2011

Published by:Institute of Social DevelopmentNo 37, Bodhiyangana Mawatha,Kandy,Sri Lanka.20000Tel: +94-81-2217223/+94-81-3841273Fax: +94-81-2217223Email: kandyisd@sltnet.lkWebsite: www.isdkandy.org

Prepared & designed by:Kalani Ranasinghe,Institute of Social Development.

Printed bySanduni Offset Printers (Pvt) Ltd.4/1, Sarasavi Uyana Good Shed Road,Sarasavi Uyana.Tel/Fax: +94-81-2387777Email: sandunioffset@gmail.com

Vision -

Mission -

Excluded communities and groups mainstream with dignity and equal rights.

Strengthen the marginalized plantation, rural communities and groups towards sustainable social changes based on democracy, equity, social justice, freedom and peace.

Abbreviations

+ ACTFORM : The Action Network for Migrant Workers

+ BftW : Bread for the World

+ CBO : Community Based Organization

+ CDF : Community Development Forums

+ CSR : Corporate Social Responsibility

+ DS : Divisional Secretariat

+ EPF : Employees’ Provident Fund

+ ILO : International Labour Organization

+ ISD : Institute of Social Development

+ ITD : International Tea Day

+ IWD : International Women's Day

+ LG : Local Government

+ NGF : Newton Gunasinghe Foundation

+ NGO : Non Governmental Organization

+ PC : Provincial Council

+ PS : Pradeshiya Sabha

+ PSSF : Plantation Sector Social Forum

+ RPC : Regional Plantation Company

+ TU : Trade Union

+ WWF : Working Women's Front

Contents

Organizational Profile - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 01

Introduction - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 01

Governance - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 01

Resources and Cooperation - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 02

Board of Members - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 02

Empowering Tea Plantation Community

(i) Empowering Tea Plantation Community on Good Governance - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 03

(ii) Empowering Women’s Groups by linking with Divisional Secretariat - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 03

(iii) Capacitating Women to take part in Local Governance - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 04

(iv) Raising Awareness among youth on Labour Rights, Gender and Career Development - - - - - - - - 04

Advocacy and Campaign

(i) Advocate Pradeshiya Sabha members on the Inclusion of Plantation Settlement in the

Jurisdiction of Local Government - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 05

(ii) Advocacy discussion on Delimitation - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 06

(iii) Advocacy discussion on proposed Pension Bill - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 07

(iv) Signature Campaign - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 07

(v) Poster and Leaflet Campaigns to promote women’s political leadership - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 09

Decent Work

(i) Decent Work for Domestic Workers - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 09

(ii) “12 n 12” Campaign - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 10

Research and Publication

(i) Survey on the Pradeshiya Sabha Fund allocation for the Plantation Sector - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 10

(ii) Unorganized Sector Workers' Rights - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 12

(iii) Booklet on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 12

First Women Trade Union in Sri Lanka - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 12

Network

(i) CBO Federation - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 13

(ii) Working Women’s Front (WWF) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 13

(iii) International Network

(a) Strategy meeting of Prakruthi on Corporate Social Responsibility - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 14

(b) Post-ILC Conference on ILO Convention for domestic workers - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 14

(c) “Facing Flexibility”- International Federation of Worker's Education

Association Conference - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 14

UTZ Tea Certification - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 15

Capacity development of Community Development Forums (CDF) to link with and

receive Local Government service - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 16

International Days

(i) International Tea Day - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 16

(ii) International Women's Day - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 17

Sponsoring and donation - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 17

Library - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 17

Tea Plantation Workers' Museum and Archive - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 18

Financial Overview - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 19

Preface

It is my pleasure and privilege to present you the Annual Report 2011 of

Institute of Social Development (ISD), a year that was marked with

significant progress on our path. The report brings forth the key activities

through which ISD was able to broaden its scope, make new links and

gain a number of qualitative experiences.

I have the obligation to express my appreciation for ISD staff for their

commitment and contribution to make success the planned activities.

Hence I would like to thank our donors for the support given to us to

implement the programmes. Lastly, I would like to express my gratitude

to the key stakeholders; the tea plantation community members, trade

unionists, NGO members, the Peoples' Representatives, Executives of the

plantation companies, and the Officers of Local Government Institutions

for extending their cooperation and support to accomplish ISD's

activities to achieve its goal.

