Family Finance Management Of Tea Estate Workers Case Of ...



FAMILY FINANCE MANAGEMENT OF TEA ESTATE WORKERS

CASE OF “HALPE TEA ESTATE” ELLA, SRI LANKA

Mano Weligodapola

mano.w@sliiit.lk

Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology

Tell: +94 77 3002568

IreshaLakmini

ireshalakminihapuarachchi@

Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology

Tell: +94 77 7719203

SasanganiUdeshika

sasanganisms@

Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology

Tell: +94 769080937

DamithriThamesha

fdamithri2012@

Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology

Tell: +94 70 3840103

Ann Supipi

supipianne@

Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology

Tell: +94 71 4832955

ABSTRACT

Among South Asian countries,Sri Lanka is one of large contributors to the world tea market(Ceylon Tea Brokers, 2016)and has a significant contribution to export earnings of 12% of total exports in Sri Lankan economy, according to the central bank report. The tea industry is heavily labour intensive. Theestate workers have been migratedto Sri Lanka from South India during the colonial time. They have identified as a separate social community group known as ‘Estate Workers’. These people reckoned as the lowest income earners[1] in the country.

A couple of generations after, now, the community is undergoing several socio-economic issues. The main purpose of this research paper is to explore the way tea estate workers manage their family finances.

“Halpe Tea Estate[2]” Ella, Sri Lankais selected as the case study. The data collected through in-depth interviews, observations and focus group discussions. A Self Administrator-Interview-Guideis used which have been developed after referring to the relevant literature. Pattern matching method has been used for data analysis.

Study finds that the tea estate workers have poor financial knowledge, financial attitude, and financial behavior. Furthermore, the study reveals that the living condition and sanitary levels are generally at low level. Almost all estate workers are addicted to alcohol and are many other “bad” practices. Findings reveals useful insights for policy makers and estate managements.

Key Words:Sri Lankan Tea Estate Workers, Living Condition, Financial Knowledge, Financial Attitudes and Financial Behavior.

INTRODUCTION

Sri Lanka is one of the world leading tea exporter (Ceylon Tea Brokers, 2016). Currently Sri Lankan tea industry contributes largest portion, which is 12% of total exports of Sri Lanka, according to the Central Bank annual report 2016/2016, and huge number of Indian migrants are involved in tea plucking (Communication Department, 2017).They were identified as separate social community known as “Estate Workers”. These communities have lack of knowledge in minimum living standards and lowest income earners in the country. When consider about the tea estate workers housing system is generally poor and it is the major problem of the tea estate workers. In Sri Lanka these houses called as the “line room” and there are one or two rooms in each families and also these houses were built with low- quality material. (Hariharan & Kumar, 2014) This result in low level of education, poor health and housing conditions and due to those facts, the productivity has affected adversely (Rowlatt, 2016).

Lack of nutritious food is another major problem in the tea estate workers. It has mainly affected to the children’s education background and pregnant women’s are suffering from lack of nutritious ( Kalita &Purkayastha, 2016).

Tea estate workers are facing financial problems due to lack of knowledge in money handling. Majority of the people are liquor addicted. Therefore their liquor contribution is higher than when comparing with their daily expenses. These people still getting minimum wages and most of them depending on loans (Borah, 2013).

(Chandrabose, 2012)Studied on the alcohol consumption among the plantation community with special reference to the large-scale tea estates in NuwaraEliya, Sri Lanka. According to the study, tea estate workers spend considerable amount of their income for the alcohol consumption. This directly influences to day today life of the tea estate workers.

According to the past researchers, there is a huge gap between income and expenditure pattern, which may causes big problems in the lives of tea estate people.

Research QuestionAndObjectives

This empirical study focused on the” Family Finance Management of Tea Estate Workers” to find the answer for the research question as to “How Tea Estate Workers Manage their Family Finance?”

Hence, this study is focused on following objectives:

• to examine the income patterns of the tea estate workers

• to investigate the expenditure patternsof the tea estate workers

• to provide insights on family finance management of tea estate workers

Finance management is important not only for business organization but a family to run smoothly also.Therefore, this study is an attempt to understand, how family finance management is been done by tea estate workers. Tea pluckers have been identified as tea estate workers in this study. Tea pluckers are the people who pluck tealeaves on the island-wide tea plantations. They have been poorly paid (wage/salary) for generations.

