"Addressing the Human Cost of Assam Tea: An agenda for change to respect, protect and fulfill human rights on Assam tea plantations", 10 October 2019

Workers on tea plantations in the Assam region of India are systematically denied their rights to a living wage and decent working and living conditions...[This] is starkly illustrated by...[the] finding that 50% of the households that researchers visited on behalf of Oxfam owned ‘below poverty line’ ration cards issued by the Government of Assam...

...Tea workers also struggle to get timely and good quality healthcare, access clean drinking water, and provide their children with a decent education.Women bear the heaviest burden...as they are concentrated in the lowest paid plucking roles and also shoulder most of the unpaid domestic care work.

Oxfam’s new research shows that the solutions lie in a fairer sharing of the end consumer price of tea, stronger gender policies and a review of plantation labour laws to ensure that women and men in Assam can lead dignified lives.