March, 2012.Kandy, Sri Lanka.

P. MuthulingamExecutive Director.

Organizational Profile

Institute of Social Development (ISD) was started in 1991 by a group of people from diverse

backgrounds. The main focus of the institution had been to uplift the lives of the minority tea

plantation community. The group identified that in order to bring sustainable changes for the tea

plantation community; a collective voice must be raised by the community. Based on this concept,

ISD started its activities of empowering the marginalized plantation community on their rights,

and capacitating them to win and safeguard their rights.

Introduction

In the last two decades, ISD actively involved itself in creating awareness among the plantation

youth and women on good governance and on human rights. Despite solution to the stateless issue

of the plantation community, and the community becoming eligible to enjoy the rights as citizens,

the community had not been identified with other citizens of the country. ISD identified that the

exclusion of the plantation worker settlements from the local government framework had become

the main obstacle to their right to development, and that it prevented the elected Local

Government representatives from extending the development services to the plantation

community.

Thus, ISD advocated the plantation community by capacitating them on rights of citizen and

advocated the policy makers to formulate policies to overcome this impasse.

In 2011 ISD specially focused on securing the rights of domestic workers and unorganized sector

workers.

Governance

ISD is legally registered under the Social Service Act in 1995 and later registered itself under the

Ministry of Social Services (Regd. L. 08608), adhering to the new provision of the government.

The governing body of ISD consists of a General Council and an Executive Committee. The General

Council meets annually and elects the Executive Council whose term expires after two years.

Generally, the Executive Committee meets thrice a year, but the number of meetings may increase

whenever necessary, to take necessary decisions, and to review organizational progress. The

Executive Director leads the organization on behalf of Executive Committee and is the Chairman of

Executive Committee on an ex-officio basis.

01

Resources and Cooperation

The year 2011 was the third and the final year of ISD’s major project on good governance. It was

supported by Bread for the World (BftW), which has been the main donor for ISD’s core activities

and the recurrent expenses.

Since 2010, Solidaridad has been supporting the UTZ Tea Certification project in the tea sector.

Moreover, the Christian Aid provided the seed money for plantation youth capacity building

project which was completed in 2011.

In 2011, ISD received an activity grant from Commonwealth Foundation for a Voter Education

project. In addition, ISD served as the resource provider for a project implemented by Care

International Sri Lanka. The Global Network, Prakruthi and International Federation for Workers

Education Associations sponsored by covering the conference costs, held overseas.

In the meantime, ISD would like to appreciate the generous support extended by the Fathima Trust

(Society for Rural Education and Development) and the Ichiputtur Panchayath, Arrakkonam,

India during the exposure visit made by a group of plantation women regarding voter education

and governance.

Board of Members

+ Mr. P. Muthulingam, Executive Director, Institute of Social Development

+ Prof. R. Sivakanesan, Head of Department of Bio-Chemistry, Faculty of Medicine,

University of Peradeniya.

+ Mr. S. Muralitharan, National Advisor, GTZ education programme, Ministry of Education.

+ Prof. S. Senaviratne, Senior Lecturer, Department of Archaeology, University of

Peradeniya.

+ Ms. Pulsara Liyanage, Senior Lecturer, University of Kelaniya.

+ Ms. Gowri Palaniyappan, a Social Activist, Researcher.

+ Ms. Nilmini Weerasinghe, an English Literature Teacher, Seewali Maha Vidyalaya,

Rathnapura.

02

Empowering Tea Plantation Community

(i) Empowering Tea Plantation Community on Good Governance.

From the inception, ISD is playing an intermediary

role towards strengthening the flow of government

services to the estate community. Although tea is one

of the main income generating industries in Sri Lanka,

still the estate community is in a very poor condition.

In the plantation community the gender equality is

less practiced, and the rights of the children are often

violated due to the ignorance prevailing in the

community. It has resulted in a number of social issues

in the community. In order to control this situation,

ISD initiated programmes to empower the plantation

community by guiding them towards an environment

conducive to creating a sustained society.

As the first step towards realizing this objective,

ISD created seventeen Community Based

Organizations (CBOs). In 2011, ISD facilitated

interface meetings between the CBOs, the

elected representatives and the Divisional

Secretariat (DS) officers of the plantation areas.