Good financial management help to remain stable by preventing economic crisis. By doing, good record keeping and planning leads to get successful in financial management within the family. Creating plans help to limit our spending. Creating a budget and develop a spending plan, saving plan and reducing debts to a control level is the best way to achieve financial stability with in the family and income and expenditure pattern, budgeting, debts, savings and financial knowledge to implement plans are the factors that directly affected to the family finance management (Borden,Collons,Lee&Serido, 2008).

(Dennis,Donald& Acito, 2000)Studied five aspect of the financial management practices of marriage couples. He suggested five primary behaviors that measure the family finance management based on past researches and judgments. Income pattern, expenditure pattern, savings, credit, budget, the researchers have identified investment. Furthermore, they revealed that the demographic variables

Including number of earning family members, marital status, and household income and expenditure patterns have some connection with the family finance management.

METHODOLOGY

This study is an exploratory research that analyzed how tea estate workers manage their family finance. Data was collected from Halpe Tea Estate, whichis located in Ella, Sri Lanka.

This estate has been fortunate to support 60 families. Out of that, 20 families were selected as the sample size. Purposive sampling method was used. Below mentioned selecting criteria were considered when selecting the sample size.

• Nuclear Family (Couple with Children)

• Extended Family (Couple, Children and Other Relatives)

Method OfData Collection

Primary data were collected through in depth interviews and focus group discussion. Since most of the tea estate workers are illiterate, it is not suitable to get information through structured questionnaires. An interview was conducted with the tea estate manager and 20 in-depth interviews were conducted with permanent tea estate workers in order to identify their actual situation such as life at home, demographic factors and daily income and expenditure patterns of tea estate workers. One focus group discussion was conducted in order to get information about community figures, household size, daily routines, tea workers problems and other issues which were not possible to track using in depth interviews.

The interviews were conducted using a self-administrative interview guide and one interview was set for one hour of time period. The interview guide was developed based on the working model which was developed after referring past research papers and documents which were relevant to the family finance management. All the questions in the self-administrator interview guide were represented Financial Knowledge, Financial Attitudes and Financial Behaviour. The interview guide was translated in to Tamil and Sinhala versions. The self-administrator interview guide can be found in the appendix. All the interviews were done by verbally and all the conversations were recorded using a tape recorder. Secondary data were collected through employee register in order to get the information about the employees.

Method OfData Analysis

After gathering data according to the working model, pattern matching was used to analyze the collected data. Under the pattern matching, summarizing, categorization and structuring processes were used to integrate and identify key themes and patterns of the data.

Codes Themes Categories

CodesThemes Categories

Working model was always used as the base. Parameters of that working model were used when summarizing, categorizing and structuring processes in the way of achieving our research objectives. The results were presented in a descriptive form than as a scientific report. Because, the narratives of workers can provide much border insight than analyzing quantitative data (Fadahunsi, 2012)

Data analysis process as follows. The recorded data were transcript with the help of the translator. All the transcripts were read and codes were given. Then common themes were identified according to the codes. Then categories were identified based on the themes. This whole analysis process is called pattern matching. Figure 1 and figure 2 shows codes, themes and categories which were identified based on this study.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

After analyzing all the data, following model was built based on our exploratory research. According to the conceptual framework, dependent variable is the family finance management. Independent variables are financial knowledge, financial attitudes and financial behaviour. Financial knowledge depends on the educational level. Financial attitudes depend on beliefs and concerns. Financial behaviour depends on the income patterns, expenditure patterns, and credit management and the savings and investment. Financial knowledge determines the financial attitudes and financial attitudes determines the financial behaviour.

Financial Knowledge

According to the conceptual framework, financial knowledge is one aspect in the family finance management which refers set of skills and knowledge that allows an individual to make effective decision with all of their financial resources. Educational level makes an impact on the financial knowledge. Most of the male income earners have no any education. In this tea estate, total numbers of male income earners are 36. Out of 36, 20 male income earners have never gone to school. 8 male income earners have had primary education. Only 8 male income earners have had secondary education. Female income earners are much educated than the male income earners. Some of tea estate workers’ sayings have been given below.

