Sri Lanka’s first female ‘sinna dorai’
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Possibly the first female planter in Sri Lanka, 26 year old Ms. Chaturika Rajapakse (third from left) will assume duties as the first ever Junior Assistant Superintendent of the Queens Town estate in Hali Ella under the Malwatte Valley Plantations from December 1. A student of Vihara Maha Devi Girls’ College, Badulla, she dreamed big to join a predominantly male portfolio taking after her father’s footsteps who was a field officer in another estate. Most females joining the estates would continue to work in the administrative sphere but Ms. Rajapakse has been able to satisfy the board after just eight months of training. She will be seen on the estate riding a motorcycle in a pair of trousers and shirt manning a workforce of 300 handling agriculture, administration and health and welfare aspects of those living on the plantation. Ms. Rajapakse would also have to encounter daily issues like strikes, climatic changes and converse in all three languages. She was trained under Queenstown estate Manager Mohan Ganapatti (second from right). Others in the picture are from left: Ledgerwatte Estate Manager Kasun Samarawikrama, Malwatte Valley Plantations Executive Director Tea Shanaka Samaradiwakara and (extreme right) Ms. Oosha Ganapathy.