ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s female tea pluckers do not get promoted as male tea pluckers do, Minister of Estate Infrastructure Jeevan Thondaman said.
“I know educated women who are plucking tea because they are not getting into management, and I know less than qualified men who are in management positions. Why? Because they know how to order people around,” Thondaman told EconomyNext.
A study done by Verite Research in 2022 shows that the estate sector’s economically active population is 404,002 out of which 167,156 are women.
However, there is a difference in the work that men and women do while being paid the same wage.
“The men do sundry work and the women pluck tea so it’s not that men get paid more it’s that men do a different set of work. The gender inequality is that women have to pluck tea for let’s say 10 hours across three sittings, but there are men who get appointed as the watcher, the cook in the bungalow, or the manager will have some guys to take his child to school and all of that,” Thondaman said.
“The management believes that women are meant to pluck tea and are not into management.”
In addition to being rejected for management positions, female tea pluckers also lack bathroom facilities, and are being forced to remove their pottus, the minister said.
“With Kelani Valley they did not inform the workers that they could have an alternative. It was either you remove it or we will remove you,” Thondaman said.
Kelani Valley Plantations management denied the allegations.
“We cannot forcibly remove pottus, however we do not allow the sticker pottu according to ISO regulations,” CEO of Kelani Valley Plantations, Roshan Rajadurai said. “It is not just Kelani Valley; no plantation company will allow it. He is just saying this to justify his insane behaviour.” (Colombo/Jun13/2024)