‘We give our blood so they live comfortably’: Sri Lanka’s tea pickers say they go hungry and live in squalor

Sri Lanka’s tea industry brings in more than £1bn a year in export revenue but many of the 300,000 people who work as pickers on tea plantations say they cannot afford to eat and live in colonial-era housing without toilets or running water. All photographs: Jeevan Ravindran Photograph: Jeevan Ravindran

Some of the world’s leading tea manufacturers, including Tetley and Lipton, are examining working conditions on the plantations of its Sri Lankan suppliers, following a Guardian investigation.

Two global trade-certification schemes, Fairtrade and the Rainforest Alliance, are also conducting inquiries after it was revealed that some workers on 10 certified estates could not afford to eat and were living in squalid conditions.