A worker petitioned the Supreme Court. Workers’ correspondence is delivered to the estate where they are employed. Without a registered address, people cannot benefit from government programmes or take part in the democratic process.
Colombo (AsiaNews) – A plantation worker has filed a petition with the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka seeking an order to direct the authorities to grant registered permanent addresses to Tamil working in the tea, coconut and rubber industries across the country.
These key sectors for the country’s economy employ primarily descendants of Tamils from southern India, who were brought to the island, then known as Ceylon, as bonded labourers about 200 years ago under British colonial rule.
In his petition, Jeevaratnam Suresh Kumar notes that many of his fellow workers and their families were granted citizenship only in February of this year, but they still lack a formal home, domicile or permanent postal address.
Employed at the Muwankanda estate in Mawathagama, Kurunegala district, he filed his petition to the court on behalf of Tamil families who, although new citizens, continue to be penalised by the lack of a registered address, which prevents them from having access to government programmes or participating in the country's democratic process.
The Muwankanda estate is home to about 300 families who cannot receive correspondence and documents of any kind because mail is simply addressed to "Muwankanda Estate, Mawathagama", or delivered to the district post office, which in turn deliver it in bulk to the estate superintendent, whom local workers distrust.
As Jeevaratnam Suresh Kumar points out, the Janatha Estate Development Board manages 277 estates with about 400,000 residents, none of whom has a permanent address.
The petition’s respondents are Home Affairs Minister Dinesh Gunawardena, Plantation Industries Minister Ramesh Pathirana, and Water Supply and Estate Infrastructure Development Minister Jeevan Thondaman.