From 1815 to 1948 Sri Lanka was a British colony, and its colonial planters enriched themselves off of Ceylon tea from plantations using Tamil indentured laborers brought over from South India. Even after British rule ended, tea plantations and their respective estates remained under the same ownership until 1972. Under their rule, control was exerted over school systems, intentionally preventing children from completing their education – keeping them trapped on tea plantations.
Today, tea plantations are run by companies that lease land from the government. Their schools remain underfunded compared to the national Sri Lankan education system, with declining resources and high dropout rates. Cycles of exploitative violence continue, with communities reporting high rates of abuse, underpaid child labor, wage theft, and even forced labor.
Tea plantation workers are often denied payment, with 44% of families in tea estate areas remaining food insecure despite working long and harsh hours. “If we work 22 or 23 days, because of all the cuts we only get about 15, 16 days’ worth of pay. And then when they cut everything… they give us, there’ll be no salary left”, one tea plantation worker recounts.
Link in bio to sign the pledge to boycott non fair trade tea, send a message to tea companies, and donate to our partners school.
Actuarial Analyst at OUTsurance | BScHons Actuarial Science at UP
5moThis was so much fun and for such a good cause 😁