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“What can you do with 200 rupees today?” asks Joshula Gurung, a tea picker at the CD Block Ging tea estate in Pulbazar, Darjeeling, who earns Rs 232 a day. She said a one-way fare in a shared car is 400 rupees to Siliguri, 60 kilometers from Darjeeling, and the nearest major city where workers are treated for serious illnesses.
This is the reality of the tens of thousands of workers on the tea plantations of North Bengal, of whom over 50 per cent are women. Our reporting in Darjeeling showed that they were paid meager wages, were bound by the colonial labor system, had no land rights, and had limited access to government programs.
“The harsh working conditions and inhuman living conditions of the tea workers are reminiscent of the indentured labor imposed by British plantation owners in colonial times,” said a 2022 Parliamentary standing committee report.
The workers are trying to improve their lives, they say, and experts agree. Most workers train their children and send them to work on the plantations. We found that they were also fighting for higher minimum wages and land ownership for their ancestral home.
But their already precarious lives are at greater risk due to the state of the Darjeeling tea industry due to climate change, competition from cheap tea, the global market recession and falling production and demand that we describe in these two articles. The first article is part of a series. The second and final part will be devoted to the situation of tea plantation workers.
Since the enactment of the Land Reform Law in 1955, the tea plantation land in North Bengal has no title but is leased. State government.
For generations, tea workers have built their homes on free land on plantations in the Darjeeling, Duars and Terai regions.
Although there are no official figures from the Tea Board of India, according to a 2013 West Bengal Labor Council report, the population of the large tea plantations of Darjeeling Hills, Terai and Durs was 11,24,907, of which 2,62,426 were. were permanent residents and even over 70,000+ temporary and contract workers.
As a relic of the colonial past, the owners made it mandatory for the families living on the estate to send at least one member to work in the tea garden or they would lose their home. The workers have no title to the land, hence there is no title deed called parja-patta.
According to a study titled “Labor Exploitation in the Tea Plantations of Darjeeling” published in 2021, since permanent employment in the tea plantations of North Bengal can only be obtained through kinship, a free and open labor market has never been possible, leading to the internationalization of slave labor. Journal of Legal Management and Humanities. ”
Pickers are currently paid Rs 232 per day. After deducting the money going into the workers’ savings fund, the workers receive about 200 rupees, which they say is not enough to live on and not commensurate with the work they do.
According to Mohan Chirimar, Managing Director of Singtom Tea Estate, the absenteeism rate for tea workers in North Bengal is over 40%. “Almost half of our garden workers no longer go to work.”
“A meager amount of eight hours of intensive and skilled labor is the reason why the workforce of tea plantations is shrinking every day,” said Sumendra Tamang, a tea worker rights activist in North Bengal. “It’s very common for people to skip work in the tea plantations and work at MGNREGA [the government's rural employment program] or anywhere else where wages are higher.”
Joshila Gurung of the Ging tea plantation in Darjeeling and her colleagues Sunita Biki and Chandramati Tamang said their main demand was an increase in the minimum wage for tea plantations.
According to the latest circular issued by the Labor Commissioner’s Office of the Government of West Bengal, the minimum daily wage for unskilled agricultural workers should be Rs 284 without meals and Rs 264 with meals.
However, the wages of tea workers are determined by a tripartite assembly attended by representatives of tea-owners’ associations, unions and government officials. The unions wanted to set a new daily wage of Rs 240, but in June the West Bengal government announced it at Rs 232.
Rakesh Sarki, director of pickers at Happy Valley, Darjeeling’s second-oldest tea plantation, also complains about irregular wage payments. “We haven’t even been paid regularly since 2017. They give us a lump sum every two or three months. Sometimes there are longer delays, and it’s the same with every tea plantation on the hill.”
“Given the constant inflation and the general economic situation in India, it is unimaginable how a tea worker can support himself and his family on Rs 200 a day,” said Dawa Sherpa, a doctoral student at the Center for Economic Research. Research and planning in India. Jawaharlal Nehru University, originally from Kursong. “Darjeeling and Assam have the lowest wages for tea workers. In a tea plantation in neighboring Sikkim, workers earn about Rs 500 a day. In Kerala, daily wages exceed Rs 400, even in Tamil Nadu, and only about Rs 350.”
