Impact of New Housing Scheme of Estate Workers on Their Improvement of Livelihood

Abstract

Due to the labour shortage for plantation works the British administration had to depend on Indian labour force. After bringing them to Sri Lankan estates, they have given „line rooms‟ with poor facilities. Those plantation Tamils have been living as a segregated community in the plantation areas today even. But, after the independent governments concerned more on the improvement of the estate workers livelihood. As a result of that the Plantation Human Development Trust and the National Housing Development Authority played a key role in introducing new housing schemes for estate people. Therefore, this study has focused on two selected housing settlements in estate Poyston and estate Carolina in Ambagamuwa divisional secretariat division, NuwaraEliya district, Sri Lanka. The main objective of the study was to identify the impact of the new housing settlements which were carried out by the government in the plantation sector as an alternative to the contemporary line rooms. This study has taken two research strategies namely, Survey Method and Comparative Method. Key informants‟ Interviews, Focused Group Discussions (FGDs), and observation also conducted. A significant change in the workers livelihood can be identified in both settlements. But it depends on the type of the house and the facilities it included.