The community was able to acquire a fair

k n o w l e d g e a b o u t g e n d e r e q u a l i t y ,

participation, transparency, responsiveness and

accountability, and its significance for a fair

governing body. During the interface meetings,

the CBO leaders familiarized themselves with

the structure and activities of the LG

institutions.

ISD intends to keep to its mediator role until the CBOs have been able to sustain themselves by

linking with DS, and practice self-reliance in relation to good governance.

(ii) Empowering Women’s Groups by linking with Divisional Secretariat

Women’s groups of New Peacock(NP) and Kalugalla made an

exposure visit to the Uda Palatha DS in order to acquire

knowledge on DS’s services rendered towards the community

i.e. career development training and self employment courses.

Following the visit, DS trainers visited NP estate. The

plantation women were keen to improve their skills and to lift

the family of economic burdens by starting self employment

ventures. This is the first instance where DS Officers visited an

estate to provide a skill training.

03

Meanwhile, in certain areas women were encouraged to form separate women’s groups, and ISD

promoted such women’s groups to register in the Women’s Affairs Ministry.

(iii) Capacitating Women to take part in Local Governance.

ISD identified promoting female political leadership in LG

as one of the best ways to make their voice heard by the

decision and policy making authorities of the country. In

this context, ISD conducted discussions with women

candidates representing the plantation community in the

2011 LG election.

Although the women candidates contested from different

political parties, ISD promoted them to serve as a

supportive group for rights of the plantation community.

Through discussions, ISD demanded the government

to bring a legislation for 40% women representation.

Members of the Plantation Sector Social Forum (PSSF),

TU leaders, CBO members and the women candidates

participated in the discussions. Amidst serious social,

cultural and economic constraints, twenty two

plantation women from Central Province contested in

the LG election consequent to ISD’s lobby. ISD advised

the female candidates to make the society conscious

about the benefits that they would receive by

promoting women to the LG.

(iv) Raising Awareness among youth on Labour Rights, Gender and Career

Development.

The plantation youth are normally absorbed into the

labour market depending on their skill and

education level. They often enter as unskilled and

manual workers into the private sector, and thus

become vulnerable to gender discrimination often

due to lack of knowledge on labour laws. ISD capacitated a group of plantation youths on the

importance of legal documents, labour & gender

rights to mitigate the exploitation. The youth were

also instructed about the services available from the

DSs and supported them to obtain those services.

This also gave the youth an opportunity to work as a

team and to coordinate effectively with other formal

04

At the end of the project an evaluation was conducted, with following outcomes : The youth,

+ Realized the importance of obtaining legal

documents.+ Realized the importance of obtaining an

appointment letter or a document to prove

the employment.+ Understood the Labour laws which ensure

the rights of the private sector workers.+ Real ized the importance of sk i l l

development training provided by the

government.+ Acquired a sense of self-defense (especially

females) from sexual harassments and

abuses in the workplace.

The youth were enlightened on the necessity of legal documents and their importance in securing

an employment.

Advocacy and Campaign

( i ) Advocate Pradeshiya Sabha members on the Inclusion of Plantation Settlement in

the Jurisdiction of Local Government.

Since 2005, ISD had been lobbying for the

inclusion of plantation settlement in the LG

authority. During 2011, ISD advocated the PS

and DS members on the inclusion issue, and

promoted them to raise the matter further. One

of the achieved results was that elected members

raised the issue and the necessity to bring

amendments to section 33 of PS Act in their

meetings. It has created a space to take the matter

to the higher authorities. Mr. G. Jayawikkrama, Asst. Commissioner, of

LG Kandy highlighted that despite some

legislative barriers, the plantation community

could approach the Social Service Ministry or

DSs to obtain certain services. But due to

ignorance and lack of exposure, peoples’

approach and interaction was in a low level.

05

As a result of ISD’s continuous advocacy on inclusion of plantation settlement into the LG authority, one of the leading trade unions namely National Trade Union Federation in its 2nd congress, passed a resolution :

(ii) Advocacy discussion on Delimitation.

The government had announced changes in the LG system by introducing delimitation. Since

Independence, several delimitations had taken place. However, the plantation settlement was not

included in this process. Therefore, ISD organized an

advocacy workshop inviting the Parliament

representatives and PC members on the proposed Bill

on electoral changes and delimitation.

