The 8th of September this year is the 15th death anniversary of Deshamanya Cyril Herath, former Inspector General of Police, Defence Secretary, and Chairman of the National Savings Bank. He was also a distinguished alumnus of the University of Ceylon, Peradeniya.

He resigned as IGP on a matter of principle over a disagreement with the then President of Sri Lanka JR Jayewardene. He did so though he had many more years to serve as IGP. Knowing Mr Herath’s principles, the President knew it was futile to try to persuade him to change his mind. Instead, he offered him the position as a High Commissioner, which Mr Herath respectfully declined.

When Chandrika Kumaratunga became President, she appointed him Chairman of the National Savings Bank.

After he took over as Chairman, a new era dawned for the NSB. Most people do not know that until the late 1990s the viability of the NSB depended on a subsidy given by the Treasury. It is an interesting coincidence that the subsidy was withdrawn by the government, a few years after Mr Herath was appointed Chairman, but the NSB began to make profits, without any support from the government.

The most important feature of his management was that he understood that the philosophy of a savings bank is totally different from that of a commercial bank and, throughout the world, savings banks follow a philosophy which is prudent, simple, philanthropic and unostentatious This was its founder Dr NM Perera’s philosophy as well.

Mr Herath was every inch a leader with a strong character, scrupulously honest, brave and charismatic.

He was sensitive to the needs of the poor and the result was that the NSB increased the interest paid to Post Office savings account holders by 1%.

He provided strong and effective leadership for many years with the support of the Trade Unions; they venerated him which is something very rare in this country.

He was approachable and any employee could meet him in his room on Wednesdays, without an appointment, to have their grievances redressed.

At bank parties, he mixed closely with the staff and engaged in banter, and sang and danced with them.

He was cost conscious and frugal. His official vehicle was an ordinary car. When travelling abroad he and other senior officers travelled economy class, unless it was upgraded by the airline itself at no extra cost. When members of the senior management travelled outside Colombo, they travelled by a van to cut costs.

He reinstated a large number of staff employees who had been unfairly dismissed by the previous management.

He never raised his voice when speaking to subordinates and was conscious of their self-respect.

Believe it or not, he queued up with the other employees to enter the lift every morning and waited for his turn to proceed to his room, on the 6th floor.

I believe it is sheer ingratitude if the staff, Board and the people of this country forget the unique contribution made by him to the NSB and the country.

If our country had been blessed with a few more officers like him, in top positions, our country would have been among the most developed countries of the world.

His beloved wife Mrs Rani Herath, who passed away one year after his death, was a gracious and virtuous lady who made it possible for Mr Herath to fully concentrate on coping with the challenges of running the bank.

Beloved Sir, on behalf of all the employees of the NSB, past and present, I wish you and Mrs Rani Herath peace and serenity in your sojourn in Samsara!

NBSB Balalle

(former General Manager NSB)

By Prof. M.W. Amarasiri de Silva

Malnutrition in Sri Lanka’s tea-producing regions represents a significant public health challenge. Defined as a state where an individual’s dietary intake does not meet their nutritional needs, malnutrition can manifest in various forms, including undernutrition and micronutrient deficiencies. Addressing malnutrition is crucial, particularly in vulnerable communities like those within the tea plantations, where socioeconomic factors compound the problem. These areas are home to marginalised populations that have historically faced barriers to essential services, resulting in alarming rates of malnutrition, especially among children.

The tea plantations of Sri Lanka not only contribute to the country’s economy but also reflect deep-rooted social inequalities. Many families rely on these plantations for their livelihoods, yet they often struggle with inadequate access to nutritious foods, further exacerbating their health issues. With alarming statistics indicating a high prevalence of underweight, stunting, and wasting among children, immediate action is necessary to reverse these trends.

Understanding the current state of malnutrition, especially within these tea communities, is vital to developing effective interventions. As the dietary landscape changes, traditional practices clash with the rise of unhealthy processed foods, leading to a complex cycle of malnutrition. This interplay lays the groundwork for exploring the current state of malnutrition in Sri Lanka’s tea country, where the urgent need for comprehensive solutions is clearer than ever.

