Pregnancy blocking plantation employment?

Inquiries are to be held over allegations that pregnancy test are being held prior to employing workers in tea plantations of Sri Lanka, BBC’s Tamil service Thamil Osai has reported quoting Plantations Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe.

However, the Minister who is on a foreign trip according to Thamil Osai, has said that this matter has not been brought to his notice up to now.

Earlier, Central Provincial Council member Murali Ragunathan had complained to the Human Rights Commission that when employing married females to the plantations, the officials had said that a pregnancy test would be carried before employing them, states the report.

Quoting a female from the plantations, the report says that a 30 year old married woman by the name of Saroja had said that when she was interviewed for employment in a plantation, she had been asked to undergo a pregnancy test. The test had revealed that she was five months pregnant and as a result she had been refused employment. This in turn had deprived her of obtaining essential nutrition for her.

Another female named as Deepa in the report, is said to have stated that the officials who interviewed had told her that she could not be given employment as she was pregnant. However, she had reportedly been told that she could be hired after child birth.

Though this matter has been brought to the notice of the law enforcement officers and the ministers concerned, nothing has come out of it, Democratic Workers’ Congress (DWC) leader Thuraisamy is reported as having told Thamil Osai.

The report adds that Thamil Osai’s attempt to contact local plantation companies over this matter had proved unsuccessful.