The advocacy discussion was held at Hotel Renuka,

Colombo and Members of Parliament namely, Mr. S.

Rajadurai, Mr. R. Yogarajan, Mr. P. Radhakrishnan and

Mr. P. Digambaram participated in the discussion. In

addition, the plantation sector civil society

organizations, NGOs and TUs were also present.

Participants agreed to propose an amendment to the PS

Bill which would enable estate settlements to be

declared as villages.

06

(iii) Advocacy discussion on proposed Pension Bill

The government introduced a pension bill for

the private sector employees by transferring

money from the EPF. The proposed bill was

opposed by the TU movement.

The plantation worker community is the largest

contributor to the Employees' Provident Fund

(EPF), and a large amount of money remaining

in the EPF, comes from them. But none of the

major plantation TUs has taken action to

enlighten the plantation workers on the

proposed EPF bill. Therefore, ISD organized a

discussion demanding the government to take

responses from the plantation working

community before initiating the pro-worker

Pension Bill.The members of plantation TUs and civil society organizations working on labour rights were

summoned. Mr. Lines Jayathilake, the President of United Labour Federation, addressed the

gathering as the guest speaker and Mr. P. Muthulingam, the Director of ISD, initiated the

discussion by citing the negative clauses of the proposed Bill. At the end of the discussion the

members of plantation TUs and civil society organizations jointly submitted a memorandum to the

government requesting to stop the proposed bill.

(iv) Signature Campaign

In 2011, ISD launched a signature campaign to

collect fifty thousand signatures to pressurize the LG

authorities and decision making bodies to bring the

plantation settlement under LG Authority. PSSF

m e m b e r o r g a n i z a t i o n s , T U s a n d N G O

representatives coordinated with the community

members and the CBO members to collect the

signatures.

ISD submitted the signature forms and a memorandum

to the Panwila, Ganga Ihala Korale, Ambagamuwa,

Pasbage Korale, and Udapalatha DSs and Nuwaraeliya

and Kandy District Secretariats.

07

The key objectives of the signature campaign was to motivate the plantation community to

demand the government to bring the plantation settlement under the LG authority.

The memorandum :

08

(v) Poster and Leaflet Campaigns to promote women’s political leadership.

In order to promote plantation women’s political leadership, ISD planned a strategy to increase

women's political participation in the LG elections. Hence, poster and leaflet campaigns were

launched to pressure plantation political parties to accommodate more women candidates to the

2011 LG election. By distributing wall-hanging posters and leaflets, ISD, intended to encourage the

plantation women to apply for the LG election contest. The campaign was launched through PSSF

member organizations.

Decent Work

(i) Decent Work for Domestic Workers

Since 2011, ISD specially campaigns for the rights of the domestic workers in Sri Lanka. ISD, with

plantation TUs and civil society organizations submitted a joint recommendation for the domestic

workers’ convention. Following the ILO Blue report which was made, based on the responses

received from states, TUs and civil society

organizations; ISD organized a workshop in

May 2011.The “National workshop on ILO Blue report on

decent work for domestic workers and rights of

the unorganized sector workers”was organized

to enlighten the TUs and civil society

organizations to support the proposed ILO

Convention. Ms. Elizabeth Tang, the General

Secretary of Hong Kong Confederation of Trade

Union and Mr. Reynaldo Raising, the Executive

Director of LEARN Philippines participated in

the workshop.

Ms. Elizabeth addressed the gathering on the

adoption of the decent work concept to mobilize

the unorganized sector workers and the

necessity to demand the State to ratify the

convention. Mr. Raising in his speech explained

how the civil society of other countries dealt with

that situation. It was a great opportunity for the

local trade unionists and civil society leaders

because they deal with problems relating to Sri

Lankan domestic and unorganized sector

workers. ISD’s key objective of this workshop was to

capacitate the plantation sector TUs and civil

society members on ILO’s Blue report on decent

work for domestic workers, and the necessity to

create a law for the domestic workers.

09

(ii) “12 n 12” Campaign

In many countries, including Sri Lanka, domestic workers are not covered by the labour legislation

and social protection schemes. Many are denied the right to form or join TUs. As a result, ill-

treatment, exploitation, violence and physical and sexual abuse are frequent, and the perpetrators

often go unpunished.

