Economy and Poverty in Tea Plantations

Abstract

Poverty is an absolute barrier to prosperity due to the lack of resources and opportunities. Feeling of being disenfranchised from the various support systems such as educational, economic, cultural, social can weaken the feeling of empowerment to obtain these resources and opportunities. In Sri Lanka poverty line is one of the widely used indicators to measure poverty. This study is conducted to find out how the expenditure pattern affects the increasing poverty in tea estates in Kandy and Nuwaraeliya. Targeted number of estates is six. In the plantation sector there are certain different issues that have been the cause for the greater number of people to come below the poverty Line. Although plantation workers have many means and ways to earn the needed income. But, most of the workers do not use these opportunities. Therefore, this project aims to look at the reasons for these situations. In this study Primary data was collected in the field by using a structured schedule which includes the total monthly income of the worker, total outstanding saving and social expenditure of the worker. Secondary data was collected from the department of census and Statistics, ministry of finance and planning Sri Lanka. Descriptive statistics methods were used to analyze data and to achieve the objectives of the study. The questionnaire based on survey was done to collect information on monthly expenditure of 100 families using random number of Sampling method. The conclusion of the study shows how the income level has not helped to reduce the poverty levels due to not having the capacity to prioritize their expenditure items. Workers spend high percentages of their income for food (50%), alcohol (15-18%) and communication (15%). They spend as low as 4% of their income for the education and that leads to the low literacy among them. Finally, due to poor saving strategies the debts will increase.