga annan (brother)” or “Radha annan” or “Thondaman ayya,” referring respectively to Palani Thigambaram (NUW) and Velusamy Radhakrishnan (UCF) or the late Arumugam Thondaman (CWC), the prominent leaders of the region.
“The beneficiaries are chosen depending on which of these leaders are in power at a given time. The local leaders of these parties pick up the beneficiaries of their choice, often after taking money,” alleged Daniel Noel Janastar (42), who, frustrated with the traditional parties, made an unsuccessful electoral contest in the recent parliamentary elections as a candidate of the National People’s Power, which has come to power.
Jeevan and Radhakrishnan, who are bitter political rivals, however, denied such allegations and pointed to the complications involved in the slow progress.
“We completed 4,000 houses when we were in power as part of the Maithripala Sirisena government between 2014 and 2019,” said Radhakrishnan.
Jeevan, who served as the Minister of Water Supply and Estate Infrastructure during the previous Ranil Wickremesinghe government, said 44,000 houses had been built since 1972, of which the majority were done when CWC was sharing power with the ruling party of Sri Lanka. He said the previous government was to set up a special Task Force to swiftly address the multi-faceted challenges.
The complications pointed out by the two politicians are not untrue. For instance, the lands on which the houses have to be built have been leased out to 23 Regional Plantation Companies, which run the tea estates. Apart from their hesitation in granting land for houses, the companies also reportedly insist that the houses can be built only for those working in the estates.
However, according to the latest available government data, only 1.1 lakh of the roughly 2.58 lakh families living in the estates still worked there while the remaining have moved to other work over generations.
Another challenge is ensuring land rights. Even for those who got new houses, each of which is supposed to be built on 7 perches of land (1 perch = 0.6 cent), the land ownership is not transferred in the majority of the cases.
Arguing that 7 perches of land is inadequate, Sivalingam said at least 10 perches should be given to each family so that they can use it for generating additional income, for example by cultivating vegetables.
“Nearly 75 % of Sri Lanka’s tea production comes from small estate holders, the majority of who are Sinhalese. This is because of the land given to them by the government. Why can’t they similarly transfer uncultivated land to Malaiyaha Tamils,” he asked, pointing out that vast tracts of the land given to 23 companies remained uncultivated. A government report showed that more than 35 % of the 2.4 lakh hectares of land with the companies remained uncultivated.
Another strange situation is the inability to fulfil basic amenities like roads and water in the newly built houses. The locals said this is because the Pradeshiya Sabhas, equivalent to that of the local bodies in India, lacked jurisdiction to provide such services in the lands that are technically under the control of the estates. An amendment to the Pradeshiya Sabha Act in 2018 has not helped much, they said.
A common complaint in a housing project visited by TNIE, which was funded by India, was the lack of water. “One family has spent money out of their pocket to build a small storage for water supplied by the estate. We are all dependent on that family for water,” said K Vinosha, a resident.
The residents also pointed out how they were dissatisfied with the original design of the house and how they had to spend a substantial amount out of their pocket. “The kitchen was too small, we expanded it. Only two doors are provided by the government for the entry and exit. The bedroom comes without a door,” said B. Kalaiselvi, another resident.
She is thankful to India for the assistance but wants the Indian government to ensure that their money is well-spent. A case in point for India to be more sensitive to local needs with its funding is the Rs 150 crore District Base Hospital built by India in 2017 adjacent to the British-era Glencairn Hospital in Dickoya to cater to the healthcare needs of the region.
The doctors and other staff told TNIE that the new hospital could have been designed better with increased collaboration. For instance, while the old Glencairn Hospital had 100 beds, the new hospital had just a similar capacity despite the huge investment. “They should have gone for more beds considering the demand. There are fewer toilets and a lot of space is underutilised,” said a doctor, who also pointed out that an incinerator remained unused due to a lack of technical know-how while the originally-installed centralised oxygen system had failed. “Our engineers had to completely rework the main power control room since we did not know how to operate the ones installed by India,” he added.
Thaiyamuthu Thanaraj (75), a hill-country Tamil, who grew up in a layam in a family of 10 people, was among the first generation of people to get higher education and is now a Commissioner of Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, the first one from the community.
Highlighting that the community has made marginal strides in primary and secondary education, Thanaraj, however, noted that it is still far behind in higher education. “Of the 600 Professors in Sri Lankan universities, only 9 are Malaiyaha Tamils, including myself,” he said.
S Dharshini (43), who was doing well in studies, dropped out and went to work in a garment factory when she was 15 to support her family. She showed her swollen legs, explaining that she developed varicose veins after standing for 10 hours a day for 16 years. “I could not continue working there anymore. I came back and worked in the estate for another 12 years,” she added. Now, she has sent one of her three children, who scored well in O Level (equivalent to SSLC in India), to work in a baking company in Colombo as she could not afford higher education.
“I am hoping that the new government of Anura Kumar Dissanayake will provide a special focus on Malaiyaha Tamils,” Thanaraj said. He pointed out how the ruling NPP has made history by getting women from the Malaiyaha Tamil community elected to the parliament for the first time. Krishnan Kalaichelvi (50) and Ambika Samivel (36) were elected respectively from Nuwara Eliya and Badulla.
“Ramalingam Chandrasekar, who is fisheries minister, is also a hill-country Tamil while another Tamil minister Saroja Savithira Paulraj has got elected from the Sinhala-majority Matara, which is also historic,” he said.
He said the government’s priority should be to set up a university in Nuwara Eliya, which will give a major push to higher education, and land reforms. “If the government is determined, with the two-third majority, they can always bring in legislations to implement land reforms,” he said.
Sivalingam, who was a founding member of the UCF but later moved away from active politics after getting disillusioned, said the community has overwhelmingly voted for NPP, after getting frustrated with the traditional parties and with the hope of a better livelihood. “You go to any well-to-do household in Colombo. The maids in the houses will be from our community. We are the most discriminated and it has to change,” he said.
He said while the north-eastern Tamils say they share an umbilical cord relation with India, it is the Malaiyaha Tamils, who truly share such a relationship. “Hence, India should urge the Sri Lankan government for swift action,” he said.
“Adi alanthu veedu katta, namma aanda manai angirukka
Panjam pozhaipatharkku, paar kadalai thaandi vanthom
Panjam pozhaikalaiye – naama pattanam poi seralaye,” goes one of the old folk songs of the community compiled in a book by Sivalingam.
The song says despite owning land in India, the community crossed the ocean (and came to Sri Lanka) to escape famine, but it has neither escaped famine nor reached a better place. Seventy-four-year-old Sivalingam said while he may not be alive to see the community reach a better place, he hoped that it would at least happen within the next generation.