Ss17-01 Migrant Workers in the Tea Plantation Sector

Abstract Introduction The Indian tea industry being almost 172 years old, occupies a significant and distinct position in the Indian economy. The majority of tea plantations in India are located in rural hills and backward regions of the Northern, Eastern and Southern states. With more than 13,000 gardens and over two million workers, the Indian tea industry is one of the largest in the world. The majority of the labour force in tea plantation are migrants and their descendants. Materials and Methods A secondary literature review was combined with personal conversations with workers and managers of tea estates from tea plantation states of India - Assam, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu. Results The colonial British, heavily influenced by the experiences of cotton plantations in North America and the sugar plantations of British Guyana and the Caribbean Islands, continued to employ migrant labour in tea plantations of Assam and the plains of Darjeeling. They were mainly from the tribal belt of Chotanagpur and Santhal Pargana regions of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa belonging to scheduled castes, tribes and ethnic minorities. In Darjeeling hills, almost the entire labour force are descendants of migrants from Nepal. There were consistent poor living and working conditions, lowest wages, malnutrition, minimal health services and legal coverage, increasing number of accidents and natural disasters and closure of many tea plantations pushing these workers to the edge of survival. Conclusions Depleted conditions of migrant tea plantation workers need further research with focus on improving their living and working conditions, especially of the women labourers.