Alisha Rahaman Sarkar By

Online Desk

On international tea day, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee claimed that her government had allocated more than Rs 1000 crore for the welfare of tea garden workers since coming to power in 2011. Though she didn’t share the division, this amounts to roughly Rs 142 crores in welfare handouts per year.

But the reality in the tea gardens of the state remains grim.

The tea industry is the second largest employer in India. In its ranks are 3.5 lakh workers from North Bengal. Crippled by starvation, unemployment, low wages, inadequate medical facility and to top it off corruption, the lives of plantation workers here has turned into a brewing cup of misery.

The picturesque tea gardens in the Dooars region of Bengal spread over Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar districts account for 330 registered big tea gardens where 186559 families reside.

The tea business that witnessed a boom in the mid-1990s is now facing an existential crisis. As per Tea Board data, the number of tea plantations in north India, including in Bengal and the seven northeastern states, had scaled up from 3141 in 1994 to 36836 in 1999. In the Dooars alone, this number went up from 168 to 532 during this period.

But the cost of running many of these major plantations shot up and an increasing number of them were shut down over the past decade. This led to many second-generation workers losing their jobs. Uneducated and in search of a living, many turned to breaking stones to make money.

Out of the 32 defunct tea gardens across the Dooars, the condition of Nirpania tea garden in Alipurduar is reportedly the worst. Madhu, Bandapani, Dheklapara, Lankapara and Dimdima tea estates have also been shut down for years. With no immediate chance of re-opening, the workers are staring at a bleak future. Taking advantage of their destitution, local contractors, who operate within the closed tea estates, have started exploiting the workers by paying salaries as low as Rs 70 a day.

In August this year, thousands of workers finally decided enough was enough and under the banner of ‘Joint Forum of Trade Unions’ went on strike demanding a hike in their minimum wages.

Currently, the prevailing daily wage is Rs 159, whereas the prescribed minimum wages for unskilled agricultural workers in West Bengal is fixed at Rs 244 while the MGNREGA wage is Rs 191 per day.

Following a persistent protest, the state labour department on August 29 announced a hike in the minimum wage but the new amount is still unknown. Neighbouring Assam has already proposed a composite daily wage of Rs 351.33 and sought the opinion of tea planters so that it can be finalised.

Seeking to get a similar deal in West Bengal, tea plantation workers under the banner of 'Joint Forum of Trader’s Union' have called for a nationwide strike on January 8 and 9 to voice their demands.

“Neither the Centre nor the state government is paying heeds to our demands. (The ruling) TMC alleges that the CPI(M) failed to do anything for us, but the present government is also not doing anything. The government is blatantly lying. We don’t get ration under Centre’s flagship programme ‘National rural health mission’, which we used to get few months back,” rued Mani Darnal, INTUC leader and general secretary of National Union of plantation workers.

He says the beautiful landscapes of the hills have been guarding the secret of the state government well. Although Mamata Banerjee has been lauded for her Khadya Sathi (Food Partner) scheme (under which rice is sold at Rs 2 per kg), the starvation deaths in the hills highlight a different reality altogether.

Between 2014 and 2015, over 150 starvation deaths were reported in the Dooars and despite the Tea Association refusing to comment on the subject, stray incidents of deaths often pop up from the Bengal hamlets.

Ms Banerjee rubbished the reports of deaths and said, her “government ensures supply of foodgrains to every single individual and there is not a single person in the state who does not get food”. However, contrary to her claims, post demonetisation in 2016, workers in the tea gardens of Darjeeling have on many occasions been left to consume tea leaves in order to appease their hunger. Darjeeling, it must be underlined, alone has 38 registered tea gardens.

Not only nutrition, but the tea workers are also deprived of basic amenities such as toilets and access to clean water. Under the Plantation Labour Act of 195, the workers are entitled to basic shelter. However, most of those working in gardens are homeless, shelterless or living on leased lands.

“Whatever development CM Banerjee has been talking about must have been on paper because, in reality, we don’t see anything. Foreign export has tanked and the market rates have fallen drastically. Nobody wants to invest in this business. Only the two Tata and Godrej estates are making profit. There are no proper health or educational institutions,” says Raju Nepali, social activist.

A sliver of good news is the drop in child trafficking once rampant in the secluded parts of the Dooars. This has fallen since the introduction of state government’s flagship programme “Kanyashree”, Raju added. Under the scheme, underprivileged school going girls are given a cycle to cut down their travel time.