A 2022 report from the Standing Parliamentary Committee called for the implementation of minimum wage laws for tea plantation workers, stating that daily wages in Darjeeling’s tea plantations were “one of the lowest wages for any industrial worker in the country”.
Wages are low and insecure, which is why thousands of workers like Rakesh and Joshira discourage their children from working on the tea plantations. “We are working hard to educate our children. It’s not the best education, but at least they can read and write. Why do they have to break their bones for a low-paying job on a tea plantation,” said Joshira, whose son is a cook in Bangalore. She believes tea workers have been exploited for generations because of their illiteracy. “Our children must break the chain.”
In addition to wages, tea garden workers are entitled to reserve funds, pensions, housing, free medical care, free education for their children, nurseries for female workers, fuel, and protective equipment such as aprons, umbrellas, raincoats, and high boots. According to this leading report, the total salary of these employees is about Rs 350 per day. Employers are also required to pay annual festival bonuses for Durga Puja.
Darjeeling Organic Tea Estates Private Limited, the former owner of at least 10 estates in North Bengal, including Happy Valley, sold its gardens in September, leaving more than 6,500 workers without wages, reserve funds, tips and puja bonuses.
In October, Darjeeling Organic Tea Plantation Sdn Bhd finally sold six of its 10 tea plantations. “The new owners haven’t paid all of our dues. Salaries still haven’t been paid and only the Pujo bonus has been paid,” Happy Valley’s Sarkey said in November.
Sobhadebi Tamang said that the current situation is similar to Peshok Tea Garden under new owner Silicon Agriculture Tea Company. “My mother has retired, but her CPF and tips are still outstanding. The new management has committed to paying all of our dues in three installments by July 31 [2023].”
Her boss, Pesang Norbu Tamang, said the new owners had not yet settled in and would soon pay their dues, adding that Pujo’s premium had been paid on time. Sobhadebi’s colleague Sushila Rai was quick to respond. “They didn’t even pay us properly.”
“Our daily wage was Rs 202, but the government raised it to Rs 232. Although the owners were informed of the increase in June, we are eligible for the new wages from January,” she said. “The owner hasn’t paid yet.”
According to a 2021 study published in the International Journal of Legal Management and the Humanities, tea plantation managers often weaponize the pain caused by tea plantation closures, threatening workers when they demand an expected wage or raise. “This threat of closure puts the situation squarely in the management’s favor and the workers just have to abide by it.”
“Teamakers have never received real reserve funds and tips… even when they [the owners] are forced to do so, they are always paid less than the workers earned during their time in slavery,” activist Tamang said.
Workers’ ownership of land is a contentious issue between tea plantation owners and workers. The owners say people keep their homes on the tea plantations even if they don’t work on the plantations, while the workers say they should be given land rights because their families have always lived on the land.
Chirimar of Singtom Tea Estate said that more than 40 percent of the people at Singtom Tea Estate no longer garden. “People go to Singapore and Dubai for work, and their families here enjoy free housing benefits…Now the government must take drastic measures to ensure that every family in the tea plantation sends at least one member to work in the garden. Go and work, we have no problem with that.”
Unionist Sunil Rai, joint secretary of the Terai Dooars Chia Kaman Mazdoor union in Darjeeling, said the tea estates are issuing “no objection certificates” to workers that allow them to build their homes on the tea estates. “Why did they leave the house they built?”
Rai, who is also a spokesman for the United Forum (Hills), a trade union of several political parties in the Darjeeling and Kalimpong regions, said workers have no rights to the land on which their houses stand and their rights to parja-patta (long-term demand for documents confirming the ownership of land) was ignored.
Because they do not have title deeds or leases, workers cannot register their property with insurance plans.
