The Institute of Social Development (ISD) was formed in 1991 by a group of People from the plantation community who were committed to the upliftment of their community. Each of these  them had more than ten years experience in a range of fields including the trade union movement, politics, the NGO sector and journalism. In part, the formation of ISD was stimulated by the global crisis of the 1980s that saw the collapse of the Soviet Union, further economic rationalism, increasing globalisation and the end of the Cold War. These changes to the international system required a re-evaluation of social development activities throughout the world. 

In this context, three of the founding members of ISD initiated a discussion in 1990 to evaluate the social development activities of plantation NGOs and their own experiences. These talks focused on what NGOs had achieved to date, as well as the sustainability of the plantation community. A thorough analysis of the prevailing situation revealed that the plantation community needed to be made aware of their own problems and that the provision of sanitary facilities and income generating projects that had been the focus of most NGOs was not sustainable in the long term. The fact that the provision of goods and infrastructure had not led to a significant change in the standard of living or lifestyle of the community led ISD to conclude that social transformation could not be introduced from outside the community. The sustainability of any project depended totally on the consciousness of the people.

As a result of these discussions in 1990, ISD concluded that it is possible for an individual or Organisation to play the role of a ‘midwife’ or a change agent in the process of development; however the main actors must be the people themselves. Consequently the primary focus of ISD programmes became the creation of awareness in the community. This is has been done through the promotion and strengthening of People’s Organisations and addressing issues such as illiteracy, human rights, the environment, employment and working conditions, women and children, and health. Initially, illiteracy issues were given the highest priority, as illiteracy and ignorance were cited in the early discussions as the main reason for the present situation of the community. ISD intended however to gradually address other issues as the Organisation matured.

For its first project, ISD consciously selected an estate where there had been no previous NGO development activities. Such an estate was Harepark, a state plantation with seven divisions that lies 54 kilometres from the city of Kandy. The first meeting with this community took place at a temple on a rainy day in 1991. The workers from the Kobonilla Division, who were mostly illiterate and deprived, welcomed the members of ISD, and at the end of a cordial exchange requested that ISD visit them regularly. Consequently, this meeting became a regular activity every other Sunday.

After several weeks of meeting with the people at the temple, they finally asked ISD if they could run an education programme that would give them the dignity they felt they lacked. As a result of this request, ISD initiated adult education classes for the women of one division. During this period, the members of ISD lived with the community and conducted literacy classes so that every available opportunity could be used to discuss with the people the problems they faced and how they believed such problems could be overcome.

The success of this approach was illustrated to ISD during literacy classes on a day when it was raining very heavily. The temple where these classes were conducted was in a very dilapidated condition, with a leaking roof and a dirt floor that was wet with rain and which prevented the people from squatting or sitting during the classes. This situation highlighted the need to find a more appropriate premise to conduct the classes. Some participants suggested that a building should be constructed using a contribution from their wages, while others believed that the classes should be held in one of the line rooms when it rained. One woman (who is now the leader of the People’s Organisation) pointed out that there was an abandoned factory building close to the temple and suggested that they ask the estate management for permission to conduct the classes there. The people agreed to her suggestion to meet the superintendent of the estate with their trade union representative to make this request. A few weeks later when they met the superintendent, he not only welcomed the idea but also asked to meet with the members of ISD. After meeting ISD, the superintendent gave his full approval to them to carry out the literacy classes and an awareness programme in the abandoned factory building. This experience reinforced ISD’s belief that if awareness can be fostered among the workers, the workers themselves will take the initiative to solve their own problems.

While conducting these adult education classes, ISD carried out regularly monthly evaluations of the project. From this evaluation it became clear that the workers from the Kobonilla Division were gradually developing the capacity to recognise and speak out about their own problems. It was also clear however, that this process would be improved if ISD trained specialist social mobilisers to carry out adult education and awareness classes on a regular basis.

Up until this point, ISD had been funding these programmes through the personal contributions of its members, yet this was not sufficient to finance the training of social mobilisers. The decision was therefore made to approach external donors.

In mid 1995, at the end of the second year of ISD’s programme, both the male and female workers form the Kobonilla Division initiated a campaign to challenge the discrimination (including sexual harassment) that they faced from estate management. This coincided with the replacement of the superintendent at Kobonilla with whom ISD had enjoyed good relations.