In June 2011, ILO (International Labour

Organization) adopted the Convention 189 on

Domestic Workers. As the member organization

of Global Network, ISD in collaboration with

National Trade Union Federation, National

Workers’ Congress and ACTFORM launched

the “12 n 12” Campaign in Sri Lanka. Similar to

this campaign, the International Migrants Day

was observed on December 18th 2011 at the

Mahaveli Center, Colombo. The campaign

objective was to demand the Sri Lankan

government to ratify the Convention 189 ensuring the rights of migrant workers and treating them

as they do, the other workers under the labour legislation.

Research and Publication

(i) Survey on the Pradeshiya Sabha Fund allocation for the Plantation Sector.

In order to strengthen the campaign on inclusion

of plantation settlement under the LG, ISD

conducted a research on PS fund allocation for

the development of plantation settlement,

which started with a study to identify the issues

relating to the service delivery of the local

authorities to the plantation settlement. The

study was conducted by Mr. S. Vijesandiran, a

Senior Lecturer of the University of Peradeniya.

Initially the study covered Uda Palatha and

Nuwara Eliya PSs and later expanded to Panwila

PS. The study report consisted of a wide range of

consultations needed to be implemented at both

national and local level.

10

A review of the current situation of the local

governance and its legitimacy, with limited

operation had also been highlighted in the

report.

This survey was taken as a tool to understand the

disparities practiced by the PS between villages

and estates in the fund allocation. These PSs

were chosen because tea plantation community

is densely populated in those areas. Especially in

the case of Uda Palatha PS, it was dissolved in

2006 with the charge of allocating the

government funds to do a construction in a non-

governmental area, implying that the estate settlement is a non-governmental entity.

11

Mr. S. Vijesandiran pointed out several sections of the Pradeshiya Sabha Act 1987 which prevent

the estate community from receiving benefits from government development activities :

(ii) Unorganized Sector Workers’ Rights

In the year 2011, ISD focused on the rights of the unorganized sector workers in Sri Lanka. With the

increase of private sector ventures, the workforce also increased. However the private sector

workers are not organized under a TU, although there are several legal Acts covering these

workers. In order to enlighten these unorganized sector workers,

one thousand books were printed in Tamil language

including selected sections of Shop and Office

Employees Act. The handbook defined the categories

of workers governed by the Shop and Office Act; hours

of employment, holidays, employment of women and

persons below18 years of age, lighting and ventilation,

sanitary facilities and payment of wages and other

allowances.

A case was reported from Madulkelle where a shop

worker had gone through the book and demanded his

employer to pay EPF and ETF to the entire staff.

(iii) Booklet on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

ISD conducted a number of activities to make the TU

movement aware on CSR practices in the context of

labour rights. Hence, one thousand booklets were

printed in Tamil and distributed to the tea sector and

Free Industrial Zone civil society organizations in

order to capacitate them on the CSR and on the

safeguard of the rights of workers and the

environment.

The booklet contains an introductory note on CSR, the

responsibility of Sri Lankan companies, CSR and its

present situation with reference to ILO convention,

Human Rights and CSR, environmental issues and CSR, consumer rights and transparency.

The First Women's Trade Union in Sri Lanka

The Working Women's Front(WWF) which functioned since 1997 as a wing of Institute of Social

Development has registered itself as a trade union in Sri Lanka. With this, the long lasting

aspirations of the WWF members has been fulfilled. WWF is the first women's TU in Sri Lanka.

Taking into account of the working women who were neglected by the TUs, the registration of

WWF is a milestone in Sri Lankan history. WWF expects to serve the working women of the unorganized, organized and informal sector

workers with due concern for the labour rights of the women with simultaneously fighting for

their gender rights.

12

Network

(i) CBO Federation.

As a further step, ISD formed the “Plantation

S e c t o r C o m m u n i t y D e v e l o p m e n t

Organizations’ Federation” bringing all the

CBOs under one umbrella.

From each CBO, a male and a female Office

bearer are appointed to the federation. Its main

objective is to act as a pressure group to voice

their own problems and draw the attention of the

decision making, policy making bodies and

political parties of the country. Pooling

experiences and ideas is the secondary objective

of the federation.

