Up Country Tamils: Charting a New Future in Sri Lanka
Table 2: Plantation Community’s trust in selected public
institutions
Institutions
Sinhalas*
Indian Tamils
Civil Service
60.5
42.3
District Secretariat
78.1
49.5
Divisional Secretariat
81.4
51.2
Grama Niladhari
87
40.1
Election Commission
69.8
68.2
Human Rights Commission
54.2
69.6
Anti–Corruption Commission
46.8
53.2
Police
62.8
35.2
Local government authorities
69.4
42.1
Central government
48.2
50.8
Parliament
51.2
57.3
Education department
72.0
69.3
Electricity board
75.1
53.2
Post office
70.6
56.1
Agriculture department
77.2
35.2
Source: Field Survey, 2015/16 by the author for a three-year project on Quality of
Government, Public Service Delivery and Citizenship Rights in Sri Lanka. Data for
Sinhalas extracted from Trust Survey Report, 2015/16.
Conclusion
Although great effort has been made to grant legal citizenship
to the Plantation Community, structural discrimination and
indifferent treatment still continue to have an influence.
Furthermore, various policies and their particularistic and
unfair practices are more likely to systematically preclude this
community from enjoying public services and social citizenship
rights. This condition requires reforms in policies, laws, and
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