The new superintendent was a firm believer in the old British Planters’ attitude toward the workforce of keeping them ‘under the iron boot’. When he started, he told the workers to stick to his orders and behaved in a manner that fostered resentment among the workforce. In one of his first orders to the workers, he stated his disapproval of the male workers wearing trousers in the field and suggested that they should stick to the traditional saram. This offended the more educated workers, who considered it insulting that they should be ordered to wear the saram while the management wore long trousers, so they resisted the order. Despite this, the superintendent and his staff continued to use every opportunity to try to oppress the workforce. In another incident, a newly transferred field officer ordered the women to stop wearing the Pottu on their forehead (a traditional habit that is important to Hindu religious beliefs). This remark was made in an insulting and unpleasant way and was resisted by the women.

ISD supported the workers in their resistance to these orders and the superintendent and his staff came to identify ISD’s on-going awareness programme as the main cause for the workers’ resistance and awakening. As a result, the superintendent summoned the trade union leaders to his office and informed them that he was suspicious of the work ISD was carrying out, and that he wanted to close down the nursery, literacy and awareness classes and also take back the building that was housing these classes. The trade union leaders opposed him in this and expressed their support for ISD.

In 1995 ISD faced a big problem with Kobonilla estate management. The reason for that was ISD allowed   Kobonilla field to OXFAM to do PRA training. When workers involving in mapping exercise started to show a big beautiful stone for Superintendent house & small stick for workers house. This news passed to superintendent. Following this incident the estate management started to suspect the activities of ISD & try to stop ISD’s work in Kobonilla estate. But Women’s group leader & some other women argued with management & got the permission to work their.

Throughout all this turmoil, ISD continued to conduct residential awareness raising workshops for the Harepark community and also formed the People’s Organisation. This organisation was very important during this time as it helped to boost the morale of the people and counter the psychological war waged by the superintendent.

After these events, Oxfam offered to assist ISD’s programmes. ISD had a joint discussion with CAA and Oxfam and both organisations agreed to fund the adult education programmes. In 1996Hivose started to fund ISD.

ISD has been actively involved in building a National NGO Action Front and a NGO Forum for Plantation Organisations. The groundwork for these activities was done in collaboration with other local NGOs and started in 1993, with the project reaching fruition in 1995. The National NGO Action Front was formed in 1995 and has published a Code of Ethics, which is a pioneering document for Sri Lankan NGOs. ISD holds the position of joint secretary of this organisation.

The NGO Forum for Plantation Organisations was formed in 1994 and in line with ISD’s commitment to form a strong network among plantation NGOs in order to lobby policy makers on plantation issues, ISD has made the effort to transfer the knowledge it has gained from its work to other NGO members of the Forum. This has involved the training of many personnel from member NGOs in ISD’s social mobilisation course to allow the plantation community to realise and address their own problems. The NGOs that have sent personnel to participate These participants have in turn implemented social mobilisation programmes in the field and have also initiated People’s Organisations at a grassroots level. ISD, in conjunction with the other NGO members, has now initiated the process of promoting links between these People’s Organisations with the aim of forming a broad-based People’s Organisation.

While engaging in this networking programme, ISD has managed to cultivate friendly relations with many plantation trade unions, despite the suspicion that tends to characterise the relationship between trade unions and NGOs working in the plantation sector. Both NGOs and trade unions tend to see each other as a major threat to the work they carry out; however in an attempt to neutralise this antagonism, ISD has tried to establish friendly relations with both civil organisations. When the plantation trade unions organised a token strike in 1997 to demand wage increases and a guarantee of three hundred working days a year, ISD took the initiative of arranging a discussion between trade union leaders and NGOs on solidarity. As a result of that meeting, the trade union representatives welcomed the expression of solidarity from the plantation NGOs and the NGOs jointly published a notice in support of the workers’ demands.   

While at the same time ISD started to discusses the impact of the globalization. the out come was the civil forum formed. Plantation trade unions & the NGO’s were members of the plantation civil forum.

Based on their experience in establishing Plantation Civil Forum, ISD saw the need for building a regional network between workers in the SAARC countries, which are involved in producing tea and rubber. ISD believed that establishing solidarity between different peoples within the region was imperative in order to face the challenges of the multinational companies.

ISD therefore initiated a dialogue with some South Indian organisations (including NGOs and the Dalith organisation) that work with the tea plantation community who migrated to India from Sri Lanka in the 1970s under the Indo-Lanka pact. With the assistance of HIVOS, two members of ISD visited the South Indian tea plantations and established links with the NGOs and CBOs there.