(ii) Working Women’s Front. (WWF)

Under the Working Women’s Front, ISD initiated the “Voter Education for the plantation women

to promote governance and democracy” project, with the funding from Commonwealth

Foundation. The project directly focused on a group of plantation women of CBOs.

The group which participated in a residential workshop on voter education and the Sri Lankan

political system, had a five day field visit to Madras, India where they were capacitated on

women’s political representation in LG and the

Indian “Panchayath system”. The “Fathima

Trust” and Ichiputtur Panchayath, of

Arrakkonam, India, facilitated the participants

during their stay in Madras.

ISD hopes that this experience sharing would

provide a great opportunity for the plantation

women to understand the importance of

women’s participation in the political system of

the country. It would also boost the plantation

women’s representation in the Sri Lankan

political system.

13

In addition, WWF organized various events to

commemorate the International Women’s Day. In this

year too, WWF in collaboration with PSSF women’s

wing, celebrated the International Women's Day. People

from Nuwara-eliya, Hatton, Bogawanthalawa, Uda

Palatha and Kandy areas participated in a large

gathering organized at Hatton.

(iii) International Network

(a) Strategy meeting of Prakruthi on Corporate Social Responsibility

ISD participated in the conference on Corporate Social Responsibility and strategy meeting

of Prakruthi, in August 2011 in India. Prakruthi is a non-profit organization working in

India which supports the poor and the marginalized people in various sectors such as tea,

coffee, sugarcane, cotton and garment industries. It organized a programme to share

experience on Corporate Social Responsibility projects in practice, especially in the tea,

coffee and garment sectors.

(b) Post-ILC Conference on ILO Convention for domestic workers

thAt the 100 session of the International Labor Conference (ILC), the ILO Convention 189

Decent Work for Domestic Workers was adopted by the ILO member countries and

delegates. As the next step, the Convention must be ratified by a majority of the member-

countries of the ILO. The ratification of member-countries could be the beginning of the

enactment of national legislations for decent work for domestic workers across the

countries in the world. It must be carried out with the cooperation of the governments,

workers and employers. In this context, ISD participated in the post-ILC Regional

Conference organized by Global Network Asia in cooperation with other civil society

groups, TUs and domestic workers in Philippines.

(c) “Facing Flexibility”- International Federation of

Worker’s Education Association Conference

ISD participated at the 21st International

Federation of Workers’ Education Association

conference held in South Africa. The conference

focused on the contemporary issues and the

challenges faced by the workers in both the

formal and informal economies with special

emphasis on labour market flexibility and the role

of labour educators.

14

UTZ Tea Certification

In order to address the sustainability issue of the tea

plantation sector in Sri Lanka, ISD initiated UTZ

promotion programme in 2010. The Solidaridad of

Netherlands had been funding the activities for the last

two years, and it expects to continue its contribution for

the programme in steps. The UTZ certification

programme initiated its activities at Keppetipola Tea

Shakthi factory, capacitating 3045 Small tea Growers in

the Welimada and Bandarawela areas. With this

successful effort (certification of 3045 Small tea growers),

in 2011, ISD extended the UTZ Certification process to

privately owned and Regional Plantation Companies.

Keleniya Braemers of Maskeliya is a privately owned

Tea estate with high grown, black tea. The UTZ team at

ISD guided them to reach their goal in four months

time by giving necessary technical support to

implement the required standards to the factory and

garden. Keleniya Braemers received the UTZ

Certification creating very high demand for their black

tea under UTZ label. Simultaneously, ISD team

initiated work with two RPCs namely; Hayleys and

Green Field Bio Plantations. The Radella estate of

Hayleys was quick to get their certificate within a very

short period, and the Harrington Tea Estate of Green

Field Bio Plantations is in the process of fulfilling the

requirements for the certificate, and is expected to finalize it at the very beginning of year 2012.

Nine more estates have been identified for the UTZ Certification. The suggestions of National

Reference Group members, buyers and brokers were taken

into account in deciding on the next level of approach of the

UTZ Certification. In 2011, three exporters and a buyer

attached to Sri Lankan tea industry joined the UTZ

traceability process by

registering under the

chain of custody. ISD

gave more focus to the

CSR activities of the

plantations in the UTZ

Certificate process

and have a bottom to top approach to uplifting the life of the

tea plantation population in Sri Lanka.