Current state of malnutrition

The current state of malnutrition in Sri Lanka’s tea plantation communities reveals concerning statistics that highlight the severity of the issue. Reports indicate that around 35.6% of children, between the ages of 01 and 15, are classified as underweight, while 26.9% experience stunting, and 32.9% face wasting. These figures starkly contrast with national averages, suggesting that children in these areas suffer more acutely from nutritional deficiencies compared to their counterparts in other regions of the country. The high rates of undernutrition not only reflect immediate health risks but also indicate long-term consequences for child health, including impaired cognitive development, reduced academic performance, and increased susceptibility to chronic diseases later in life.

The prevalence of stunting and wasting is particularly alarming, as these conditions can hinder children’s growth and development, affecting their physical and mental well-being. This situation is compounded by the rise of cheap, processed foods that are easily accessible but nutritionally inadequate. As the dietary patterns shift, families often struggle to maintain traditional dietary practices that could provide necessary nutrients.

Understanding these statistics and their implications leads naturally to a closer examination of the socioeconomic factors that contribute to malnutrition. These underlying influences, such as income levels, education, and access to healthcare, are key to addressing the challenges faced by these vulnerable communities and developing effective interventions.

Socioeconomic factors influencing malnutrition

The socioeconomic factors influencing malnutrition in Sri Lanka’s tea plantation communities are intertwined with various dimensions of daily life, including employment, income, and education. Maternal employment plays a critical role in shaping nutritional outcomes, as many mothers in these communities are engaged in labour-intensive jobs that demand long hours and provide little flexibility. This often limits their ability to prepare nutritious meals at home or attend to their children’s dietary needs, resulting in increased risks of malnutrition among their children.

Household income is another significant factor. Many families in the plantations depend on seasonal wages, which can lead to periods of financial instability. Low incomes constrain access to diverse and healthy food options, forcing families to rely on cheaper, unhealthy alternatives that can exacerbate nutritional deficiencies. Consequently, these economic pressures create a cycle of poor health and limited opportunities for better livelihoods.

Education levels within these communities also contribute to malnutrition. Limited educational attainment restricts awareness of nutrition and healthy dietary practices. Parents who lack knowledge about balanced diets may not prioritise essential nutrients for their children, further deepening the cycle of undernutrition and its long-term consequences.

Understanding these socioeconomic challenges requires a look back at the historical context of tea plantations in Sri Lanka. The legacy of colonialism and economic marginalisation continues to shape the lives of plantation workers today, affecting their access to resources, education, and opportunities for improving their health and nutrition.

Historical context of tea plantations

The historical context of tea plantations in Sri Lanka reveals a complex interplay of colonial legacy, social isolation, and economic disparity that continues to shape the lives of local communities. Initially established during British colonial rule, tea plantations relied on imported labour, primarily from South India, creating a workforce that was segregated from both the local populations and urban centres. This separation fostered social isolation, restricting access to essential services, such as healthcare and education, which are crucial for nutritional well-being.

Over generations, the descendants of these labourers have faced enduring economic disadvantages. The plantation system, designed to maximise profit for colonial interests, often left workers with meager wages and poor living conditions. This economic hardship is a significant factor contributing to malnutrition, as families struggle to afford nutritious food. The reliance on a narrow selection of low-cost, processed foods has intensified nutritional deficiencies, leaving many communities vulnerable to a range of health issues.

The transition from traditional diets to reliance on cheaper, unhealthy options illustrates how historical conditions have impacted dietary practices. Today, this has resulted in a triple burden of malnutrition, where undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, and diet-related diseases coexist. Understanding this historical backdrop is vital for addressing current malnutrition challenges, highlighting the need for interventions that consider both the past and present of these communities.

Triple burden of malnutrition

The triple burden of malnutrition in Sri Lanka’s tea country refers to the coexistence of undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, and diet-related noncommunicable diseases. This term encapsulates the various dietary challenges faced by communities where traditional food practices are increasingly overshadowed by modern, processed food options. As these communities have shifted from nutrient-rich diets to cheaper, less healthy alternatives, they encounter unique health implications.