Through the development of this close relationship with the plantation trade unions, ISD has initiated a programme to organise and strengthen the plantation women workers and raise their awareness on issues relating to labour rights and women’s rights in the context of increasing globalisation. Since 1992 four hundred and fifty of the state-owned tea plantations were privatised. This resulted in the withdrawal of plantation-based social services that were provided by the previous state-run management. Apart from the withdrawal of these services, there has been a gradual increase in the expected norms of work and a high level of retrenchments. While the trade unions fought hard to secure the rights that the plantation workforce enjoyed in the past, they have been ineffective in preventing the loss of worker’s rights since privatisation.

These retrenchments, the withdrawal of social services and a number of other regressive policies that have been introduced since privatisation constitute a serious threat to the well-being and social advancement of the entire plantation population. Yet the effects of these policies are most detrimental to the welfare of the female population and consequently the welfare of the children in this community.

Already, women make up fifty-one per cent of the entire plantation workforce. However this proportion is expected to significantly increase in coming years as a result of privatisation. There is some evidence that the retrenchments in the plantation sector have deliberately targeted male workers, because they are seen to be more aggressive in their pursuit of labour rights and are certainly better organised to challenge the new management than the women. Furthermore, despite the fact that women account for fifty-one per cent of the workforce, the grassroots community leaders and the trade union leaders are almost exclusively male. If this pattern of male retrenchment continues and women fail to prepare themselves for positions of responsibility in the trade unions, the entire community will face a major crisis in coming years.

In response to this situation, ISD has initiated a trade union awareness programme for female plantation workers. This programme has been organised in collaboration with all the major plantation trade unions and is a joint project with Christian Aid.

 Currently ISD is working in Kandy, Nuwaraliya district. ISD has a policy making body called Executive committee. There are   2 women and 5 men. Altogether 11 male staff & 9 female staff working with ISD. They are involved with the grass root level awareness program, pocket meeting Mobilisation, Street drama, functional literacy. With the policy level, lobby & advocacy,

Local regional- Network program and archive program. Quartered ISD publishing 2 bulletins. One is Tamils, targeted for grass-root workers. (Specially for women) Another one in English.

OD/Gender inputs

Considering the organisational development ISD has formulated several training programmes in order to develop its organisational capacity. some of the training’s were originally formulated by ISD and some were formulated combining the training components received from other external Organisation.

Social Mobilisation Training

This training was conducted for the social mobilisers who promote the people to mobilise themselves for their issues. Taking into account the social mobilisation training of other Organisation ISD realised that without the knowledge of the socio-political history of the particular community a mobilise cannot promote the community to mobilize against fundamental issue. Considering this vital component ISD formulated it own training module for the social mobilisation training programme. The following subjects were identified for the first session i) Historical evolution of the Mankind  ii) Formation of society and  class formation   iii) Formation of society and gender disparity. The second session consist of  i)  Formation of modern society and means of production  ii) Impact of Industrial revolution and the colonisation iii) Second world war and national independence. The third session consist of  i) Sri Lankan history  and colonialism

ii) History of the Plantation community. iii) Independence and disfranchisement of plantation community. Fourth session consists of  i) Left movement and plantation community ii) Trade union movement and plantation community. iii)Plantation economy and development. The fifth session consist i) Formation of United Nation and  Development programme ii) Present development policies and the role of NGOs. iii) Role of Civil society and Fundamental Rights iv) Role of social mobiliser and the civil society.

 

This training programme specially formulated for the mobilisers who work among the plantation community. This is a six months programme. After every session the participants were ask to go to  field  and work among the community. After  three week they will be asked to participate in the second session. Before the second  sessions the participants will be asked to submit their findings and a discussion  will be carried out based on the findings .. At the end of the sessions the participant will be asked to submit a assignment after two months research.

 New mobilizers 

Once when  the new mobilizers recruited ,ISD will give the mobilization training & them to go with a senior mobilizer to the field for  6 months. After 6 months the mobilizer will evaluate by ISD. Based on the evaluation they will go to the separate field.

