Historic ruling in Sri Lanka: Plantation workers will have a postal address

It is the first time in 200 years, and the breakthrough came thanks to a petition to the Supreme Court by one member of the community, Jeewarathnam Sureshkumar, who told AsiaNews: 'Without an address many other rights are also impossible. We will monitor the situation until all the communities on each plantation have obtained enforcement'.

Colombo (AsiaNews) - The Attorney General of Sri Lanka has informed the Supreme Court that since 4 December the Government has taken steps to provide permanent postal addresses to plantation workers. Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya praised efforts to provide postal addresses to plantation workers in the Muwan Kanda Estate, Kurunegala and Mawathagama regions for the first time in 200 years.

The historic ruling comes after Jeewarathnam Sureshkumar, a member of a plantation community from Mawathagama, Kurunegala, petitioned the Supreme Court at the end of March 2023 to request that plantation workers have registered postal addresses linked to their residences.

According to Sureshkumar, plantation laborers lose rights over other citizens as they face a number of inconveniences as they do not receive any letters at home. All the mail is in fact sent collectively to the address of a public office common to all the families of the plantation workers and the latter delivers the letters in bulk, but most of them do not arrive correctly at their destination, often remaining piled up in a box at the office, while others are lost.

Lakshan Dias, the lawyer of Jeewarathnam Sureshkumar, said he appreciated the government's efforts in providing postal addresses to plantation workers who have been providing a vital service for the development of the country's economy for over 200 years.

“It has been a difficult task for state officials to gather useful information to meet this need given the large number of people involved,” he reiterated to the deputy attorney general. Who added that it will take time to activate the mailboxes in all communities.

When asked by AsiaNews Jeevaratnam Suresh said: “I am really happy for this victory. This is not just my effort, but also the effort of several people who took care of getting my petition to the end. We will also monitor the situation until all communities in each plantation have obtained their own postal address."