The decision taken by the Government to provide relief to economically vulnerable sections in society following the fuel price hike, will be a lifeline to those undergoing tremendous hardship. It is not known what form this relief would take, whether it is a cash handout or relief in kind. Whatever it is, it would be welcomed by a desperate community in the lower rungs of society. A news report quoting Power and Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekera stated that fishing and plantation communities together with low-income segments would be entitled to this relief.
The situation is so bad that today even the lower and upper middle classes are finding it difficult to make ends meet. More so when the salaries of a sizable section of office employees who had their salaries slashed during the pandemic days continue to be underpaid, with businesses doing badly due to the current economic situation. It is anybody’s guess how the unemployed and daily wage earners are coping.
No doubt, the worst affected are the estate workers who have to be content with a Rs.1,000 daily wage. It is all too well known that the estate community depends on bread and flour products as their staple. With the repeated increase in the price of flour and a loaf of bread priced at Rs. 170, it is an uphill battle for survival for these hapless souls, made worse by the fuel price hike. The family unit of estate workers is large with each family comprising more than half a dozen or so children, needing several loaves of bread per day to feed them all just for a single meal. With a Rs.1,000 daily wage there is no knowing how these hapless souls exist at all.
Not just token relief, the plantation community should be assisted in other ways to overcome their poverty and lift them out of their perennial bondage in the estates. Their living conditions should be improved and they should be redeemed from their current exploitation by crafty plantation sector politicians who ride to power on the back of these souls only to enjoy privileges and lead luxury lifestyles. The aim of these politicians is to keep their people in perpetual poverty and deny them a proper education in which event the people would get wise to the designs of their political masters and go their own way. All steps should be taken to make these folk more enlightened, so that they may extricate themselves from the poverty trap and explore avenues outside their mundane existence.
The Government should take direct control of the fate of the estate community instead of leaving them at the mercy of plantation politicians. They should be given new homes instead of condemning them to live in hovels called line rooms which had been their lot since their arrival into this country where nearly a dozen members of each family are crammed into a single room. Measures too should be taken to improve the current state of estate schools by equipping them adequately and assigning competent teaching staff.
Poverty has spawned rampant alcoholism in the estates which too should be dealt with. The Government owes much to this backwards community for their toil in bringing foreign exchange at a time the country is virtually begging for dollars. Their worth should be recognized and adequately rewarded. In the past poverty has also forced estate families to lend their children as domestics to affluent homes in the cities. It is not known if this still continues. If so, this should be stopped by the National Child Protection Authority (NCPA) and these victimised children sent for rehabilitation before being re-introduced into society.
The need of the hour though is to deal with their immediate plight by offering them the necessary succour for survival in the current climate where everybody is being pushed to the wall. It is hoped that Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe who yesterday took over as Finance Minister would possess the remedy to take the country out of its current phase where economic chaos have driven the people to near insanity and made them turn hostile as evident from scenes at gas outlets and filling stations. There is no knowing when the breaking point would come. Things should be expedited and the country put on the road of economic recovery before such an eventuality.
This is hardly the time to engage in political games. All must cooperate in the endevour of putting the country back on its feet by extending their support to the Premier. The public certainly must be looking forward to the relief Budget due to be presented shortly to ameliorate the sufferings of the people. The repeated hikes of fuel prices are going to send the Cost of Living into the stratosphere, due to higher transport costs. A way should be found to minimize the effect on the lives of the people and hopefully, the budget would come up with some form of remedy. The people’ patience is wearing thin, ready to explode anytime soon, if answers are not forthcoming on how they are to overcome their hardships.
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