Latest news feedRefugees Magazine Issue 147 ("The Excluded: The strange hidden world of the stateless") - Sri Lankan success story
Over 190,000 stateless tea-pickers have been granted citizenship thanks to a ground-breaking new law, but others are still waiting to benefit.
by Sulakshani Perera
"No, I don't have a national ID card. I don't even have a birth certificate," said K. Thangavelu, folding his hands across his lap. He doesn't appear to think there is anything odd about that – and where he lives, there isn't. He is 58, but looks much older, with a thin frame and coarse wrinkled face bearing witness to a harsh life spent working outdoors on one of Sri Lanka's renowned tea plantations.
Like his father and grandfather before him, Thangavelu is a tea-picker employed on the Bopitiya estate, one of hundreds of tea plantations spread across Sri Lanka's picturesque hill country. Most of the people working on these estates are descended from Tamils imported from India between 1820 and 1840, when the island was still under British colonial rule. Although these "Hill Tamils" have been making an invaluable contribution to Sri Lanka's economy for almost two centuries, the country's stringent citizenship laws had made it almost impossible for them to be legally recognized as citizens. Without the proper documents, these stateless people could not vote, hold a government job, open a bank account or travel freely.
Things improved dramatically when in October 2003, the Sri Lankan Parliament passed the "Grant of Citizenship to Persons of Indian Origin Act" to give immediate citizenship to people of Indian origin who have lived in Sri Lanka since October 1964 and to their descendants. The usually lengthy process of attaining citizenship was simplified by a "general declaration" countersigned by a justice of peace as proof of citizenship.
There were an estimated 300,000 stateless "Hill Tamils" in Sri Lanka at the time of the new law. The un refugee agency organized a media campaign with the immigration authorities, the Ministry of Interior and the Ceylon Workers' Congress to inform the stateless tea-pickers about the law and the procedures for acquiring citizenship. Mobile clinics and volunteers were deployed to the plantations to answer questions and fill in the necessary forms. Local authorities, aid workers and union representatives took part in workshops to better understand the country's citizenships laws, and to address practical issues such as access to basic documentation and voter registration.
A separate information campaign was organized for an estimated 10,000 stateless people who had been displaced in the north and east by the inter-ethnic fighting in 1983.
More than 190,000 people obtained Sri Lankan citizenship over 10 days in late 2003."Almost overnight, the stateless population in Sri Lanka was more than halved," said Amin Awad, UNHCR's Representative in Colombo."It was a huge success story in the global effort to reduce statelessness."
However, the process of obtaining the necessary papers has slowed down in recent years, with many plantation workers unaware of — or unable to exercise their right to receive — basic documentation as citizens of Sri Lanka.
"I completed the application for a National Identity Card and sent it to the grama niladari [local government official] two years ago. But I have heard nothing further," complained K. Thangavelu. Asked why he doesn't pursue the matter, he said, "The grama niladari is at his office only three days a week. The office is very far from the estate. So I have to spend one whole morning there, and then I will lose out on my daily wage. How will my family eat that day?"
Delays & obstacles
In addition to the bureaucratic process, there is also an element of exploitation by some estate owners who profit from their workers' legal limbo. Tea-pickers are paid 170 Sri Lanka rupees (a little over $1) for a day's work, provided they bring in a minimum of 18 kg of tea leaves. At the end of the month, estate workers each receive Rs. 3,740, but only if they work the full 22 days. If the world tea market goes up, they receive an additional Rs. 25 a month. At present, with a 12 percent inflation rate, such a wage is barely enough to feed one person for a month, let alone a family of 17 like that of Anthony Nalliah, another tea-picker on the Bopitiya estate.
With illness and old age beginning to catch up on him, 55-year-old Nalliah feels he will soon be forced to give up his gruelling job. Fortunately, he is not his family's sole breadwinner, as all but one of his children are now employed by the estate. Nalliah's biggest fear is that, because of his statelessness, he will not receive the money owed to him when he retires."They will ask me for all sorts of documents like my national identity card, birth certificate and marriage certificate. I don't have any of these. Then what will I do? I don't want to stay at home and be a burden to my family. Until I get these documents sorted out, I will work for as long as I am able."
Anthony's youngest son, 17-year-old Nithyanandan, had more ambitious plans."I never wanted to work in the estate like my siblings," he said."But I had to stop my education two years ago because my parents couldn't afford to send me to school. I travelled to Colombo when I was 16 and worked for a short while at a poultry farm there, but I had to come back because of the security situation."
In a city wracked by periodic bombs and suicide attacks by the Tamil Tiger rebels, Nithyanandan was subjected to lengthy questioning by Colombo's security forces after he was unable to produce proper identity documents. In the end he decided to return home and apply for his national ID.
A full year has passed since he applied, and he has still not received a response from the authorities. So Nithyanandan feels he now has no option but to join the rest of the family working on the estate, at least until his documentation is finalized."I feel guilty staying at home while my parents work hard to feed me," he said."So I will work in the estate here until I get my national ID card, but I really don't know how long it will take."
Ignorance is largely to blame, said Mrs. Arumugam, the principal of a small school on Chrystler's Farm estate in Hatton, Nuwaraeliya district, considered by many to be the centre of Sri Lanka's tea industry. After 30 years of teaching at estate schools, she stresses the importance of changing parents' attitudes.
"We try and educate the students about the need for national identity cards and proper documentation," she said."But when they tell their parents, the children's comments are simply brushed aside. Some parents also question why national identity cards and birth certificates are important, because they themselves have managed perfectly fine without them. So these children grow up with absolutely no evidence of their parentage, except a piece of paper issued by the estate management."
If the children continue with their education until the age of 16, the school is responsible for obtaining their national identity cards. However, of the 366 students studying at the school she heads, Mrs. Arumugam says only a few will go on to complete their GCE "O" Level exams.
"All of these estate families are living below the poverty line, and they need as much assistance as possible to survive," she said."The paltry amount they earn is not at all enough to feed and clothe the young ones, let alone send them to school. As soon as they feel the children are old enough, the parents put a stop to their education and send them to work on the estates."
New opportunities
But slowly, surely, some real advances are taking place. Former Hatton resident Kalyani, has successfully embarked on a new career outside the tea industry after getting her national identity card in 2006. She is now working as a geriatric nurse in Colombo.
"I was really thankful when my national identity card arrived because it allowed me to travel to Colombo and find work here," said the 23-year-old."I am earning much more than I would have if I stayed on at the estate." Her husband is also applying for his national identity card and will then join her in Colombo."He is with my two-year-old son in Hatton. My mother takes care of the child while he goes to work, but very soon all of them can join me here for a much better life."
With a bit of luck – and plenty of commitment by those enlightened Sri Lankans determined to end the unjust situation of stateless people – more of the estate workers will soon be able to reap similar success from the massive contribution their families have made to the Sri Lankan economy over the past 200 years.
Source: Refugees Magazine Issue 147: "The Excluded: The strange hidden world of the stateless"
(September 2007). Download the complete issue in pdf format: low-resolution (1.8 Mb) here or high-resolution (6.8 Mb) here.
