Housing programme for estate workers

Lakmini Rodrigo

COLOMBO: Nearly 20,000 houses for plantation workers have been completed under the Social Welfare Development Programme carried out by the Plantation Human Development Trust (PHDT), PHDT sources said.

The living conditions of one million plantation workers of nearly 200,000 plantation worker families would be improved under the programme.

The Trust managed by a tripartite board of representatives from plantation companies, plantation trade unions and Government ministries, operates via seven regional offices in Badulla, Galle, Hatton, Kandy, Kegalle, Nuwara Eliya and Ratnapura.

The PHDT also carries out health care programmes, including maternal care, immunisation, nutrition, diarrhoea and respiratory disease prevention programmes.

While developing the infrastructure facilities of the plantation areas the trust has also set up high quality estate creches which also serve as ideal child development centres.