(94)

81 2424511
nandmana@gmai.com
www.humanrightsofficekandy.org
Human Rights Office
¾ A, Digana Road, Nattarampotha, Kandy Kandy - Sri Lanka
Human Rights Office, Kandy
Volume :12 Issue :131

The grinding poverty of

Tea Plantation Families
has left young girls vulnerable
The grinding poverty of tea plantation families has left young
girls vulnerable to sexual abuse, rape and trafficking, with a
Rita ( 17 ) - Talawakelle growing number of teens being trafficked as modern slaves.
Uma Devi ( 23) - Nawalapitiya Hundreds of young girls in tea plantation districts fall victim to
traffickers every year.
Diviya (13) - Rattota (Matale)
Tea plantation workers lack knowledge about the Criminal
Ishalini (16) - Dyagama Justice System and the way they should make a complaint to the
police. Often the language is a barrier at the police and also in
courts as tea plantation workers are Tamil with an Indian origin.
They know very little about the rights of their children against any form of abuse, which has placed them in very
vulnerable situations in their social setup. Further this community is most likely to succumb gender based
violence and child abuse, yet they do not seek redress due to cultural values.

However, we came across some daring courageous young girls who fought for Justice and Redress and continue
their struggle for Justice for years with the court delay.

RITA (17) a school girl was abducted and raped on the 12th August 2001 while she was returning home after mass
and Sunday's school at St. Patrick's Church Talawakelle by Nalaka Piyal and Thuwan Rameez. One of the most
shocking cases of the violation of the fundamental human rights of a girl took place in broad daylight in the town of
Talawakelle in the Central Province of Sri Lanka. However, Rita
been a school girl, went all by herself to the Talawakelle police
station, made a complaint and went with police ofcers in search
of the perpetrators even before informing her mother.

Being a poor tea plantation family, her mother was still working at
Holyrood Estate, not very far from Talawakelle town. Her father
passed away when she was very young and the grandfather was the
strength to the family. Rita was a student at Tamil Maha Vidyalaya
Talawakelle and when this incident happened, she was in year 10.
Like other tea plantation families, the family of Rita too had Protest held in Hatton : 26-08-2001
nancial difculties, trying to manage with the little money that her mother and grandfather earned.

Soon after the incident Rita was brought to Kandy and she studied in Peradeniya Tamil school and sat for her O/L
th
's and HRO provided her with holistic assistance. A public protest was held in Hatton Town on the 26 August 2001
to pressurize the Talawakella police ofcers calling for an impartial inquiry.
Justice from the District court to Jesudasan Rita after 17 years .....
In the MR case 04/2004 of Jesudasan Rita for Redress, the two accused Nalaka Piyal Samaraweera and Mohomad
Thuwanan Rameez were ordered to pay 800,000/- (Eight hundred thousand rupees) by the Nuwara Eliya
th
District Court Judge on the 30 July 2021 as compensation. However, the Judgement was appealed by the
accused and soon the case will be heard in the Appeal court in Kandy.

20 years in search of Justice...

th
On 28 December 2015, the Nuwara Eliya High Court judge delivered a historic judgment for the abduction and
Rape of Rita and the two accused were each sentenced to 23 years rigorous imprisonment and ordered to pay
Rs. 200,000 as compensation after being convicted for abduction and rape. However, the case was appealed and
a fresh trial was ordered due to a technical error and the case HC / NE 48/2010 will be taken for trial once again in
Nuwara Eliya High Court.

S. Umadevi (23) of Nawalapitiya, Imbulpitiya Estate was abducted, raped and murdered on the 12 of
th

September 2001 at Kopiwatte, Mallanda in Nawalapitiya on her way home after attending her typing class in
Nawalapitiya Town. The father of Uma Devi heard that the corpse of a young woman was found in the shrub land
near the Malkanda bridge. The father went to that spot and identied the body of his daughter who was raped and
murdered.