Manju Rai, a assembler at the Tukvar tea estate in the CD Pulbazar quarter of Darjeeling, has not received compensation for her home, which was badly damaged by a landslide. “The house I built collapsed [as a result of a landslide last year],” she said, adding that bamboo sticks, old jute bags and a tarp saved her house from complete destruction. “I don’t have money to build another house. Both of my sons work in transport. Even their income is not enough. Any help from the company would be great.”
A Parliamentary Standing Committee report stated that the system “clearly undermines the success of the country’s land reform movement by preventing tea workers from enjoying their basic land rights despite seven years of independence.”
Rai says demand for parja patta has been on the rise since 2013. He said that while elected officials and politicians have so far let the tea workers down, they should at least talk about the tea workers for now, noting that Darjeeling MP Raju Bista has introduced a law to provide parja patta for tea workers.” . Times are changing, albeit slowly.”
Dibyendu Bhattacharya, joint secretary of the West Bengal Ministry of Land and Agrarian Reform and Refugees, Relief and Rehabilitation, which handles land issues in Darjeeling under the same office of the ministry secretary, declined to speak on the matter. Repeated calls were: “I’m not authorized to speak to the media.”
At the request of the secretariat, an email was also sent to the secretary with a detailed questionnaire asking why tea workers were not granted land rights. We’ll update the story when she replies.
Rajeshvi Pradhan, an author from Rajiv Gandhi National Law University, wrote in a 2021 paper on exploitation: “The absence of a labor market and the absence of any land rights for workers not only ensures cheap labor but also forced laborers. The workforce of the Darjeeling tea plantation. “The lack of employment opportunities near the estates, combined with the fear of losing their homesteads, exacerbated their enslavement.”
Experts say the root cause of the tea workers’ plight lies in poor or weak enforcement of the 1951 Plantation Labor Act. All tea plantations registered by the Tea Board of India in Darjeeling, Terai and Duars are subject to the Act. Consequently, all permanent workers and families in these gardens are also entitled to benefits under the law.
Under the Plantation Labor Act, 1956, the Government of West Bengal enacted the West Bengal Plantation Labor Act, 1956 to enact the Central Act. However, Sherpas and Tamang say that nearly all of North Bengal’s 449 large estates can easily defy central and state regulations.
The Plantation Labor Act states that “every employer is responsible for providing and maintaining adequate housing for all workers and members of their families residing on a plantation.” The tea plantation owners said the free land they provided over 100 years ago is their housing stock for workers and their families.
On the other hand, more than 150 small-scale tea farmers don’t even care about the Plantation Labor Act of 1951 because they work on less than 5 hectares without its regulation, Sherpa said.
Manju, whose homes were damaged by landslides, is entitled to compensation under the Plantation Labor Act of 1951. “She filed two applications, but the owner did not pay any attention to it. This can easily be avoided if our land gets parja patta,” said Ram Subba, director of Tukvar Tea Estate Manju, and other pickers.
The Standing Parliamentary Committee noted that “the Dummies fought for their rights to their land, not only to live, but even to bury their dead family members.” The committee proposes legislation that “recognizes the rights and titles of small and marginalized tea workers to the lands and resources of their ancestors.”
The Plant Protection Act 2018 issued by the Tea Board of India recommends that workers be provided with head protection, boots, gloves, aprons and overalls to protect against pesticides and other chemicals sprayed in the fields.
Workers complain about the quality and usability of new equipment as it wears out or breaks down over time. “We didn’t get goggles when we should have. Even aprons, gloves and shoes, we had to fight, constantly remind the boss, and then the manager always delayed approval,” said Gurung from Jin Tea Plantation. “He [the manager] acted like he was paying for our equipment out of his own pocket. But if one day we missed work because we didn’t have gloves or anything, he wouldn’t miss deducting our pay.” .
Joshila said the gloves did not protect her hands from the poisonous smell of the pesticides she sprayed on the tea leaves. “Our food smells just like the days we spray chemicals.” don’t use it anymore. Don’t worry, we’re plowmen. We can eat and digest anything.”
A 2022 BEHANBOX report found that women working on tea plantations in North Bengal were exposed to toxic pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers without proper protective equipment, causing skin problems, blurred vision, respiratory and digestive ailments.