Children, in particular, suffer from this transition. The alarming rates of undernutrition among young ones not only lead to immediate health risks but also hinder long-term development, impacting cognitive abilities and future productivity. Moreover, the intake of processed foods often lacks essential vitamins and minerals, contributing to deficiencies that can have lasting effects on growth and immunity. Concurrently, the rise of diet-related diseases, such as obesity and diabetes, presents a growing concern, often linked to a sedentary lifestyle and poor eating habits.

Understanding the triple burden is essential for crafting effective community-based interventions. By addressing dietary challenges through localised strategies, such as promoting nutritious food options and educational programmes, health practitioners can help shift behaviours and improve health outcomes. This focus on community engagement is vital for creating sustainable change and overcoming the barriers that have historically limited access to healthy foods in these marginalised areas.

The next step involves exploring specific community initiatives that can promote better nutritional practices and empower local families.

Community-based interventions and initiatives

Community-based interventions and initiatives are crucial in addressing malnutrition in Sri Lanka’s tea plantation communities. These programmes depend significantly on the involvement of Community Development Officers (CDOs) and Plantation Family Welfare Officers (PFWOs), who are essential in fostering local engagement. Through targeted training programmes, these community leaders acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to promote better nutritional practices.

The training emphasises hands-on cooking techniques and the importance of using locally available foods, enabling CDOs and PFWOs to act as educators within their communities. They organise workshops that create spaces for collective learning and sharing, which is essential in building trust and collaboration among families. This communal approach not only disseminates nutritional knowledge but also strengthens community ties, making it easier for families to adopt healthier eating habits.

Engagement strategies play a vital role in the success of these initiatives. By involving community members in the planning and execution of programmes, the initiatives become more relevant and culturally appropriate. This grassroots involvement fosters a sense of ownership and accountability, encouraging families to prioritise nutrition in their daily lives.

As these local leaders gain momentum in their efforts, it becomes evident that sustainable improvements in health and nutrition are possible through community-driven actions. Looking ahead, the emphasis must shift towards consolidating these grassroots efforts and exploring how to institutionalise support systems that enhance the impact of community interventions.

Conclusion and future directions

Addressing malnutrition in Sri Lanka’s tea plantation communities requires a comprehensive understanding of the unique challenges faced by these populations. Key findings highlight alarming rates of undernutrition, with many children suffering from conditions such as stunting and wasting. Socioeconomic factors, including low incomes and limited access to education, compound these issues, creating a cycle of poor health and wellbeing.

Sustainable approaches to improving nutrition are essential for long-term success. Empowering local leaders, such as Community Development Officers and Plantation Family Welfare Officers, has proven effective in promoting better dietary practices. Their grassroots initiatives foster trust and engagement within communities, making it easier to introduce healthier food options and nutritional education.

Future policy recommendations should focus on expanding these community efforts. This includes integrating nutritional education into health staff training, promoting organic farming, and regulating the availability of unhealthy processed foods. Additionally, enhancing access to nutrition information through digital platforms can help bridge knowledge gaps and support healthier choices.

Ultimately, the path forward lies in ensuring that local communities are equipped with the knowledge and resources needed to make sustainable changes. By prioritising these strategies, Sri Lanka can tackle malnutrition effectively, paving the way for healthier futures for its tea plantation residents.

by Mahil Dole
Senior Superintendent of Police (Retd.);
former Member, Sri Lanka Wakfs Board

On 03 September. 2026. the Sri Lanka Police marked 160 years with the full ceremonial apparatus of the State. At the Field Force Headquarters, in Thimbirigasyaya, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake received a guard of honour, a commemorative stamp was presented, long-service promotions were conferred, and a new mobile application and website were unveiled. He promised a new uniform by mid-2027, a risk allowance, a proper promotion scheme, official housing, vehicles, a modern headquarters, and approval to recruit 10,000 officers. He also warned that officers who can be purchased by the underworld should leave the uniform. It was a day of history, optics and declared intent.

