Struggles of Tea Garden Workers in Assam

Struggles of tea garden workers in Assam


Sipped with lime and honey in expensive china by manor dwellers and savoured in tiny chipped glasses with milk and sugar by commuters in Indian railway stations, Assam tea is a household name for most lovers of the brew. However the story behind the cultivation, plucking and processing of tea leaves in the plantations is one of exploitation and untold hardships for the toiling workers who are the singular reason that this industry is one of the pillars of the Assam economy, and in making the entire Northeast Indian region the largest tea-growing region in the world. Assam alone produces more than 50% of India's total tea, and the Assam economy is deeply reliant on tea-exports of around 150,000 tonnes yearly, both within India and internationally, fetching over Rs. 400 crores in foreign exchange every year and resulting in an industry turnover of over Rs. 3000 crore per annum.


Across the many plantations in Assam, most of which are situated in the upper parts of the state, the condition of the tea garden workers is nothing short of abysmal. Adivasis brought in as indentured slave-labour from Central India by the British form the vast majority of the workers, with the rest consisting of other local tribal communities, as well as Nepalis, Bengalis, Oriyas and so on. During the initial decades from the 1850s till the 1920s under the British, the working conditions were akin to harsh slavery, with flogging, rape, torture and even the throwing of dead workers in rivers. While certainly not comparable to earlier times, the working conditions today are still far from being the well-regulated environment that functions according to the Plantation Labour Act brought out in 1951 to protect the interests of workers in plantations, who form the single largest organised sector workforce in Assam and the entire Northeast region numbering anywhere between 8 to 10 lakhs depending on the season.


The North Eastern Social Research Centre based in Guwahati conducted a comprehensive study in 2004 across 172 tea gardens in Assam along with numerous interviews and group discussions with workers and families. The study brought to light numerous violations of the Act, including inadequate or completely non-existent provisions for drinking water, crèches, schools, proper health facilities, sanitation for women workers and shelter. Even a cursory observation of the plantations today confirms these findings. Upon further investigation and discussions with workers, one learns that wages paid are much lower than prescribed minimum wage rates, no over-time payment is made, and occasional physical abuse occurs.


Babloo, Signus and Ranjit (last names withheld upon request), all workers in Mornia Tea Estate in Lower Assam, complained that they had to drink bitter-tasting, hard water from pre-existing wells, when in fact they're supposed to receive drinking water either through taps or tankers from a public water source. Late wage payments were another huge problem, with some workers receiving their wages as late as 3 to 4 months after the due date. Garden workers received around Rs. 1400 per month on paper, but portions were cut from that for shelter repair (which hadn't been conducted in over 10 years), canteen facilities (non-existent), and educational facilities (again non-existent). This translated to a real wage of about Rs. 45 per day, far lesser than the prescribed daily minimum wage of around Rs. 54. They further said that Provident Fund had been cut on a monthly basis from their salaries, yet since 2000 no retired worker had received gratuity from PF. When asked about this, management simply shifted the blame to their predecessors. The school was in a decrepit condition and the only education the children received, when they weren't working, was from the local church.


Further up north in Nagaon, this author was privileged to attend a few wide-ranging discussions with workers in various tea gardens in the area (whose identities have been protected due to their worker-mobilising activities) as well as with Arup Mahanto, a rural workers movement leader. All the workers said that the little benefits they did receive in earlier times were rapidly getting eroded over the years. This included rations, free medicines at the hospital in Kandoli Tea Estate (which has now been downgraded to a dispensary), money for firewood at Sagubhai Gardens and many others, all of which have disappeared with further and further deregulation measures in favour of capital in the post-liberalisation era. Mahanto further pointed to the nexus between management, police and corrupt union leaders as one of the crucial reasons for the deteriorating situation. Indeed, 4 of the 5 workers interviewed had been suspended and dismissed due to their attempts at mobilising workers, and all 4 now try to eke out livelihoods by working in the even more exploitative stone-quarry industry or selling firewood, while trying to fight a legal battle to get reinstated.


Women, who are the backbone of the tea industry and the large majority of the workforce, face even harsher working conditions. In all the tea estates visited, one couldn't spot a single crèche for infants and toddlers. Sanitation facilities were either inadequate or completely non-existent. And while nothing explicitly was mentioned, there have been many instances of verbal, physical and even sexual abuse. Women are in fact preferred as labour because most managers feel that they are particularly suited for garden work and easier to exploit. Thus, while women labourers for the most part get the same as their male counterparts, not a single woman can be spotted in the plantation factories where the wages for workers are marginally higher than their garden counterparts.


It must also be added that tea garden workers are caught between the proverbial rock and hard place, and forced to accept increasing labour exploitation due to harsh material conditions and lack of choice. Some who have access to cultivable land tend to be better off and more self-sufficient, at times working in the gardens only for short durations of time out of temporary necessity. Those possessing no or uncultivable land, and who leave the gardens, often end up as informal labour in nearby towns and cities. Education levels, health indicators and poverty levels for the workers are among the lowest in Assam. Many families find it difficult to get their children into educational institutions and later on in finding proper employment. Thus the oppressive environment of the tea garden is often the only recourse for many of these families.


An examination of the reasons for this harsh predicament of tea garden labourers is particularly warranted. Discussions with progressive labour activists, tea garden workers and even upstanding labour department officials reveal three crucial factors contributing to this situation.