“I went to school up to grade 3 and then stopped. I was not interested in going school. That is why I stopped my education after grade 3”.

“I’ve never gone to school. Because I was not interested in going school”.

Since their education level is very low; their financial knowledge is also very low. Because of that, they do not know about cash management, credit management, planning and budgeting. According to this research, lack of education is a one aspect to the mismanagement of family finance with in the tea estate workers’ families.

Financial Attitudes

Financial attitudes mean the personal beliefs and values or the concerns, which heavily impact on the financial goal settings and financial stability. When the educational level is low, their thinking or the concern is also change and thinking or the concern is very low. Because of that, they cannot think properly. When the education level is low, they do not learn to think in a wise way. According to this research, majority of the tea estate workers have not enough knowledge since they have never gone to school and some of them have gone to school up to grade 3 or 4. Since the tea estate workers have less education level, their thinking or the concern is focused only for today not for tomorrow. They always think about “How do we spend today?” and “what do we eat for today?” Those are the questions that they are trying solve or to find an answer. There is no any plan for tomorrow. Therefore, they do not think about savings. Saving position of families shows, what the tea estate workers’ financial attitudes. Out of 20 families, only 2 families save money which is 10% and rest of the families do not save any money. Most of families said:

“We do not plan anything. We just spend our day today life, that’s it.”

“We do not have big plans. We just spend our day today life. We only think about how we eat today. That’s it”.

By looking their sayings, tea estate workers’ financial attitudes can be identified. According to tea estate workers, they only focus on today. Therefore, there is no any future plan. Since they do not have any future plan, they do not want any savings, since they do not have any savings, they cannot do any investment for their future well-being. Tea estate workers are the type of people who concern about the present. Therefore, they cannot move from where they are. That is the reason, tea estate workers are still in the same place or the same situation. Therefore, they are still living with many financial difficulties and lack of living conditions.

Financial Behavior

Financial behavior consists with the income patterns, expenditure patterns, credit management, savings and investment.

Income Patterns

According to the research, all the occupations were categorized in to 3 themes. They are salaries, wages and self-employment income. Tea plucking and tea estate cleaning income have been considered as the salaries. Wages comes from occupations like, mason bass helper, driver, conveyer, garage helper and labor of the irrigation project. Third source of income is self-employment income which comes from milk selling, sweets selling, egg selling, string hoppers selling and flower plant selling.

This study found out the main income comes from salaries, which is 67%. Wages are their second source of income, which is 19%. Self-employment income is another source of income of the tea estate families, which is 14%. Once this study conducted, it revealed that the tea estate workers’ families do not depend on one source of income. One source of income is not sufficient to cover up their daily requirements. Because of that, two or threemembers normally involve in income earning. But still they cannot earn sufficient amount of income for their family requirements. Below mentioned sayings also confirmed that.

“Other than tea plucking income & son-in-law’s driving income, my husband sells milk since we have 2 cows. My son in law get Rs:1000 per day if he works. Normally he works only weekdays.”

“We have chickens and cows. We take eggs for our food requirements and the excess is sold.”

Expenditure Patterns

When it comes to the expenditure patterns, 10 types of expenditures types or themes were identified. Then those expenditures were categorized in to two categories as house hold food expenditure and house hold non-food expenditures. Household food expenditure is higher than the house holds non-food expenditure among the tea estate families. Since they always think about today and they only think about eating. It is also confirmed that, by looking at their below mentioned sayings.

“We spend more money on food. We eat rice for breakfast, lunch & dinner. Normally we need 65 kg of rice per month. We buy dairy products because there is an infant in our family. He needs to drink milk. He needs 2 milk powder packets per week”.

“More money is spent for food requirements. We purchase vegetables & fresh milk daily. We eat rice 3 times per day. We need 75 kg of rice per month”.

“We have 10 members in my family; we have to spend more on food. We eat rice for breakfast, lunch & dinner. Therefore, we need 70 kg of rice per month. When our relatives come to visit us in the festival season, it will increase than this”.

Alcohol and the betel are the main expenses, which comes under household non-food expenditures. Alcohol and betel represent 28%. Since most of the men in the estate are liquor addicted, any how they try to find money in order consume alcohol every day. Every family has 3 or 4 members who eat betel. That is why the expenditure on betel is high. It is also confirmed that, by looking at their below mentioned sayings.