Two weeks after the incident in September 2001, when the investigations were at a standstill, we organized a public
Protest in Nawalapitiya town from the Hindu Kovil to the Catholic Church, drawing a huge crowd, calling for the
police to arrest the accused and proceed with the investigations.

This was followed up by a postcard campaign where we called Justice for both Umadevi and Rita. More than 5000
postcards were sent by the students to the relevant authorities including the then President Chandrika
Kumaranatunga. Our campaign led the authorities to hand over the investigation to the Gampola ASP ofce.

It was only in 2002 the 03 accused

Junideeen Mohomad Haris, Abdul
Razaak Mohomad Salam and Pakeer
Mohomad Kamaldeen between the age
of 55-70 were arrested, however the
second accused died before the trials
concluded.
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On the 25 September 2012, Kandy High
Court Judge sentenced the two accused
for 20 years of rigorous imprisonment for
abduction and rape and death sentence
for the murder of Umadevi.

The rape and murder of Umadevi took place exactly one month after the rape of Jesudasan Rita in Talawakelle on
the 12th August 2001 and her case is still on trial at Nuwara-Eliya high court even after 20 years.
Divya - Mohanambal was 13 years when she was raped by her neighbor S. Jeevaratnem on the 08th
November 2007, while she was all alone at home, in Dankanda Estate Rattota, Matale. Divya lived with her father,
grandmother, uncle, two sisters and a brother. Her mother had gone to the Middle East for employment. On the
th
08 November 2007 happen to be a Deepavali day, 'the Festival of Light' and she was alone at home.

Mr. Jeevaratnam (43), the neighbor, had come to her house after consuming alcohol threatened her a knife and
forced her to drink alcohol. When she started shouting, Jeevaratnam put a cloth in her mouth and raped her. When
she regained consciousness after an hour, she informed the family members and made a complaint to the police.
Divya was then brought to Kandy by the Human Rights Ofce staff for counseling, protection and for her security.
She was housed in Ampitiya and studied at the Ampitiya R.C school and at Peradeniya Tamil School. Divya sat for
the GCE O/L exam in 2011 December.

The Kandy High Court Judge, Manilal Vaidyathiaka, sentenced the accused Sandanam Jeevaratnam to 20 years'
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rigorous imprisonment and imposed a ne of Rs. 5,000/- on the 18 May 2012. Apart from that The Judge ordered
Rs. 100,000/= as compensation to the
victim.

Since there were several cases of Rape &

Child abuse reported from Matale and
Rattota, a Protest was held in Rattota town
nd
on the 02 December 2011, calling the
Police to arrest perpetrators and bring them
before the law.

Ishalini Jude Kumar a 16-year-old

Catholic girl from Dayagama West, Division
3, died 12 days after she was admitted to the
rd
Colombo National Hospital on the 03 July
2021 with severe burn injuries while she was Press conference calling for Justice to Ishalini 03.08.2021
working as a domestic helper at the house of Parliament Member Rishad Bathiudeen. She succumbed to injuries
12 days later and the post mortem found that the teenager had been subject to repeated sexual assault.

She was the 11th domestic worker sent from Dayagama to the same house of Rishad Bathiudeen's in laws. Out of the
11 girls, one has jumped into a train and committed suicide and another had died at home while Ishalini died from
burn injuries in hospital.

The Bishop and diocese of Kandy represented by the Human Rights Office have stood by Rita, Uma Devi and
Diviya and many other victims and would stand by Ishalini's family.

Rita & Diviya like many others were provided holistic assistance, such as legal, medical, psychological,
educational, employment and housing and has
accompanied them during the past 20 years and still
continues to accompany them and their families. Rita
now lives in her own house while the first daughter is
studying in a leading catholic school in Kandy. Diviya is
happily married and has a son.

However, we sadly note that still the children, especially

the girls of tea plantations workers are vulnerable due to
grinding poverty. Endless promises of various politicians
for the increase of wages etc have never realized.
Legal review - 20 years of journey for Justice