One is the present neoliberal environment grossly favouring capital and business. It is amply evident that post-liberalisation, labour has taken a real beating with the state often kowtowing to capital's demands for further deregulation. Now, while most of the legislation protecting labour is still intact, the present neoliberal environment has resulted in the state wantonly neglecting the various labour protection acts and even coming up with schemes like Special Economic Zones to bypass labour regulation as a result of genuflecting to private capital. Even the various levels of the judiciary, where prior to liberalisation would see more pro-labour verdicts, have become far more pro-business.


Furthermore the tea industry has been passing through a crisis with the free import of low priced tea and reduced exports being among its main reasons. This has again affected labour in a harsh manner, with managers increasingly using contract labour, thus reducing benefits, in order to ensure continued profits. Even progressive steps taken by state governments like the recent proposal by the Tamil Nadu Government to increase the minimum daily wage to Rs. 101.5 was met with derision and vigorous protests by plantations owners associations like the United Planters Association of Southern India. Plantation owners across India have refused to accept responsibility for social costs citing the crisis in the tea industry while labourers are almost fully dependent on the plantation system for their sustenance due to lack of viable, alternate livelihoods.


A senior labour department official in Assam, who has witnessed numerous violations of the Plantation Labour Act in the tea gardens he has inspected (and who would like to remain anonymous until his retirement) believes that one of the main reasons owners feel emboldened to neglect labour welfare as per law is that even if prosecuted a case can drag on for years in courts, hardly easy for the working poor to deal with. And in the off chance that a verdict favouring labour is given, the punishment meted out for violations of the act is far too mild, usually a nominal fine that is hardly a financial hit for the owner of a tea plantation.


In addition, due to this free hand being given to private capital by the state, many senior union leaders also point to a dangerous trend developing over the last few years in conflict-ridden states like Assam. Often large private companies demand further deregulation or cheaper land prices citing the supposed violent scenario in the region as a cause for making the place more attractive for private investment. Threats are then carried out of taking investment elsewhere or pulling out existing investment which gets the state governments to meekly capitulate, wilfully overlooking harsh labour violations.


The second contributing factor playing out in the oppressive conditions of the tea garden workers follows very closely on the heels of the present neoliberal environment, which is the developing corrupt nexus between tea garden owners and state officials. The same labour department official mentioned numerous cases of high ranking bureaucrats, including former Assistant Labour Commissioners, as well as many judges completely in the pockets of the tea garden owners. He said that some of the maximum corruption occurs with respect to the Workman's Compensation Act that guarantees compensation for workers in case of injury or death. The tea garden owner, in what is nothing short of cold criminality, just figures out that it's cheaper to bribe both, the labour department official and the judge rather than pay the worker his due compensation. And in case there are honest men at the bureaucracy or judiciary, like the labour official I interviewed, then there is always the fallback option for the business owners of going to the biggest bastion of corruption to solve their problems and that's the political bigwigs whose campaigns are funded by these very big businesses.


The third and possibly most changeable factor contributing to the exploitation of tea garden workers is the corruption and complete pro-management functioning of the Assam Cha Mazdoor Sangh (ACMS) affiliated to the Congress-backed INTUC federation. ACMS has a complete hegemony over the labour scenario in the tea gardens of Assam, and essentially run as the on-the-ground labour controlling wing of the garden owners.


Indeed the ACMS units I met across Assam seemed anything but aware or concerned about labour rights. In the Mornai Tea Estate, the president and general secretary of the local union didn't even know about the Plantation Labour Act 1951, which covers the very workers they represent! While in Kandoli Tea Estate, the ACMS unit was instrumental in teaming up with managers as well as the police and orchestrating the dismissal of numerous workers who were struggling to get compensation for the family of one of their dead fellow-workers in addition to fighting for better medical benefits.


However a small ray of hope can be found in some fledgling attempts at more progressive labour organising. In direct contrast to the ACMS is the much smaller and infinitely more valiant Assam Sangrami Cha Shramik Sangh (ASCSS) which has led numerous struggles and won some important victories in the few tea gardens that it has a base in. And while one didn't see a single woman in any of the meetings with ACMS unions, all the ASCSS meetings had at least a third of the participants being women. In addition, all of the ASCSS unit leaders had a good understanding of labour rights as well as the need to tackle issues of self-exploitation among workers such as patriarchy, alcoholism, and sectarianism.


Subhash Sen, veteran trade union leader in Assam and leader of the ASCSS pointed to numerous occasions when ACMS had been instrumental in sabotaging struggles to gain greater benefits for workers, and also indicated the longstanding tie-up between ACMS and tea garden owners in ensuring that more progressive and militant unions were prevented from fighting for workers rights. He pointed out to a particular event that showcased the abominable lack of concern that ACMS leaders had regarding workers. It was under the tenure of former Deputy Health Minister, Pawan Singh Gatwar, a former Vice President of INTUC and leader of ACMS, that hundreds of tea garden workers died of gastroenteritis and malaria, with nothing being done by the ministry. Sen further outlined the need and plans of the ASCSS in trying to break this hegemony of the ACMS and build a genuinely progressive movement that yields positive results for workers in the long-run.

Progressive groups like the ASCSS have a long way to go in this endeavour, as Sen himself pointed out that their membership of 50,000 was a mere drop in the ocean of tea garden workers, compared to the ACMS membership of around 7 lakhs. However launching a struggle in the tea gardens of Assam that can break the state-owner nexus as well as the hegemony of a corrupt, derelict union is no easy task. The courageous militancy shown by the members and leaders of the ASCSS in many struggles is a step forward, one of many that needs to be taken, but a hopeful sign nevertheless