Peoples Theatre  

People’s theatre is  another own product of ISD. With the working experience and taking into account  the present electronic  media  ISD decided to identify a media which can reach the vast community .group to reach more of the community within a limited period of time. As result of it ISD  had Identify  that  the only media is people’s theatre which can affordable to ISD  The community (Plantation) itself  used  to stage drama to tell the religious stories during the festival times.  So the people use to see the dramas. Taking into account  ISD gave  a  training to its social mobilisers on street theatre. The following subjects were discussion to enhance the knowledge on street theatre. i ) ancient society and pleasure  ii) Surplus and artesian  iii) Shakespeare and modern theatre. iv) Theatre and Asian community  v) Russian revolution and street drama. vi) Subdhar Hasmi and Indian street theatre. vii) Identifying the issue with people’s participation. viii) Formation of scene. following this training the ISAD theatre group stage several street theatre among the plantation community in the cities. Street theatre produces good impact. The street theatre able to change the mind of the people. Some  had change their traditional attitude  Following a street theatre performance the social mobilisers  stimulate the audience to discuss the issues which were highlighted in the drama.. This action stimulates the consciousness of the people.                                                                                                         

Staff meeting

In the monthly staff meeting every mobilizers and the office staff will submit their monthly work report which will highlight the activities carried out by them and the impact as well as the constrain encountered encountered in the field. Based on the report a discussion will take place. Every mobilizers as well as the programme co-ordinator and the other office staff will participate in the discussion and identified the alternatives collectively to over come the constrains. The programme co-ordinator will submit her observation what she had identified during her monitoring.

Strategic planning training 

The strategic plan course followed by ISD personal which helped the ISD to expand it’s strategic analyse & project formulation. This helped ISD to make more systematic way to plan their work.

SWOT Analyses 

As a practice ISD used conduct the swot  analyses before and  after full filling every  task. The field workers will conduct the swot analyses after every programme in the field with participation of the people. This activity help the field workers to identify the needs and expectation of the people Further it helps to draw out  the future programmes. All these out comes were will be taken in to consideration while drawing a strategic plan of the ISD.

GENDER TRAINING  

From the inception  ISD follow the gender  balance in every activity and conduct special workshop on gender development. However after several years ISD Gender co-ordinator had the opportunity to participate in some international gender workshops. The co-ordinator uses the tools which used in the international workshop for the ISD workshops. As a practice ISD will invite other NGO personnel for this type of gender workshop in order to impart knowledge to wider section. At the same time ISD had created a simple tool kit for  grass root gender training considering the illiteracy and culture of the plantation community.

Logical Frame Work :

ISD created a logical frame work based on its experience. Later it had included some of the clauses from the Logical frame introduce by the INGOs.

Activity	Objective	Means of verification	Assumptions	Time frame

Trade union education 

Taking into account the lack of awareness on the trade union rights among the workers &  the trade union representatives. ISD incited a special training program. On the trade union rights awareness & Gender awareness for the trade union representatives in collaboration with the trade union  leaders ISD formulated the curriculum for this course.

Subjects covered during the workshop included: women’s role in the trade unions and their place in the overall structure; what the trade unions do; the rights of women members in the trade unions; the prevailing laws regarding the plantation sector; and the recent collective agreement and its relevance to women trade unionists.

To initiate the session, a discussion was held with the participants to identify their level of awareness regarding their respective trade unions. Most of the participants knew only their trade union leaders. They did not know their district level trade union representatives nor where their regional offices existed. In response to this lack of awareness, a special session on the structure and function of the trade unions and where the women fit into the structure was held. The participants did not take long to understand the trade union structure as the structure of all of the trade unions in Sri Lanka is determined by the registrar of the trade unions and is therefore the same. During this session, the participants began to question their position in the trade union.

In one of the sessions, the participants were educated about the collective agreement which was recently signed by the trade unions and the employers federation. In that agreement, both parties have agreed to revive the minutes book system which had been introduced during the colonial period to solve the workers’ problems. This system had not been used for several years.

Throughout the workshop, visual aids and case studies were used to discuss other topics regarding trade union activities. During all of the sessions, the women participated enthusiastically and openly expressed frustration at the thought that they had been so ignorant in their trade union work. They vowed to question their trade union leaders from then on and to participate more fully in trade union activities.

Follow-up

As a follow-up to this workshop, the ISD field mobilisers taught the women workers how to use the minutes book and how to deal with estate management when they had problems. As a proactive measure, the trade union leader of the estate had already been using the minutes book to highlight the workers’ issues. Generally however, the leader would not discuss the issues with the trade union women leaders. According to the new collective agreement however, the workers, and therefore the women, must be consulted in the process. Owing to the poor literacy skills of the women, the ISD initiated a special literacy class in addition to the ongoing literacy programme to enable the women to use the minutes book more effectively.

