PERSONAL STORY: How the Iran war is affecting tea workers in Sri Lanka

Plantation workers in the lush, undulating tea hills of Dunkeld Estate in Hatton, Sri Lanaka’s central highland, are feeling the reverberations of a conflict thousands of miles away; the Iran war is squeezing the wages of workers who are already living on the margins.

Dunkeld Estate spans 550 acres, employing nearly 1,000 workers and producing around 350,000 kilograms of tea each year. Thirty-eight-year-old Jacintha Malar and her 45-year-old husband Sathya Seelan, descendants of Indian Tamils brought to the island by British planters, make a daily wage between 1,350-1,750 rupees ($4.30 - $5.50), little above the national daily minimum wage of 1,200 rupees.

“Prices have gone up a lot because of the war. Gas has become very expensive, so now we cook with (mostly) firewood. The cost of goods has risen, and it is hard to buy the things we used to. We are buying smaller quantities now,” said Malar whose job is to prepare tea tasting sessions for foreign tourists. Fuel prices have climbed by more than 30 percent since late February, while cooking gas prices have jumped by around 20 to 23 percent.

Sathya Seelan continues to walk long distances each day to pluck tea — a labour-intensive job that sustains one of Sri Lanka’s key exports. What keeps him going is the hope that his children will not have to follow the same path.

Their 18-year-old daughter is studying to become a nurse in Colombo, while their 13-year-old son attends school on the estate.

“I will continue doing this job. I work hard in this estate because I want my children to have a better life. I want to educate them and help them reach a good position — that is my hope.”

Despite the hardships, Malar says she is grateful for her job, even if it was not the future she once imagined.

 "When I was in school, I wanted to learn and move forward. I never thought my life would turn out like this. (At first) I didn’t want to work on the estate. But now I work here, and I am grateful to have a job at the factory.”

For families like theirs, the Iran crisis is no longer distant. It is reshaping daily life — and pushing those already struggling even closer to poverty.

Production: Waruna Karunatilake, Channa Kumara/Reuters