‘Soap and solace scarce as Sri Lanka’s tea pickers toil on amid lockdown’

<p>Sri Lanka’s tea plantation workers “with a history of exploitation face hazards including a lack of masks and overcrowded accommodation,” despite tough lockdown measures across the island, Yasmin Gunaratnam writes for <em>The Guardian</em>.</p> <p>“A caveat on the country’s lockdown order, issued on 20 March, read: ‘Paddy farming and plantation, including work on tea small holdings and fishing activities, are permitted in any district,’” she wrote.</p> <p>“The Ceylon Worker’s Red Flag Union say coronavirus public health measures mean little on estates, There are no facilities to wash hands with soap during a shift and masks are not always issued, even though it has been mandatory to wear them in public since early April.”</p> <p>“A pressing concern is living conditions. Accommodation on tea estates generally consists of overcrowded, tin-roofed ‘line rooms’, usually five consecutive rooms in long rooms.&nbsp; Each 30-square-metre room is a household, making social distancing impossible.”</p> <p>“Today, the work remains physically demanding, with poverty and debt bondage weighing heavily on estate communities.”</p> <p>“With the pandemic curfew, even basic foods such as rice and lentils have been scarce, and women are struggling more than ever to maintain the health of their households.”</p> <p>Read the full piece <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/apr/24/soap-and-sol…">here</a>.</p>