"WB: Tea Workers Struggling as Crony Capitalists Take Over Tea Gardens", 5 November 2022

Tea workers in Bengal are fighting a losing battle against hunger as, one after another, Tea gardens are being overtaken by crony capitalists and microfinance institutions raking the moolah from Kolkata; these new managements often falter in paying the minimum wages to the tea workers of the Dooars region...

Prafulla Lakra, from the Jalpaiguri Sadar Tea Workers Union, is also the regional secretary of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU). Speaking to NewsClick, Lakra said that the region's tea workers are being exploited.

"The tea industry is suffering from absenteeism. In the Darjeeling district, where there is scope for 11 million kg of tea production, there is now production of 6.5 million kg of tea because most male workers have gone out of the state to work as migrant workers in other states. Women now comprise over 80% of the tea workers."

Lakra works as a voucher worker and a night guard in the Denguajhar tea estate. His wife, Silvasa Lakra, works full-time in the same tea estate. He highlighted that the tea garden management gives difficult tasks to the workers during the plucking season, adding that penalties are applied if workers miss the task.

"There are two types of leaves- Fut Patti (seasoned leaves) and Jangli Patti (unseasoned leaves). For Fut Patti, a worker needs to pluck about 26 kg; for Jangli Patti, one needs to pluck around 24 kg to complete the task. About 30% of the leaf pluckers miss the tasks, and a penalty in the form of a wage cut is thrust on them. Everywhere the new generation of tea workers is now disinterested in the profession and are now moving to other states to work as migrant labourers. However, the estate laws state that only those who work in the tea garden can stay in the tea garden area, but seldom are any family ousted from the tea garden area for not working in the tea gardens. Earlier, tea unions used to stand beside the tea workers in case of quarrels with the tea garden management, but in the last 11 years, things have changed with the weakening of tea unions. The ruling party's tea union colludes with the tea garden owners and does not support the tea garden employees in times of their need."

Lakra also alleged that the ownership change of tea gardens is happening in Kolkata, leaving the tea garden employees out of the process. Their dues are overlooked when new management takes charge of the tea gardens...

"According to the Tea Act 1953, a tea garden must remain open for the public interest, and a tea garden's closure is not allowed. But bypassing this clause, about five tea gardens in the Darjeeling terai and Dooars regions are now closed, including Roypur of Jalpaiguri, Panighata of Darjeeling district, Goalguch of north Dinajpur district and Dheklapara of Alipurduar district. In the last five months, workers have thwarted the attempt to grab the tea estate's land by crony capitals in various places of Darjeeling and Dooars. Tea society is in a very vulnerable position."...

CITU leader Pawan Pradhan of Mal area Tea Workers Union alleged that the tea workers movement is facing government and police wrath. There have been cases of arrest when CITU had forged a movement regarding the demand of getting land patta for the tea workers of the region.

"We have been residing here for ages on the tea estate lands, but we still do not have land pattas. The way the chief minister intervened amidst a fruitful wage bargaining process and forced the workers to accept a 15% interim wage increment is also unconstitutional. While Kerala, Karnataka and Tamilnadu get upwardly of Rs 400/day, why are the tea workers paid at the rate of Rs 232/day in West Bengal? With that, they have to maintain their household daily, which is very difficult. The argument that increasing the wage makes the gardens unviable does not hold as gardens in Kerala, Tamilnadu, and Karnataka have shown."

He also alleged that tea garden owners of several tea gardens had not paid the PF dues to the PF commissioner.

Raja Dutta, Area secretary of the Malbazaar area committee of CPI(M), said that before 2011 during the time of the Durga puja and Diwali, there were regular bonuses to tea garden workers. The business houses of these land ports bore a festive look as there was a large-scale sale of items from these land ports. But now, this festivity is absent, and there is a minimum bonus. As a result, the scope of work in these land ports is also decreasing, and trade and commerce from these areas are shifting their base.