“My husband heavily addicted to the alcohol. He can’t spend a single day without having alcohol”.

“All the men in my family are heavily liquor addicted except my little 2 sons”.

Past researchers have also confirmed this. Study on socio-economic and Educational condition of Tea Worker at Sylhet in Bangladesh has said most of the men are liquor addicted (Ahmad,Rafikul,Rowshon & Yasin, 2015).

Our study has revealed that, all problems are arisen because of low level of the education of the tea estate workers. Another reason is husband dominant decision-making style. Husband dominant decision-making style is one pattern identified by us which leads to many problems. All the tea pluckers said that, husbands handle the household money in all the tea estate families and husbands do not allow them (women) to involve in the finance handling. That leads to the unnecessary expenditures.

“My husband does not allow me to involve in finance handling”.

“Once our salaries are come to the bank accounts, my husband takes me with him & he asks to withdraw all money & keep with him. Then he repays all debts & go to the bar & spend the rest of money”.

Family size is also matters to the expenditure patterns of the tea estate workers. Majority of the families are extended families. Therefore, non-income earners are higher than the income earners. Because of that they said, their monthly income is not sufficient to full fill their basic requirements.

Savings

There are no any saving positions in the tea estate workers’ families. Out of 20 families, only 2 families save little amount of money which is 10%. Rest of the families does not save money, which is 90%. Even though 2 families save money, they take that money immediately in order to repay debts. All the tea estate workers (tea pluckers& tea estate cleaners) in this estate have bank accounts in Sanasa Bank at Ella Branch. Their salaries are sent to that bank account at the end of each month. Even though they earn Rs: 680, they do not get that amount at the end of the day. They can get that at the end of the month.

All of the tea estate workers said that they do not have enough money to save.

“No money is left to save”.

“I try to save my salary in my bank account but it’s never going to happen. Even though our salaries are sent to the bank, at the end of the months, even Rs:1 isn’t left in the account.”

This situation has also confirmed by early researches. Hariharan is one of them. According to his study, Tea estate workers’ savings capacity and working habits were very low(Hariharan & Kumar, 2014). According to a study on socio economic conditions of tea plantation workers in Valparai, tea estate workers do not have any savings. Most of the time they borrow debts from the lenders and they are facing problems when repaying those debts. Therefore, this study also found out all of them are in same condition even in India and Sri Lanka. This is because of their present concerned financial attitudes. When someone think only about the present, then he/she does not save for the future investments. That mind setting comes because of believes or the attitudes. That believes or the attitudes comes from the lack of educational background.

Credit Management

When the income does not sufficient to cover up their day to day expenses, tea estate workers use several methods in order to fill the gap between the income and expenditure. Main credit source is traders. Out of 20 families, 18 families are depending on traders. Second credit source is friends and relatives. Less number of families use Government and formal sources like bank loans in order to fulfil the deficient in the money. Therefore, all the tea estate families in big problems in repaying all the debts. Therefore, their debt position is very high since they do not save any money and also spending more money in unwanted expenditures which should not be prioritized like alcohol and betel. Therefore, the tea estate workers have to borrow money from someone in order to cover up their money deficiencies Therefore, the credit management among tea estate workers is very low.

Other than that, there are some several issues with related to the tea estate workers. They suffer from low cost of works, scarcity of foods, scarcity of safe water, diseases from lack of nourishment, lack of medical facilities and sanitary condition were identified as main problems faced by estate workers. Similar condition can be seen among the tea estate workers in India according to the early researches.

Finally, this study found out that there is a mismanagement of family finance within the tea estate workers’ families since their lack of financial knowledge, present concern financial attitudes and poor financial behavior. By doing this exploratory study of family finance management of tea estate workers, income patterns were examined, expenditure patterns were investigated, and insights on family finance management of tea estate workers were provided. Therefore, all 3 objectives have been achieved through this exploratory study.

