News
Census shows drop in population increase rate
View(s):By Kapila Bandara
Malaiyaha Tamil population in Sri Lanka, a people once known as the ‘plantation Tamils’ or those of ‘recent Indian origin’, has dropped to 600,000 plus from more than 830,000 the 2024 census has found.
Nearly half of them are in Nuwara Eliya, or slightly above 300,000, data this week from the 2024 Population and Housing Census show.
As a part of the country’s entire population, Malaiyaha Tamils make up 2.8% at 600,360, the 2024 census reported. The number has fallen from 839,504 recorded in the 2012 headcount.
The Malaiyaha Tamils have a 200-year history in Sri Lanka as immigrants from between 1837 and 1939.
Government records show that by 1940 there were 225,000 registered Indian Tamil voters.
Decades later, the Grant of Citizenship to Persons of Indian Origin Act, No.35 of 2003 allowed citizenship to those who opted to remain in Sri Lanka under what was known as the Sirima-Shastri Pact and thousands were repatriated back to India.
The census shows that the community makes up the majority population of Nuwara Eliya, an important high grown tea producing district, compared with the 38.9% of the Sinhala population and 2.7% Muslim and or Moor people.
Nuwara Eliya has many plantations and at least 18 registered tea factories such as Oliphant, Uda Radella, and Brookside. More than 114,200 acres are under tea cultivation, by far the biggest extent of tea growing land.
The National People’s Government has compelled the tea plantations to raise the monthly wage and also accelerated the building of houses with water and electricity for the community, largely funded by India.
The census findings do not explain factors that led to the decline in the Malaiyaha population, although that is not its mandate, according to the authorities. Some sources opined that many may have chosen to be identified as Sri Lankan, or as “Sri Lankan Tamil’. Some may have emigrated. Others are likely working mainly in West Asia.
Separate data from 2022 show there were 588,850 registered voters in Nuwara Eliya and most, or 336,702 were in Nuwara Eliya – Maskeliya.
Meanwhile, the Muslim and or Moor population has increased to 2.283 million from 1.892m, the census has reported, a growth rate of 1.5%. They make up 10.5% of the entire population of Sri Lanka, compared with 9.3% recorded in the 2012 census.
The growth rate, the census report says, “is three times the growth rate of the total population of the country’’.
In contrast, the annual growth rate of the Sinhala population is 0.4%.
While half of the Malaiyaha population is recorded in Nuwara Eliya, the next highest count, or 11% is recorded in Badulla. In Kandy there are about 2.6%. Based on the percentage, the Malaiyaha community in Nuwara Eliya adds up to 300,180. Ratnapura and Kegalle combined account for 2.5%, the data breakdown shows. And 1.5% is recorded in Matale and less than 1% in Colombo district and in Kalutara.
As for Sri Lanka Tamils, 70% is concentrated in the Northern Province. Most are in Jaffna, Kilinochchi District and there is a large concentration in Batticaloa District in the Eastern Province, as well as Trincomalee and Ampara districts.
Other than in Northern and Eastern provinces, the highest percentage, or 10.3% of Sri Lanka Tamils is recorded in the Colombo District.
The census says the highest increase in the percentage of Sri Lanka Muslims/Moors is in Mannar district of the Northern Province. In Mannar, the population of Muslims has increased from 16.5% in 2012 to 26.5% in 2024.
The percentage of Sri Lanka Muslims/Moors has increased in all 25 districts, the census says.
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