Plantation workers in the Colombo district have staged a protest demanding that law be enforced against the manager who is accused of demolishing a small room built by a helpless estate worker mother and assaulting her.
The protest was launched by a group of workers at the Penrith Estate in Avissawella yesterday (18).
The estate manager has demolished a room built by a mother working on the estate with the permission of the estate administration. Protesters allege that the estate manager assaulted the mother, who went to ask why the house had been demolished. The mother who was injured in the attack has been admitted to hospital. Her two sons later assaulted the estate manager and he too is currently receiving treatment at the hospital.
The protesting plantation workers further demanded that the authorities enforce the law against the estate manager who assaulted a woman and rebuild the demolished house. Protesters also accused police of being reluctant to enforce the law against the estate manager.
Eight hundred thousand people have no shelter
Plantation workers are at the forefront of the homeless population in Sri Lanka. It was recently revealed that around 800,000 people in Sri Lanka are homeless. “In Sri Lanka, where there are 6 million families, only 5.2 million families own some form of housing, and nearly 800,000 families are living in extreme poverty and have no safe place to call home,” says Yu Hwa Lee, Sri Lankan director of the ” Habitat for Humanity” organization.
She had revealed this while participating in a program organized by the ‘Janavabodha Kendraya’ in Negombo and the ‘Shramabhimani Kendra’ in Seeduwa on the occasion of the World Habitat Day which falls on October 04 every year. Subhadra Kumari, an activist of the Negombo People’s United Organization, pointed out that the housing problem has existed in Sri Lanka for 40 years since 1979.
“We are all low-income earners. So, the economic hardships are there. When we live with several families in the homes of parents and relatives because we cannot pay rent, each other’s privacy is compromised. When there are 3,4 families, that is, 10-15 people living in the same house, there are so many heartaches, fights and loss of personal freedom and we have to face many problems, ”she said.
Meanwhile, the rural working class points out that many post-war homeless people are living in the Northern Province.
“More than 7,000 families are still living in refugee camps or in relatives’ homes or in rented accommodation, hoping to be resettled. About 800 of their families are still living in refugee camps. President of the Rural Workers’ Union A. Imbanayagam, points out that the army still holds large tracts of land belonging to these Tamil people without releasing them, for the purpose of utilizing them in development activities at Mylitty and Kankesanthurai Ports and the Palaly Airport.
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