Arulappan is one of millions of Sri Lankans reeling from the island's worst economic crisis in decades. The COVID-19 pandemic severed the tourism lifeline of the Indian Ocean nation, already short of revenue in the wake of steep tax cuts by the government.
The tea industry, which supports hundreds of thousands of people, also suffered from a controversial government decision last year to ban chemical fertilisers as a health measure. First-quarter tea production fell 15% on the year to its lowest since 2009, with the Sri Lanka Tea Board saying dry weather had taken a toll on bushes that received insufficient fertiliser after the ban.
Plantation workers like Arulappan, who hail predominantly from the island's Tamil minority, are affected more than most, as they own no land to provide a cushion against soaring food prices.
The prices of staples like sugar, wheat flour and rice have gone up according to her, the result of rampant inflation after Sri Lanka was left critically short of foreign currency to buy essential supplies of food.
