Lalita Ayrangani’s day starts early. She gets up at 4.30 and starts cooking for the whole family, rice, curries and sambols for breakfast and lunch to be taken along to work. Her son and his wife, her daughter and her four-year old grandchild live next door. At 6 am 44-year old Lalita walks to the rubber factory, work starts at 6.30. Until recently she had to get up even earlier: more than a year ago the tank that fed the water pipes at Lalita’s house collapsed which meant she and everyone else in the family had to walk to a water source about half a kilometre away several times a day to get all the water needed for cooking and drinking.

The joint body agreed that the restoration of the water tank was a priority and since the work has been completed the faucet behind Lalita’s house supplies water again and when she’s filled up one of the wide-bellied stainless steel vessels she’s just got to step around the corner into her kitchen. Lalita returns from work at around 3.30 pm. Usually she shops for some groceries in the estate’s coop shop and for vegetables at nearby stalls. When she comes home she plays with her granddaughter, washes the family’s clothes, has a bath and prepares the evening meal. Lalita’s children all work in the garment companies. Transport is provided, but the income is low, just Rs 12,000 per month. Why are they not working on the plantation where they could earn more? Lalita smiles and shrugs – the work in the garment factory is clean, she says, and the children are educated, they think plantation work is not for them. ‘Many young people work for a few years in the garment industry’ says Horana manager Nisala Jayawardena, ‘but once they reach 30 they have enough of long commutes and noisy factory halls and they apply for jobs on the plantation’.

Lalita came to Horana with her parents and grandparents when she was 7 years old, her father still works in the factory, her mother is retired. Since the death of her husband she has two rooms to herself. Her living room with its lovingly arranged display of family photos and small knickknacks leads out onto a small veranda. The other family members share the rest of the house, two bedrooms and a living room with an array of artificial flowers and a small television set in the corner. The children come home at 7.30 and the living room is where everyone gets together for the evening, just in time for the Sinhala soap operas on TV. What are Lalita’s hopes for the future? Now that the water is running again she is content, she says. She just wants her children to do well and settle down somewhere nearby in their own homes.