Reconstruction of the Hill Country

Photo courtesy of AFP

This article examines the government’s relief and compensation mechanisms for the Malaiyaha Tamil community in the wake of Cyclone Ditwah from the historical context of their precarious land tenure.

As the line rooms traditionally occupied by plantation workers lack legal documentation, the families are unable to meet the administrative requirements for proving home ownership. Consequently, affected families face obstacles in accessing essential assistance such as full house damage compensation, resettlement grants and loan schemes. This challenge exposes the connection between losses triggered by climate change and historical socio-economic oppression. There must be an immediate relaxation of land ownership eligibility criteria in the compensation policy and the strategic integration of social justice into disaster management laws to ensure sustainable recovery.

Sri Lanka is highly vulnerable to extreme variations in monsoonal rainfall and the increasing threat of intense cyclones exacerbated by global warming. Cyclone Ditwah is considered one of the worst natural disasters in a decade. It brought heavy rain, flooding and landslides across all districts of the country with some areas recording over 350 millimeters of rainfall within 24 hours. This intense climate event resulted in catastrophic flooding, slope failures and massive damage to homes, infrastructure and livelihoods. According to the Disaster Management Centre (DMC) over one million people have been affected. Although the Ditwah Cyclone impacted various communities, its consequences have been most severe on the Malaiyaha Tamil community, which is structurally and socio-economically highly vulnerable. Districts such as Nuwara Eliya, Badulla, Kandy, Kegalle and Matale, which are under high landslide risk warnings, house a large portion of the community.

The community comprises the descendants of indentured laborers brought from South India during the colonial era to work on tea plantations. Despite being the backbone of the economy, they were historically marginalized through legislation and socio-economic oppression. Their residences, the line rooms, are owned by the plantation companies. Although plantation workers have lived there for generations, they do not possess legal permanent tenure or ownership rights over the land or the structures. This lack of land ownership not only hinders access to essential services and economic credit during normal times but also poses a major barrier to receiving government assistance during disasters like Ditwah.

Climate justice and structural vulnerability

Climate justice demands that relief and justice be provided to marginalized groups who contributed least to global warming but are disproportionately affected by its impacts. For the Malaiyaha community, the losses caused by climate change are not just physical; due to their sole reliance on plantation livelihoods and lack of ownership, this also includes deep non-economic losses. The concept of structural vulnerability argues that disaster impact is not determined solely by geographical hazards but also by a community’s historical socio-economic and political structure. With 23% of the country’s population already living in poverty, cyclones like Ditwah only exacerbate existing vulnerabilities. Livelihood losses, increased costs and service disruptions disproportionately affect low income families. For the Malaiyaha community structural features such as the denial of citizenship, low wages and landlessness are what make them highly susceptible to disasters. Therefore, the challenges in relief and reconstruction are not merely consequences of a natural disaster but are reflections of the systemic policy deficiencies of the governing structures.

Compensation policies and practices

Following Cyclone Ditwah, the government announced several schemes through the Disaster Management Centre (DMC) and Divisional Secretariats (DS) based on standard disaster relief procedures. These relief stages include immediate assistance (foodand shelter) for displaced families in temporary camps and financial aid for fatalities. Crucially, they also include a house damage grant, offering a maximum amount for completely destroyed houses and a lesser amount for partially damaged ones. Based on the advice of the National Building Research Organization (NBRO), a resettlement program for moving residents from high risk zones to safe locations has been announced. Here, the Malaiyaha Tamil community faces an unavoidable legal and procedural complication as a key document required to be submitted to the Divisional Secretariats for receiving the house damage compensation and reconstruction grant is proof of the applicant being the legal owner of the damaged house (land deed or title certificate).

The relief policies are mostly designed for settled communities based on middle class standards of home ownership. This approach is completely inappropriate for the reality of the Malaiyaha Tamil community living in line rooms. Since workers living in line rooms lack legal title to the land, they cannot submit the house deed required as the primary eligibility criterion for the compensation grant. Consequently, applications for the full house damage grant are likely to be rejected or indefinitely suspended at the Divisional Secretariat level due to the lack of ownership documentation. As the legal owners, the plantation companies refuse to take responsibility for applying for these grants while the workers also cannot apply. This creates a legal vacuum regarding who is responsible for reconstruction. While insurance should act as a safety net, the Malaiyaha community is also excluded from insurance coverage. Since line rooms are company property, workers cannot purchase individual insurance. The companies typically only insure their industrial assets, rejecting the responsibility for workers’ residences. All these challenges combine to force affected Malaiyaha Tamil families to recover using their own funds without any financial assistance, pushing them deeper into the poverty cycle. Administrative processes also pose challenges: the lack of basic documents and the absence of clear information in the Tamil language about the administrative procedures create confusion in submitting applications.

