Global Phenomenon Addressed: Tea Industry in Barak Valley vis-à-vis Assam and The Plight of The Tea workers

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Tea Industry in Barak Valley vis-à-vis Assam and The Plight of The Tea workers

Itroduction

The plight of the tea-workers of Assam especially of Barak Valley has drawn media attention following the report of the recent starvation death in Bhuvon Valley tea estate of Cachar District of Barak Valley (erstwhile Surma Valley in British India), and consequently various forces are agog with activism to gain a brownie point, but this is of course the positive result of sustained serious efforts from some quarters. The culmination of prevailing low wages, poor housing, acute malnutrition, lack of food security and healthcare facilities for the tea workers, and lack of avenues for social mobility, into the starvation-death is not unexpected and new episodic phenomenon for these workers whose relation with their employers resembles master-slave structure where the workers are de facto bonded labour in an enclave.