Members of the Voice of the Plantation People Organisation (VOPP) met Prime Minister Dr. Harini Amarasuriya on Thursday (17) to highlight urgent challenges faced by the Malaiyaha community in the Matara, Galle and Kalutara districts, particularly with regard to housing, education, land rights and basic infrastructure.
The delegation outlined the contributions of the community to Sri Lanka’s economy over the past 200 years. Despite this, they said, the community continues to endure systemic neglect and poor living conditions.
Executive director of the VOPP, Anthony Jesudasan outlined the decades of discrimination faced by the community following the Ceylon Citizenship Act of 1948 which stripped the community of legal citizenship and also the Sinhala Only Act of 1956 which has impacted the community.
The activists presented several proposals to address the long-standing problems and ensure sustainable development for the community. Among the issues raised was the need to expedite the issuance of legal deeds for lands that were allocated to the Malaiyaha Tamils from 1993 to 2024 and providing adequate healthcare facilities to the community.
The delegation also called for the abolition of the Out Grower System, which denies plantation workers access to EPF and ETF benefits. They advocated for a return to the daily wage system for women working in plantations and proposed simplified banking processes to make loans more accessible.
