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Even as seven tea gardens in the north Bengal hills remain closed, labour demographics in the estates producing the globally famous Darjeeling tea have begun to rapidly change with local workers migrating to other areas and states and those from Nepal and Bhutan rushing in to fill the vacuum. "On an average, every year at least 25 percent of the tea garden workers, along with their families are quitting in search of an alternate livelihood and migrating to nearby areas and states. They are also shifting over to other industries in Gujarat and elsewhere," Ziaur Alam, a leader of the Left-backed CITU, told IANS. He said the migration from "good, labourer-friendly gardens" is about 15 percent and for others, it ranges between 20 and 25 percent. Alam, who has been extensively interacting with tea estate workers, said the migrations are primarily happening as tea workers are facing numerous problems, right from low wages to poor living conditions and lack of other benefits. The plantation workers have been living in north Bengal for generations, tracing their lineage to their forefathers the British brought from what is now Jharkhand, Odisha, and Chhattisgarh as also Nepal. The Assamese and local populations were then reluctant to join the plantations. While politicians, trade unions and the (owner-driven) Indian Tea Association acknowledge the migration, quantifying it remains a challenge. West Bengal lawmaker and Congress leader Sankar Malakar, who is also a member of the (central government-run) Tea Board of India's labour welfare committee, said there is no alternative for the workers but to seek other means of survival when faced with the conditions in the tea gardens. "Workers leave the tea estates not only for better job opportunities. There are other reasons as well. What can they do if they don't get the benefits as promised by the plantation owners?" Malakar asked while speaking to IANS. Alok Chakraborty, leader of the Trinamool Congress-backed Trinamool Tea Plantation Workers' Union, said "The need of the hour is to increase the strength of permanent workers and address problems with workers' housing and health. There has to be at least one hospital every eight to ten km."
Keywords
Bengal, tea estate, plantation, migrant labour, tea garden
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