25 Aug 2009

SRI LANKA / TAMIL TEA PLANTERS

The predominately Tamil tea plantation workers in South Central Sri Lanka are some of the poorest people in the country. UNDP is working with the government to find ways to improve their lives. UNDP

Posted at: August 25, 2009 4:54 pm

Duration: 02:38

Available in: SD

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Full script

STORY: SRI LANKA / TAMIL TEA PLANTERS
TRT: 2.38
SOURCE: UNDP
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / SINHALA / NATS

DATELINE: RECENT, SOUTH CENTRAL SRI LANKA 
 
SHOTLIST:

1. Various shots, tea plantation 
2. Various shots, tea plantation workers getting ready to go to work 
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Fredrick Abeyertane, UNDP Sri Lanka:
"From the beginning, estates were like little empires, each with its own management.  For generations they have been living like that.  They were kind of neglected a lot, not mainstreamed into the rest of the citizens of this country because they didn't have voting rights and things like that."
4. Wide shot, workers
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Meyan Vamadevan, Ministry of Nation-building and Estate Infrastructure: 
"This community in the past has been neglected for a long period.  They have been subject to social isolation, economically, and politically also.  The benefit of the development has not reached them fully."
6. Various shots, tea plantation workers
7. Wide shot, tea plantation workers weighing tea 
8. Various shots, water and sewage running outside tea plantation workers' houses 
9. SOUNDBITE (Sinhala) Krishnaleela, tea plantation worker: 
"I have little income because there aren't enough tea leaves in the estate. [Interviewer: then does the management reduce your salary?] We get paid only when tea leaves are available.  Sometimes we don't get paid at all."
10. Various shots, tea plantation processing factory 
11. Various shots, tea being processed 
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Fredrick Abeyertane, UNDP Sri Lanka: 
"UNDP came into the picture at the request of the government and supported the preparation of this National Plan of Action.  Now the Plan of Action is available.  Now we are supporting again to translate this Plan of Action in to something called a Road Map."
13. Wide shot, meeting to discuss plan of action for tea plantation workers 
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Meyan Vamadevan, Ministry of Nation-building and Estate Infrastructure: 
"UNDP's assisting us to formulate a road map that is to make this National Plan as an implementable one. So we'll be addressing those critical issues, and see how those objectives will be realized in the given target time."  
15. Wide shot, tea plantation worker drinking tea outside her home

STORYLINE:

South Central Sri Lanka is home to both the breathtakingly beautiful tea plantations that have made it famous and the impoverished plantation workers who work them.

Originally Tamils from India who were brought over by the British to provide cheap labor on estates, the plantation community forms nearly five percent of the population in Sri Lanka today.

These plantation workers have faced social, economic and political isolation through the generations.

SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Fredrick Abeyertane, UNDP Sri Lanka:
"From the beginning, estates were like little empires, each with its own management.  For generations they have been living like that.  They were kind of neglected a lot, not mainstreamed into the rest of the citizens of this country because they didn't have voting rights and things like that."

While the government finally provided them with full citizenship in the 1970s and began providing them with social welfare services, they remain poor and marginalized.

SOUNDBITE (English) Meyan Vamadevan, Ministry of Nation-building and Estate Infrastructure: 
"This community in the past has been neglected for a long period.  They have been subject to social isolation, economically, and politically also.  The benefit of the development has not reached them fully."

Many workers live with their entire family in small, one-room structures that lack running water and sanitation facilities.

They often have little or no access to medical services and lack job security of any kind.

SOUNDBITE (Sinhala) Krishnaleela, tea plantation worker: 
"I have little income because there aren't enough tea leaves in the estate. [Interviewer: then does the management reduce your salary?] We get paid only when tea leaves are available.  Sometimes we don't get paid at all."

With the plantation sector contributing to about five percent of the country's GDP, improving the lot of plantation workers is beneficial not only to the people themselves, but to the economy as well.

In 2006, UNDP supported the government in the formulation of a legislative action plan that focuses on a range of human development issues targeting the country's most vulnerable, including those in the plantation estate sector.

UNDP provided a team of consultants and training for the relevant government departments in order to actually implement the plan, which mandates improved infrastructure, health, education, housing, gender equality and human rights for these poorest.

SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Fredrick Abeyertane, UNDP Sri Lanka: 
"UNDP came into the picture at the request of the government and supported the preparation of this National Plan of Action.  Now the Plan of Action is available.  Now we are supporting again to translate this Plan of Action in to something called a Road Map."

Now that the action plan has been agreed upon, and the government is ready to move ahead on it, UNDP is continuing in its advisory role in terms of figuring out how to translate the plan into a concrete road map for the years ahead.

SOUNDBITE (English) Meyan Vamadevan, Ministry of Nation-building and Estate Infrastructure: 
"UNDP's assisting us to formulate a road map that is to make this National Plan as an implementable one. So we'll be addressing those critical issues, and see how those objectives will be realized in the given target time."

If Sri Lanka is weather the global economic recession while simultaneously achieving the Millennium Development Goals, stepping up human development for all of its citizens must remain a priority.

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