Landlessness and exclusion

The disaster management law and relief policies are structured around the assumption of stable, legally recognized residences, primarily benefiting the middle class. Under these laws, the condition of proving legal ownership for compensation and reconstruction acts as a subtle mechanism for excluding the Malaiyaha Tamil community. Although plantation workers have lived in line rooms for generations, since the line rooms are the exclusive property of the plantation companies, they are viewed under law as mere occupants or tenants. This legal definition prevents them from receiving full compensation through the relief mechanisms.

Although land reform and housing schemes have been announced in plantation areas in the past, this legal ownership issue has not been fully resolved. Even when the government provides houses, it often only issues permits to occupy or temporary claim documents not absolute deeds (full title certificates). These documents lack the legal authority required to claim compensation or secure mortgages from banks. Therefore, the post-Ditwah compensation policy instead of aiding rapid recovery exposes the legal loopholes and deficiencies in the government’s old and new housing schemes. Divisional Secretariats and Grama Niladharis are compelled to reject or suspend applications lacking proof of ownership as per existing legal provisions. This results in an administrative burden on officials and serious injustice for the affected people.

Resettlement challenges

Following Cyclone Ditwah, the permanent relocation of people from high risk areas identified by the National Building Research Organization has become an urgent necessity. However, even these resettlement schemes face multiple challenges due to the land ownership issue. Firstly, finding safe land for resettlement is a major challenge. Acquiring land from plantation management or under the control of the Forest Conservation Department requires lengthy administrative processes involving negotiations with companies and other state institutions. Since plantation workers cannot claim ownership of the land, they lack the legal authority to assert their demands in these political and administrative negotiations. Secondly, past resettlement schemes often failed to provide full land deeds for the new houses. Thus, even after a family moves from a dangerous line room to a safe new residence, the lack of legal title to the land persists. This denial of ownership prevents them from obtaining loans to diversify their livelihoods and restricts their ability to legally use or sell the property in the future. Any resettlement scheme for permanent recovery post-Ditwah must make the provision of legal, absolute and unencumbered land deeds for the new homes a fundamental condition. Otherwise, the new settlement will merely become a new line room, perpetuating historical injustice in a different geographical location.

Gender and social vulnerability

The impact of the losses caused by Cyclone Ditwah also differs along gender lines with women in the Malaiyaha Tamil community being disproportionately affected. In many families, men are the nominal legal owners or occupants on the documents. In cases where the husband or father dies, women who lack legal home ownership face the dual hurdles of document scarcity and lack of awareness regarding administrative procedures when claiming compensation. Furthermore, the disaster has damaged the social cohesion that relied on the line room structure. Line rooms are not just residences; they are a social and cultural ecosystem. Their destruction causes immense damage to social cohesion and social support networks. Malaiyaha families residing temporarily in relief centres face multiple challenges in education, health and security. The delay in receiving compensation due to the lack of documentation and precarious tenure prolongs the recovery period, further undermining their social security.

Policy recommendations for sustainable recovery

To equitably address the losses following Cyclone Ditwah and ensure the sustainable recovery of the Malaiyaha Tamil community, the government and relevant institutions must implement the following reforms in their compensation policies and laws:

• Land ownership eligibility: The government must immediately issue a special gazette notification recognizing long term occupancy eligibility, confirmed by the Divisional Secretariat, instead of home ownership documents, to receive the house damage grant. The duration of a family’s residence in the line room can be confirmed through certificates from the Grama Niladhari and plantation management.
• Decentralizing and simplifying administrative processes: All relief application forms, guidelines and legal requirements must be clear and in simple Tamil. Mobile Registrar Offices should be established to assist those without basic documents and expedite the process of preparing documentation. Representatives of plantation worker trade unions and community-based organizations must be included in the decision making processes related to compensation.
• Guaranteeing absolute ownership: Every resettlement scheme undertaken after the Ditwah disaster must mandate the provision of legal, absolute land deeds for the new houses. This ownership will help increase the community’s resilience against future climate shocks.
• Resolving plantation land issues: The government must take legal and administrative steps to expedite the procedures for acquiring land from plantation companies for relocating people from high risk areas. This land should be exclusively used for the housing needs of the community.
• Mandating insurance: Group insurance coverage must be made mandatory for the line rooms or new residences of plantation workers either through the plantation companies or a joint government insurance scheme.
• Accessing international climate finance: The government must take swift action to access funding from international mechanisms like the UN Climate Convention’s Loss and Damage Fund. The funds received must be utilized to address the historical vulnerability of landless, marginalized groups.

The 2025 Ditwah Cyclone not only exposed the immediate threat of climate change to the Malaiyaha Tamil community but also the failure of their historically precarious housing tenure system. The mandatory requirement of land ownership in the compensation policy acts as an administrative and legal barrier to equitable recovery. The losses experienced by this community are not merely a direct consequence of climate change; they are a continuation of the historical injustice that persists within Sri Lanka’s state structure. The government and relevant institutions can only establish climate justice by immediately removing these legal and administrative eligibility restrictions and providing them with sustained resettlement and absolute land ownership. Ensuring equitable relief for the Malaiyaha Tamil community is not just a disaster management measure; it is a fundamental responsibility to uphold national justice and human rights.