Tea estate sector workers remain in limbo with one of their key infrastructure problems – not having addresses to their houses – being unresolved, despite a court decision in December 2023 ordering the Plantation Ministry to grant addresses to all estate workers in temporary houses or ‘line rooms’. 

A Fundamental Rights (FR) petition filed in the Supreme Court by Jeevaratnam Suresh Kumar led to the court, in December 2023, issuing an order to the Plantation Ministry to grant addresses to all estate workers in temporary houses. Accordingly, the ministry and other relevant parties had undertaken to fulfil the duty within nine months. 

However, labour unions point out that the issue remains unresolved. 

When contacted, Plantation Industries Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said that the matter was under the Estate Infrastructure Development Ministry. 

Estate Infrastructure Development Minister Jeevan Thondaman told The Sunday Morning that the process of giving addresses to estate houses had started in approximately January 2023. “The real issue – or the head of the snake – is that postal boxes mean land rights and that should be given to successfully provide addresses to estate houses. That is what should be given to plantation workers.”

Missed letters 

Ceylon Workers Red Flag Union General Secretary S.A. Devendrakumari, speaking to The Sunday Morning, pointed to a number of issues that estate workers were grappling with as a result of not having a permanent address attached to their houses. 

“Letters for interviews and entry into schools are often misplaced. In most estates, letters are sent to the estate office – that is how they are addressed. The estate management pays someone to distribute the letters afterwards to the workers. In those estates, the postman doesn’t go to the line houses individually, which means that the letters don’t get distributed properly,” said Devendrakumari. 

She added that other important letters such as ones about gold that had been pawned by the workers could also be “missed” in this process.

Devendrakumari pointed to the confusing system that currently existed in place of proper addresses for estate sector workers: “Lines sometimes have numbers. Some estates have given a small land for the workers to build their own houses – those have their numbers. The houses built under the Indian Housing Scheme have addresses.”

She said that the numbering system was done by the Department of Census and Statistics and was not an address. “Workers don’t know the system in place,” she added. 

No proof of residence, no dignity  

According to Devendrakumari, the lack of a proper address does not only result in missed letters – it has also led to the ongoing burden on estate workers to prove their place of residence to various agencies, systems, and institutions even as they are unable to access one. 

“When they try to get their children admitted to schools, the schools check the residence, but estate workers cannot prove it. Documentary evidence like electricity bills does not come in their names but in the name of the estate. That is a problem. 

“For some, even if they can somehow obtain an electricity bill in their own name, they have to take letters from the estate management and confirm they are actually residents of that place to do so,” said Devendrakumari, adding that even Government offices issued them with a  common address – one which stated the factory division number and the estate. 

This means that if three people with the same name live in one division, letters could easily go to the wrong person.

“What is the dignity given to workers in a situation like this where they don’t even have a number for their house? What is the dignity of the labourers? The Government does not push for a resolution for this issue. They think that labourers can live in whatever way that exists – that is their principle. 

“As the public, we haven’t received this justice and dignity. Workers have contributed to the country, they are known as the backbone of this country, but their place in society or even their basic rights haven’t been secured by successive governments.” 

All Ceylon Estate Workers’ Union President Kithnan Selvaraj told The Sunday Morning that an address should come with land or housing rights. “Since those rights are lacking, the estate address is still what is being used by workers. It is still the old way.” 

State of disrepair

According to UN-Habitat, there are about 244,500 families and a population of 966,700 living in the plantation sector in Sri Lanka.

“Small attached houses called ‘line rooms,’ constructed during the British [colonial] period, are the common form of houses in these areas. Line rooms numbering about 160,000 in the estates are now in a state of disrepair,” notes a UN-Habitat report. 

The organisation further states that provision of adequate shelter with basic needs and access to healthcare are key factors that influence worker families to remain in the estates, ultimately leading to increased productivity. 

“During the past two decades, the Government has provided approximately 25,000 individual houses and some water and sanitation projects to uplift the living standards of these communities. There is a clear requirement for housing in the plantation sector to address the large outstanding need.”

In February, a housing project promised to Indian-origin plantation workers by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his 2017 visit to Sri Lanka was inaugurated – the Indian Housing Project (IHP). For Phase IV of the project, the Government of India has said that it plans to build a total of 10,000 houses for plantation workers in different provinces of Sri Lanka.