"Indian tea plantation workers strike to demand wage hike", 30 September 2020

Tens of thousands of tea plantation workers in Assam, northeast India, went on strike on Wednesday to demand higher pay, unions said amid plans to increase the daily wage from about $2.

Up to 400,000 workers went on a day-long strike in Assam - which accounts for over half of India's tea production - calling for daily pay of 350 rupees ($4.75), unions and activists said.

The strike follows recent protests including a human chain and bicycle rally amid growing unrest over wages - which range from 145 to 167 rupees in different parts of Assam - with a government state committee set up in 2018 to examine the issue.

India's tea industry, the second largest in the world after China's, employs 3.5 million workers, many of whom are subject to labour abuses and live in poverty on the estates where they work, studies by various activists and academics have revealed...

...The striking workers have also called for better health and education facilities for their families. Estate owners often justify low wages because of the benefits they are legally required to provide from housing to healthcare, tea experts say.

Yet research in Assam by Britain's Sheffield University in 2018 found that few of these facilities were in fact provided...