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| Sunday, 17 October 2004 |
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Fourteen girl caddies invade male bastion by LAL GUNESEKERA Fourteen young girls have now invaded a male bastion and become Caddies. The Royal Colombo Golf Club (RCGC) down Model Farm Road in the Borella electorate, who celebrated their 125th anniversary earlier this year, have 14 girls among the 134 caddies (120 of them are men) in their ranks. Speaking to a few of them, who have all been given uniforms (slacks, long sleeved shirts plus caps) by the RCGC, they told the Sunday Observer that they stay in the vicinity of the course and that their fathers or brothers have been caddies before them. They said that they earn about Rs. 400/= per day, but on weekends (Saturday and Sunday) and holidays, they could earn upto about Rs. 1000/= a day. They are yet learning the game, and hope that one fine day, they too will be able to play in tournaments like their male counterparts and fare well. The girls are between the ages of 18 and 36 with five of them married with children too. Only one girl among them (Sivakanthi) hails from Dematagoda. A majority of them are Sinhalese, but there is a few Tamils too. They said in unison. We find no difficulty in working together. We are like sisters. We have no problems even with the male caddies. They are helpful. All of us had completed our education. We have left school and are happy that the RCGC hired us. It's some sort of an income to help our families. The 14 girls are-K. S. de Silva, Minoka Nilmini, Sajani Dharshani, Benita, Niranjala Sarojini, Angelene, Madusha, Aruni, Sunethra, Pushpalatha, Shiromala, Chamila, Sujitha and Sivakanthi. In charge of the 134 caddies and the five bag carriers, is 48-year-old A. A. Sunil Perera, who has been with the RCGC for about four decades, except when he was employed in Saudi Arabia for nine years and Japan for one year. He is the caddie master, and says that a caddie starts his/her work at 6 a.m. and ends at 5 p.m. Sunil too was a caddie at the RCGC earlier before rising to be the caddie master. His basic salary is Rs.10,500/=. He is married to Anne Sudarshani and they have one daughter_ Dilki Angali (12 years) who is a student of President's BV in Nawala. |
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