Working as child laborers, illiteracy and underage sex are the main reasons why youths from tea plantations very nearly always have bleak futures, Caritas Kandy says.

These were the main reasons highlighted in an awareness mission carried out by Caritas Kandy in Matale yesterday to enable youths to identify the causes of their problems and how they can be overcome or avoided in the future.

More than 100 youths aged 15 to 25 were asked to act out and relate what they considered the major obstacles from leading a more fruitful life.

“These people have different family backgrounds, so we organized this program to help them tell us the difficulties and challenges they face so that we could advise them,” said Victor Vinoshan, a Caritas youth field officer.

On plantations, parents often don’t know the value of education, so they get them to work with them or hire them out as domestic workers in cities he said.

Without a proper education many experience sexual encounters early in life and often get married whilst still in their teens, he added.

Tea workers are among the poorest paid in the country and large families face many social, economic and psychological problems.

Ramasiri Dhashan, 16, from the nearby Agala estate described what life is like for youths on a tea plantation.

Dhashan’s father died when he was small and his mother is in the Middle East working as a housemaid. He stays with an uncle and fortunately he is still at school.

He says he’s one of the luckier ones

“I find all the things we discussed at this event here in my neighborhood,” Dhashan said.

“I am fortunate just to be here. I wish my friends were too. Many of them don’t go to school.”

He said this awareness program should reach all teenagers on the plantations to educate them on the problems of illiteracy and a lack of sex education.

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