Two days later, the Officer-in-Charge of the Traffic Division, at Dehiwala Police Station, made an entry in the routine information book, left his post and went home. He wrote that he could no longer cope with the workload and the pressure of the job. Mount Lavinia Division SSP Ashoka Gunasekara ordered the Crimes Investigation Bureau to inquire. Statements were recorded from the Inspector and the supervising ASP after advice from the Police Legal Division. The SSP’s reported worry was not only the officer’s welfare. It was precedent: that other traffic officers might follow.

That reflex is understandable. A disciplined force cannot treat walking off a post as ordinary industrial action. An OIC holds keys, files, exhibits, court dates and daily command of men and women on the road. Desertion of duty, even when dressed as despair, is a breach. But if the inquiry stops at the man and the entry in the book, the service will have treated a symptom as if it were the disease. The episode is not interesting because one Inspector lost his nerve. It is interesting because the nerve was lost in the same week the State spent public money and presidential time announcing that a new police service is being built.

The numbers behind the pageant

The Sri Lanka Police is not a decaying relic. It runs some 609 stations across 47 territorial and 78 functional divisions. In the past two years it has recorded the largest narcotics seizures in recent memory, more than five tonnes of heroin, nearly 10 tonnes of crystal methamphetamine, tens of tonnes of Kerala cannabis, and more than 16 million tablets, and has brought armed fugitives home from abroad. That record is real.

The same institution is running on a deficit no parade can conceal. Police Headquarters has acknowledged more than 30,000 vacancies, on some official reckonings closer to 32,000. Since 2020 more than 4,300 officers have left. Departures peaked in 2025 and remained high through the first half of 2026. Thousands more are due to retire in the next two years.

Applications have thinned as young people look overseas and serving officers leave early for work that pays better and humiliates less. Approval to take in 10,000 recruits is not trivial. It is also not a cure. A force that loses about two thousand people a year and starts 30 thousand short cannot be restored by a single intake, especially if training, housing and supervision cannot absorb newcomers without breaking them.

The President was right to say that officers work 12- to 18-hour stretches. Traffic OICs in the Colombo suburbs live inside a particular version of that grind. Dehiwala sits on one of the island’s most congested corridors. It absorbs school runs, funerals, political motorcades, night-time drunk driving and a motoring public that treats lane markings as optional. Accident files multiply. Court lists lengthen. Every fatal crash must be walked through the Magistrate’s Court, the JMO, insurers and grieving families. The same officer is then pulled into VIP movements, festivals, flood deployments, elections and the expanding list of “other duties” that have little to do with traffic law and everything to do with the State’s habit of using the police as a general-purpose labour pool. Firearm offences and narcotics have not stood still while traffic thickened. A single video of an officer losing his temper on Galle Road travels farther in an hour than a year’s worth of quiet competence. The public sees the outburst. It rarely sees the 16th hour.

The household the uniform does not protect

Work pressure is only the official half of the story. The unofficial half is the household. A constable’s or inspector’s pay still does not absorb the cost of living without anxiety. Quarters are scarce, often poor, and frequently far from the station. A sudden transfer turns schooling into a private crisis. Medical bills, tuition and the small humiliations of falling behind civilian neighbours accumulate. Job security, once the great consolation of the service, feels thinner when overseas markets offer an exit and a disciplinary file, sometimes necessary, sometimes political, can end a career in a week.

Teachers, nurses and soldiers carry their own weights; the police have never had a monopoly on hardship. What is distinctive is the bargain the State still recites and no longer quite honours. In harder years the compact was simple and was taught as S.S.S.: loyalty to the State, the Service and the Superior. That instruction was never a one-way street. It assumed a Superior who would not spend subordinates as disposable hours; a Service that would shield its own from avoidable misery; and a State that would not treat the policeman as both first responder and last resort for every failure of other institutions. When the roster is left to rot, when quarters and schooling are treated as private inconveniences, and when an officer’s first public mention after distress is “precedent,” the compact is already broken. Pageantry cannot put it back together.

Trust from top to bottom is what is fraying. Juniors already hear the message when welfare is announced at an anniversary and felt only as a circular months later, and when promotions stall for years before arriving in a ceremonial bundle. Loyalty cannot be drilled into people who no longer believe the institution will stand behind them when the file, the politician, the video or the debt collector arrives.

