Sri Lanka-Tea Workers (1)

This is hard work. This lady and hundreds of thousands of plantation workers like her spend six to eight hours a day harvesting tea-leaves. They are the descendants of people from India, brought to Sri Lanka by the British, almost two hundred years ago, to work on plantations.
Today they earn around four to five dollars for picking a day’s quota: which can range between ten and eighteen kilos.
It’s only if we meet the daily targets that we get paid the basic wage.
And they meet those targets – in all kinds of weather. Earnings fluctuate, depending on the crop; and aid agencies point out that workers’ living conditions are difficult.
You can see the poverty level; and the children are malnourished; they’re living in a very small space....
For the last couple of decades, plantation housing has consisted of long buildings like this; divided into rooms for each family.
Parents, children and extended family live in these...rooms.
Alchoholism and malnutrition are common.
Plantation companies say they take care of workers, ‘from womb to tomb’