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Capacity development of Community Development Forums (CDF) to link with and receive

Local Government service

With a request from CARE International Sri Lanka, ISD acted as the resource provider for the

project “Capacity development of CDF to link with and

receive LG services”.

During the project the CDF members were capacitated on

LG functions and the exclusion of plantation settlements

from the purview of PS. The CDF members were

enlightened on how to obtain the services rendered by

Ministries i.e. Social Service Ministry, Women and Child

Affairs Ministry etc.

International Days

(i) International Tea Day

In collaboration with the Plantation Sector Social Forum (PSSF) ISD has been celebrating the

International Tea Day since 2005. In 2011, ISD

organized the 7th International Tea Day

symposium on plantation workers/community

development, at Hotel Hill Top, Kandy. It was

held in a grand scale with the participation of

TUs, civil society, parliament, WWF and CBO

members of the plantation community. In

addition to the above theme International Tea

Day lobbied for the theme of “living wage” from

t h e b e g i n n i n g o f I T D c e l e b r a t i o n s .

In the symposium, researchers and major

stakeholders of the tea industry namely; Mr. Roshan Rajadurai, the Deputy Chairman of Planters’

Association and Chief Executive Officer of Kahawatte Plantation, Mr. H. R. Arunashantha, the

Regional Manager, Tea Small Holders

Development Authority, Mr. Kurihara

Shunsuke, a Phd candidate of International

Graduate School of Social Sciences and Mr. Sunil

Bastian, a Social Researcher made their

presentations on various topics relating to the

present situation of the Sri Lankan tea industry.

This was followed by the International Tea Day

rally and demonstration on 18th December 2011

and a meeting at Hatton Municipal Council Hall.

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(ii) International Women’s Day

The 2011 International Women’s Day was organized by

the women’s wing of ISD under the theme: “Ensure

equality for women in all decision making fora”. It was

regarded as an appropriate occasion to highlight the need

to draw proper attention towards promoting female

representation in LG and decision making forum.

By promoting women to contest in the LG election, ISD

expected to overcome the general gender biased attitudes

of the community.

Thus, it has given the

plantation women the courage and strength to come to the fore

against violations and violence.

At the end of the Day, a

resolution was passed through

the ISD network. A collection of

case studies of the vulnerable

women in the plantation,

garment and other sectors was

also launched on that day. The document came up with suggestions

of resolution to certain burning issues in these sectors. The IWD was

observed with a grand procession which paraded in Hatton city.

In addition, certain CBOs have voluntarily organized IWD

celebrations with the support of their community.

Sponsoring and donation

In 2011, ISD sponsored for “The Sound of Strings”, a cello and guitar concert organized by the

Sewalanka Foundation. The concert was held at Kandy Girls High School auditorium. Hundreds

of music lovers were present and enjoyed the concert.

Furthermore, ISD donated a laminating machine to the Panwila DS. The people of the area had to

undergo various difficulties due to the unavailability of a laminating machine. A function was

organized at the Panwila DS office as a gratitude to ISD.

Library

ISD maintains a library at its office premises for the benefit of its staff and other interested parties. It

contains hundreds of books relating to political, historical, economy, literature and development

studies in English, Tamil and Sinhala languages.

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Tea Plantation Workers' Museum and Archive

In 2007, ISD opened Tea Plantation Workers’ Museum and Archive (which is first of its kind) in a

century old line room (Plantation workers dwelling) at Old Peacock Estate, Paradeka, Gampola.

With the end of the war, when Sri Lanka attracts a record

number of tourists, ISD has

launched a program to

promote and publicize the

museum, so that the local and

international tourists as well

as students can have an

understanding of the Hill

country Tea P lanta t ion

workers' culture and their

traditions. The museum has a

unique collection of artifacts,

cultural and ritual items,

household goods and appliances used by the early migrant

workers. The museum also has a historical photo gallery of the

historical setting of the plantation industry going back to the

beginning of coffee and tea era. It also takes the viewers far back

into the era in which the plantation workers first set their feet on

the soil of this country.

In 2011, ISD became a member of International Coalition Sites of Conscience, a worldwide network

of “Sites of Conscience”. ISD plans to promote the Plantation Workers' Museum and Archive as a

historic site dedicated to remembering the past struggles of the plantation community.

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Financial Overview

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