Feedback

Feedback received by the ISD after the workshop indicates that some of the participants have begun to speak out in the field. One example of such a participant was Annaletchumi from Gonawela Estate who had represented the Ceylon Worker Congress at the workshop. Soon after the workshop, she began to question her estate trade union leader about the minutes book system and her role in the union. She questioned the leader as to why she was not allowed to deal with estate management or the officials of the trade union even though she had been a woman leader for ten years. She complained that she was only used to prepare tea and present garlands whenever the trade union leaders came to the estate and nothing more.

The leader argued that this situation was the fault of the women, as they were not coming forward to take on the position of trade union leaders. She and the other women disagreed and replied that whenever he met with the estate management or trade union officials, he should take the women leaders with him. He said that he would try to do this in future.

Trade Union Education Workshop for Men 

This workshop had two main objectives - to educate the male participants about the importance of women leadership in the trade unions and convince them of the need for respect and acceptance of female workers as equal citizens.

During the workshop, the participants discussed the problems that the workers are currently facing, trade union activities, and the increasing proportion of women plantation workers following privatisation. All of the men accepted the necessity of active women’s leadership in the trade union but some questioned the capabilities of women and their access to trade union activities. As an example, they questioned whether women could resolve disputes between the members of its trade union and other trade unions or whether they could assist members detained by the police at any time of the day or night.  

This example generated a large amount of discussion among the participants. Some of the participants argued that if women were accepted into leadership positions, they could handle such issues as well as men. Others said that the union involved both men and women and that the men could therefore assist women leaders in such cases, especially considering the attitude of most police officers. The said that men are fighters, not women and that because of this there was the possibility that union rivalry would not lead to huge disputes if women took more control in leadership positions. By the end of the discussion, most of the participants agreed that women could in fact lead the trade union.

Other issues discussed during the workshop included how to address and respect female workers and how to encourage them to address union meetings. The men were also encouraged not to suppress women who spoke up spontaneously in the field or in public meetings. 

Subsequent to this meeting, our mobilisers were informed that some of the men who had participated in the workshop had changed their attitudes towards their wives and women in the field. Examples of this change included the men ceasing to use disgusting

Grassroots awareness raising training.

Class, caste,Miths  power sharing and male female relationship are the main forces of the  program. A methodology was created by ISD in conceding the higher illiteracy rate of the community. For the case study  pictures will used. Based on the pictures participants will create a story. That story will be a cause for the group.

Male approach Gender training

Male approach gender training is a creation of ISD. This is a result of the gender training  conducted for the grass root people. In the training it was realised ,listening to the women participants ,unless a special training was conducted to the male it is difficult to expect a attitude change among the men.

During the workshops the following issues were discussed . Such i) Origin of family and the role of women. ii) Myths and culture on the role of men  iii) Media and women iv) Gender disparity and exploitation. v)Role of women in the modern society and men. vi) Myths on masculinity .vi) Modern family and necessity of gender equality.

Impact of the Male approach gender training  programme

The male participants of Rangala were specially the young workers. On their return the youths Pasted posters on the walls of estate line  rooms  on women beating  with the slogan   “Women beaters are cowards”. And the youths campaigned door to door against  the women beating  and requested the males of the household not to beat their wives  and sisters. Despite pasting fosters the youths had a meetings inviting the men and women  of the division  on the issue of women beating and to discuss the equality of the women in the society. As result of series of action by the male participants beating of women in the estate was reduced as well as the men  initiated to respect the girls and the women of the community through inviting the women to participate in the public events. The youths of the Rush Brook initiated a different action compared to the Rangala youths. Rush Brook men were totally the victims of alcohol. Including two local trade Union leaders 12 persons were engaged in illegal brewery. The males over 16 years of age used to drink practically everyday in the evening. After consuming liquor the youngsters used to tease the young girls and the women. Normally the girls and the women would not come out from the houses  after 5 p.m. as they were scared of the dunked men. Youths on their return initiated an awareness discussion among the youngsters of the division and the mothers of the division on the issue of women beating. The women told the youngsters once they stop the drinking habit of the males the women beating will be reduced.

Citizen ship

Stateless question is a biggest problem to the Plantation community which prevails last 5 decades. Following the independent the plantation community were disfranchised & several act were brought to solve this problem. However yet nearly 300,000 people were remaining as stateless in the country. Although the number of attempts were made by the Plantation politicians to solve this problem. It could not be achieve.

