They are rarely used to transport an ailing worker to hospital. Even women in labour pains are transported by lorries. To get a vehicle from town, one has to spend about 500 rupees or the equivalent of a week's salary. Plantation workers are among the most economically deprived and therefore the most vulnerable to disease and ill-health. Malnutrition produced by insufficient and low quality food is so widespread that the average physical height of plantation workers is discernibly much less than that of the better-fed sections of the population.
Anemia is common, especially the women and is invariably aggravated by pregnancy.
The plantation districts have the highest mortality rates in the country for all age levels. The levels for maternal and infant deaths as well as still births are the worst. Rs 15 and a kilogram of potatoes is more than Rs 25. Dried fish, once a main source of proteins among poor Sri Lankans, now ranges from Rs 20 to Rs 40 for just 100 grams, according to quality. They have thin walls of a single layer of brick, roofs covered with corrugated iron sheets and mud floors.