CONCLUSION

This whole research identified what are the main factors that affecting the tea estate workers’ income and expenditure patterns, savings, credit positions and the crucial problems faced by the tea estate workers. All the tea estate workers concern only present, not about future. In addition, the researchers found out that the tea estate workers do not have financial knowledge to prioritize their expenses. Their debt position is very high and they do not have much savings position. Furthermore, the tea estate people suffer from low cost of works, scarcity of foods, scarcity of safe water, diseases from lack of nourishment, lack of medical facilities and sanitary condition were identified as main problems faced by estate workers.

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AENDIXES

1. Demographic Factors

2. Self-Administrator Interview Guide

Self-Administrator Interview Guide

Personal & Family Background

1. How old are you?

(To see any differences in the financial practices with the age)

2. What is your marital status?

• Single

• Married

• Divorced

• Widowed

3. How many members are there in your family?(Family size)

• Relationship to the respondent

• Gender

• Age

• Number of earning family members in the family

• Occupation

Educational Analysis of the children in the family (Discuss with children)

▪ Are you schooling?

▪ How far is your school from home in terms of kilometers and time?

▪ If not attending school, why? (Reason)

-Too costly

- Need to work

-Transport difficulties

-other

▪ Do your parents afford to pay any expenses related to schooling?

▪ If not,

- Why?

- Where do you get money to pay those expenses?

4. What is your highest education qualification? (Educational level)

• None

• Preschool

• Primary

• Secondary

Working Environment

1. What is your nature of employment?

• Permanent

• Temporary

2. How often are you get paid? (Pay Period)

• Daily

• Weekly

• Monthly

3. How many hours do you work per day?

4. At what time do you start working?

5. Do you have a break time?

6. At what time do you stop working?

7. Are you paid any Bonus payment?(Any festival bonus)

8. Describe a typical day of your life. From morning to evening

Income & Expenditure Patterns & Saving Position

1. What is your main income source?

2. Do you have any other income sources of your family?

▪ If yes, what are they?

3. What are the main expenses and how much it’s from your total income received?

-Buying pattern (how often) (Daily, Weekly, Monthly)

-Why that much

• Food (Bread, Dairy products, Meat& Fish, Vegetables, Fruits etc.)

• Clothing

• Children

• Household furniture etc.

• Household consumables( Soap, Medicine)

• Household utensils (Cutlery/ Dishes)

• Leisure activities (Cinema)

• Transport

• Education

• Alcohol

• Betle

• Any other sub expenses

• Any special events

4. Did any member of the household seek a medical consultation in the last 30 days?

• How much of cost

5. Are you satisfied with your salary/ income? Is it enough to cover up your expenses?

If not, how do you find money?

• Taking money from a lender

• Taking money from a Bank as a loan

• Use your savings

• Usually how much you take

6. Do you save your money?

If so,

• How much

• In a bank (Do you have a bank account?) , home or other

• How often

7. Do you have any money left over after you have paid for food and other necessary items?

If yes,

• How much

8. When you receive your money, do you plan how it will be used?

If yes,

• What is the plan

9. What do you do with any money you have left over?

• Save/keep money for unforeseen things, emergencies, and medical fees

• Save/keep money for food and other necessary items

• Save with no specific purpose in mind

• Invest money in assets

• Repay debts

• Lend for others

• Other

10. Do you ever run short of money for food or other necessary items?

11. Why you run short of money for food or other necessary items?

• Insufficient/low income

• Unable to work (sick or other)

• Unexpected expenses/events

• Increased cost of food and other necessary items

• Have to provide financial help to others

• Overspending on alcohol & betel

• Children education expenses

• Medicine expenses

• Other

12. What do you do when you run short of money for food or other necessary items?

• Borrow from family, friend or work colleague

• Borrow from employer/salary advance

• Borrow from bank

• Borrow foods and other necessities for debt from corporate shop

• Borrow from lender

• Sell something

• Use savings

• Find extra work /work extra hours

• Spend less on non-essentials (alcohol , cigarettes ,betel)