With this background ISD incited  discussion to solve this problem through the peoples participation’s as well as engaging in lobbing. Last few years ISD holds several demonstration  in demanding citizenship for the children of the Indian citizenship 3 decades ago under Srimashasthri Pact.

Further ISD make used the proposed constitutional to conducted several seminars & simposiyames inviting the Plantation politicians, trade unionist And Intellectuals. As a result of that ISD submitted  the proposal to the president to safe guard the rights of the Plantation community including the citizenship rights. The president offered a  discussion for the ISD & the participants to discuss the proposal submitted by ISD.

In that discussion president agree to grant the citizenship to the remaining stateless persons.

OUT COME

Case l

One of the long-term impacts of the programme is that the women who participated in the trade union workshop have independently started to discuss their labour problems with the estate management. in December 1998 for example, the management of the'Rushbrook Division brought about some changes in the work norms.  As soon as the women realized the negative impact of the changes, they met with the division superintendent to discuss their problems and sort them out.

Case 2

A thirteen year old girl was raped in Frotoft Division . The culprit attempted to escape punishment, which is what usually happens in the plantation sector.  This time however, the women of Rushbrook Division forced the police to take prompt action and arrest the suspect.  As soon as the women of the Rushbrook Division learned of the crime they mobilised themselves and the youth, preparing placards and marching towards the next division shouting "arrest the  rapist and punish him".  Once there, the people of the division where the crime was committed  joined with them.  The management of the estate, after realizing what was happening informed  the police, who rushed to the scene and promised the women that the culprit who committed the crime would be arrested.  This .  The police had the suspect arrest and charged within two days. This is the first time that the police have taken such prompt action in this type of case.

Case 3

N.   Chithrani of Kobonilla, has also done a courageous thing to save the life of a young woman.  Due to ignorance, most of the illiterate plantation women fall victim to womanizers.  Such a thing occurred on the cstitic, of Mrs. Chithrani, where a young woman became pregnant due to the act of a father of three children from the same estate.  In order to escape the stigma of being pregnant, the ignorant young woman tried to commit suicide.  Mostly unmarried women on the Plantation who become pregnant and are victims of womanizers abort the pregnancy by taking native medicine.  If this fails,. they commit suicide.  This poor young girl also attempted to take her life by taking some local medicine.  Fortunately however, Mrs. Chithrani , after finding out about this incident, rushed to the house of the girl and saved her life by giving her another local medicine.  The girl only narrowly escaped death. Chithrani told the girl not to worry about the incident and to live courageously and give birth to the child.  She told her that once the child was born, she could sue the father for compensation.  Thus convinced by Mrs. Chithrani, the young girl is now living with courage.

Case 4

The women of Eiry Division who participated in the trade union workshop have also started up some activities in their division.  As soon as they returned to the estate, the women called a meeting of the local] trade union leaders.  At the meeting they shared what they had gained from the trade union training programme and requested the male leaders to allow them to directly discuss their grievances with the estate management.  Without giving their permission to this request, the male leaders asked the women to arrange a similar training session for them also.

Case 5

The young woman of the Maymallay Division, did succeed in organizing an historical May Day celebration on the plantation that was for the first time conducted under the leadership of women.  Mrs Nagaratnam organized the May Day meeting with the assistance of the young girls of the Ma'mallay Division.  At this meeting sonic women courageously and publicly spoke out about their problems.  They are now determined to continue the May Day celebration in future years.

Case 6

The women of the Factory Division have also successfully appointed a common female leader to discuss their problems with management (as mentioned in the mid-year narrative report).  In October, on a day when there was particularly heavy rain-fall, the women of the factory division went to pluck the tea buds far from the weighing center.  The normal practice was that when the women were sent to a faraway field, the immediate supervisor field conductor (kanakapille) would send the vehicle to the field in order to collect the tea leaves.  On this particular day however, instead of sending the vehicle, the conductor asked the women to bring the plucked tea leaves to the weighing center by carrying them.  The appointed female leader acted with the women  and went to discuss the issue with the conductor.  At first the conductor responded negatively and threatened the workers that if they did not obey, he would cut their day's wages.  The courageous women responded negatively to this threat and told the conductor that if he did not send the vehicle, they would throw the tea leaves away.  Counter-threatened by the women under the leadership of their female leader, the conductor changed his decision and sent the vehicle.