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| Thursday, 20 March 2003 |
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Indian tea workers struggle for survival as industry faces crisis by Zarir Hussain DOOMDOOMA, India (AFP) -Last year, seven-year-old Rabin Murmu was attending primary school. Today, he sits idly on a tea plantation here, breaking the boredom by occasionally singing for his two-year-old sister. Rabin, who lives at Doomdooma tea garden some 510 kilometers (320 miles) east of the Indian state of Assam's capital Guwahati, is one of scores of children forced to leave school as their parents wait to be paid their salaries. "We haven't been getting our wages for the past few months and now we don't even get to eat two meals a day," said Rabin's 30-year-old mother, Srutimala. "I can't afford to send my son to school anymore," she said. Hundreds of plantation workers across Assam are facing crises at the most personal level as the tea industry gasps for survival following a crash in prices. Reports abound of suicides and even starvation deaths by workers reduced to poverty. More than 100 small gardens have closed down, while the management in scores of other estates have been unable to pay wages. "The future of thousands of tea garden workers looks very bleak with the industry showing no signs of recovery," said Rameshwar Teli, a local legislator representing the tea garden workers' community. "The Assam government has totally failed to come to the aid of the workers." India is the world's largest tea producer with Assam accounting for about 55 percent of the total 840 million kilograms (2.25 billion pounds) produced each year. But prices have been dropping, something industry analysts blame on a worsening in the quality of Assam's tea. A kilogram of top quality Assam tea sells during weekly auctions at around 80 rupees (1.68 US dollars) - up to 20 rupees (42 cents) less than three years ago.The crisis in Assam's 4.2 million dollar a year tea industry has trickled down to the 1.5 million garden workers. A plantation employee typically earns no more than a dollar for an eight hour work day, but also receives cheap food and free health care subsidised by the plantations. Dhiraj Kakoty, secretary of the Indian Tea Association's Assam chapter, said the major gardens were still paying regular wages and providing social welfare projects - even though such programs can eat up to half of a plantation's earnings. The situation is different in the smaller and less structured of Assam's 800 tea gardens. Private planters such as B. Baruah say it is impossible to pay wages regularly with the low earnings. "I had to close down two of my smaller gardens, unable to bear the burden anymore," Baruah said. Given the situation, reports of unpaid or laid-off workers dying of starvation and suicide are increasing. |
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