• Other

13. Do you regularly use credit or borrow money to buy food or to pay for other necessary items or only sometimes?

14. Do you ever have to borrow money to pay off debts you owe?

15. Do you regularly borrow money to pay off debts, or only sometimes?

• Regularly

• Sometimes

16. How often do you buy things that are not necessary before you have bought food and for other necessary items?

• Regularly

• Sometimes

• Rarely

• Never

17. Do you know how much you spend personally in the last week?

18. Who is mainly responsible for managing day-today money in your household?

• Husband

• Wife

• Mother

• Father

• Other

• Nobody

General Living Condition

1. How many meals do you take per day?

2. What do you take in every meal? (Type of food you normally have)

3. What is the house hold size & the housing structure (mud or cement)?

4. How about your sanitary conditions?

5. Do you have Social Benefits like free housing, health services & food (free lunch)?

6. Do you own any land? (Land holding patterns)

7. For what purpose do you use your land?

• To grow crops

• To use it as a farm (livestocks)

• Not used

• other

8. How satisfactory is your current economic situation?

• Very good

• Good

• Normal

• Not very bad

• Very bad

9. In what way has the economic condition of your household changed over the previous 90 days?

• The economic situation has improved

• The economic situation has stayed the same

• The economic situation has worsened

• Don’t know

10. In what way do you think the economic condition of your household will change over the next 90 days?

• The economic situation is likely to improve

• The economic situation is likely to stay the same

• The economic situation is likely to get worse

• Don’t know

11. What are the main problems that you are facing other than above?

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[1] “owners of the majority of tea estates in Sri Lanka, agreed on an increase to the minimum daily wage of tea pluckers to SLRs730 (US$4.71 as of today), from SLRs620 previously, through a new collective agreement. 

[2]Researchers would like to extend their heartiest gratitude to the Chairman of the Halpe Tea, Mr.A.P.D. Abeyrathne and manager of the tea estate Mr.Rajasinghe, all the staff members of business faculty, our families, our colleagues and all the people who supported and gave their fullest contribution towards successful completion of this project.

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Figure 1: Income patterns

Codes ThemesCategories

• Driver

• Mason Bass Helper

• Waiter

• Textile Salesmen

• Garage Helper

• Conveyer

• Labor (Irrigation Project)

Self-Employment Income

Self-Employment Income

Salaries

Salaries

Wages

Wages

Fixed Income

Fixed Income

Variable Income

Variable Income

• Milk Seller

• Egg Seller

• Sweets Seller

• String Hoppers Seller

• Flower Plant Seller

• Cool spot Owner

• Boutique Owner

• Tea Plucker

• Tea Estate Cleaner

• Sport Master

• Servant

• Tea Shop Helper

• Bar Shop Helper

Figure 2: Expenditure patterns

Food & Beverages

Food & Beverages

Household Food Expenditure

Household Food Expenditure

Household Non- Food Expenditures

Household Non- Food Expenditures

• Rice

• Vegetables

• Milk Powder

• Fresh milk

• Flour

• Sugar

• Dhal

• Tea leaves

• Egg, Meat & Fish

• Rice

• Vegetables

• Milk Powder

• Fresh milk

• Flour

• Sugar

• Dhal

• Tea leaves

• Egg, Meat & Fish

• Baby Dresses

• Sport Dresses

• School Dresses

• School Uniform

• Other Dresses

• Baby Dresses

• Sport Dresses

• School Dresses

• School Uniform

• Other Dresses

• Medicines for cold, fever

• Medicines for cold, fever

Medicines

Medicines

• Cupboards

• Chairs

• Cupboards

• Chairs

• Gold Chain

• Bangles

• Earrings

• Gold Chain

• Bangles

• Earrings

• Books & stationaries

• Class Fees[pic]

• Books & stationaries

• Class Fees[pic]

Children’s Education

Children’s Education

Jewellry

Jewellery

Clothing

Clothing

• Train Tickets

• Bus

• Three-wheel hire

• Train Tickets

• Bus

• Three-wheel hire

Transportation

Transportation

Household Furniture

Household Furniture

• Betel

• Betel

• Alcohol

• Alcohol

• Communication & electricity

• Communication & electricity

Betel & Alcohol

Betel & Alcohol

Other

Other

Figure 3: Extended working model

Family Finance Management

Financial Knowledge

Financial Knowledge

Financial Attitudes

Financial Attitudes

Financial Behaviour

Financial Behaviour

Educational

Level

Educational

Level

Beliefs & Concern

Beliefs & Concern

Income Patterns

Income Pattern

Credit Management

Savings & Investment

Expenditure Patterns

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