Discipline is not denial

An inquiry into the Dehiwala OIC is in order. The information book is an official record; walking off a post has consequences; other officers will watch what happens next. If the Inspector was in genuine distress, the professional response is medical and administrative support, not a theatrical charge designed to frighten the traffic branch. If misconduct is mixed with the distress, deal with the misconduct without using it to bury the distress. The worst outcome would be a finding that treats the episode as a one-man failure of character. Character is not irrelevant. It is not a staffing plan.

Sri Lankan policing already knows what happens when exhaustion is ignored: suicides after double shifts, public confrontations that began as fatigue, quiet desertions that never made the papers. Burnout studies here are not new. They describe too much demand, too little recovery and too little support from above. Research and Development does not need a five-year consultancy to discover this. It needs permission to say it in language headquarters cannot file away.

Immediate, short and long

Immediate measures are unglamorous. Audit actual hours at traffic divisions in the Western Province and cap them. Stop treating leave as a favour. Put a working counselling line in every division that an Inspector can use without becoming a case for the Legal Division. Temporary reinforcement of Dehiwala and similar corridors would cost less than another viral incident. Publish, internally, a simple rule: an officer who records distress in the information book is first a welfare case, then, if needed, a disciplinary one.

Short-term measures are already half-promised and must be made real on a calendar, not a podium. Stagger the 10,000 recruits so trainers and barracks are not overwhelmed. Let the risk allowance reach the constable on the road. Weigh schooling years in transfers. Treat quarters as operational infrastructure.

Reorganise court duty so the same handful of officers are not living in Magistrate’s Courts while the road goes unsupervised. Use the new app and cameras to cut paperwork, not to add another layer on top of the old books.

Long-term measures are political, which is why they are postponed. The police cannot remain the residual employer of every State anxiety — drugs, school gates, temple crowds, politician security, disaster relief and traffic. Some of those tasks belong to other agencies, or to a properly staffed traffic police with its own career path and rest rules. The President’s warning about purchasable uniforms was necessary, but integrity campaigns fail when the honest officer is the poorest man in the room.

None of this requires sentimentality. The public has reasons for anger: corruption cases, rough handling, political servility, the officer mysteriously unavailable until a call from above. Those failures are part of the same story. An understaffed, poorly housed force is easier to buy, easier to bully and quicker to snap. Reform that only lectures the ranks on ethics while leaving the roster untouched is not reform. It is a speech.

What the week actually said

The 160th anniversary was entitled to its dignity. A service that has buried officers in war, tsunami, pandemic and ordinary crime has a right to stand in formation and be thanked. Promises of uniforms, allowances and buildings are not empty if they arrive. But a uniform does not shorten a shift, an app does not find a school for a transferred child, and a commemorative stamp does not sit with an OIC at midnight while the next accident file is opened.

The Dehiwala Inspector may be right or wrong in the particular. That is what the inquiry is for. The conditions he pointed to are not in dispute: cadre shortfall, thinning applications, thin welfare, long hours, growing crime, traffic and court work, and daily media humiliation. Trust between the top and the bottom is weaker than the anniversary photographs suggest.

If Research and Development is good for anything this month, it should take the entry in that information book as a research question, not a disciplinary exhibit: actual weekly hours of traffic OICs in the Western Province, vacancy rates on those rosters, applications for early release or overseas no-pay, and access to counselling that is not a rumour. The answers will be uncomfortable. They will be more useful than another circular on loyalty.

S.S.S

. still has a meaning. Loyalty to the State requires a State that does not consume its own guardians. Loyalty to the Service requires a Service that tells itself the truth between parades. Loyalty to the Superior requires superiors who are alarmed by exhaustion, not only by precedent. The Inspector who went home from Dehiwala did not invent the pressure. He only wrote it down. The test of the next year is whether the men who stood on the saluting dais on 03 September are prepared to read that sentence as an order of the day.

Mahil Dole, SSP (Retired), is the former Head of the Counter-Terrorism Division of the State Intelligence Service and a former Director of the Police Special Branch.