Arjun Ghatowar, "an ex-labourer" of Dibru-Darrang T.E. Despite their indispensable role in tea production, their living and working conditions have been a concern for human rights indicators. However the people working in the Tea gardens live a life full of misery and sufferings. [1][2] They are the descendants of tribals and backward castes brought by the British colonial planters as indentured labourers from the regions of present-day Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh into colonial Assam during 1860-90s in multiple phases for the purpose of being employed in the tea gardens industry as labourers. The wages of tea garden labourers are revised every few years through agreements between the Consultative Committee of Plantation Associations (CCPA) and the Assam Chah Mazdoor Sangha (ACMS). Now some of the tribes have started to demand ST status separately in order to fulfill the Constitutional criteria designating "Scheduled Tribe". The Congress leaders through a telegram agreed to cooperate and in return British D.C. of Tezpur, Lainee arranged a tea party for the Congressmen for their help. Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on November 23, said the state and central governments are committed to uplifting the condition of tea garden workers and community in the state. Some of the Debarken Depots in the Brahmaputra were Tezpur, Silghat, Kokilamukh, Dibrugarh, etc. This has given rise to identity politics among these people and different political parties are banking on this issue to get votes for decades during elections. Some of the names of the participants are, Gajaram Kurmi, Pratap Gond, Shamburam Gond, Mohanchal Gond, Jagamohan Gond, Bidesh Kamar Lohar, Ansa Bhuyan, Radhu Munda, Gobin Tanti, Ramsai Turi, Bishnu Suku Majhi, Bongai Bauri, Durgi Bhumij, etc. An intervention which started in 2000 through the Education, Creche Development & Nutrition Programme, later expanded and diversified into a more structured intervention to promote health, nutrition, sanitation and child rights amongst the tea workers population. Other folk dances are Chhau dance, Sambalpuri Dalkhai dance, Santal, Kurukh dance of Oraon tribe and Kharia dance of Kharia tribe which are performed during different occasions. Another 2.5 million reside in the nearby villages spread across those tea growing regions. There are instances when tea-planters do not even supply the life-saving drugs when workers are dying out of epidemics.[13]. Under this act, employees were liable to prosecution, and even imprisonment for breach of contract. Many got about 24 hours notice. The men water the plants and spray pesticides. Total Number of Tea Gardens: – Tea business is a growing potential business in Assam. Thousands of those people recruited as labourers died of diseases during the journey to Assam, and hundreds who tried to flee were killed by the British authorities as the punishment of breaching their contracts. In Assam’s tea gardens, temporary workers are called ’faltu’. By paying very low wages the tea planters forced the whole of family members to work in the tea garden. Though the community remained oppressed primary as a Plantation labourers, they still had the anti-colonial anti-British attitude alive in their mindset. The tea cultivation of Assam is a century old practice. The Assam government on Friday announced four schemes for the tea industry, including a push for the production of ‘orthodox’ variety of leaves which is exported majorly. Golaghat: A 70-year-old woman sustained injuries after some people tortured her after branding her a “witch” at a tea garden in Assam’s Golaghat district, police said on Thursday. The labourers in a way have to live with the basic facilities provided by the tea planters. Children's wages remained the same. Another unique direction that the ABITA took was its partnership with UNICEF. From 1938 to 1947, 158,706 recruits came to Assam. After the journey, their life in the tea gardens was also pathetic. Wages in tea gardens of Barak Valley is even more meagre (₹115 per day). Thousands of people were made homeless in the clashes of 1996 and 1998. They are increasingly becoming the victims of a volatile social and political situation in Assam. the manager of a tea-garden in Upper Assam and Pranjol has invited Rajvir to visit his home . One is the address of the garden and another is the address of HEAD OFFICE. About 1200 to 1400 families comprising over 7000 persons were rendered homeless. DIBRUGARH: With barely three weeks left for the Durga Puja festivities, as many as 186 tea gardens have so far declared their quantum of puja bonus for plantation workers.Assam … Chanoo Kharia, who was the first to matriculate from amongst the community, condemned the local caste Assamese speaking Hindus to treat the tea workers as untouchable in a meeting in 1934. Congress leaders of Assam never tried to extend the course of the Indian Freedom Movement to the tea gardens instead in many cases they helped the planters to suppress the unrest or upsurge labourers of the tea gardens. The economy. [11], Since the majority of the community are still labourers, they live in labour lines built inside tea-estates and established by tea planters. The tea planters never encouraged education to garden labourers as it would prevent them from physical labor or may encourage protest against exploitation. Now, while the Indian government hasn’t sanctioned a separate time zone for Assam, the tea plantations of this region have been following a … Total Sub-division. Districts of North Lakhimpur, Darrang, Golaghat district, Charaideo district, Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council(KAAC) areas, Dhubri district, Barak Valley areas, Bodoland Territorial Council(BTC) areas, and North Cachar Hills Autonomous Council(NC Hills) areas of Assam also have a significant population of the community. They form nearly 11%[6] and 6.2%[7] of the total population in the Barak Valley region and BTR region respectively. From 1877 to 1929, 419,841 recruits entered Assam as indentured labourers, including 162,188 males, 119,582 females and 138,071 children. New Initiatives Undertaken. While in Assamese, the word means ‘useless’, they are anything but that. This entry was posted in assam tea and tagged assam tea gardens India, Assam Tea on June 20, 2017 by jayshree_admin. These conditions led to the spread of cholera among the labourers which led to the death of many among them in the journey. Entire villages in Lower Assam were emptied as people rushed to hearings that were often hundreds of kilometres away. Many lunatics were confined in the jail set up at Tezpur, in 1876, for insane people. “Modi who often refers himself as a ‘Chaiwala’ has failed to address the plight of tea workers. "Coolie" was a term used by Tea garden authorities to denote labourers, and is now considered to be a derogatory term by the community. [30] Most of the time both the communities live in harmony without any discrimination in the BTAD area with frequent intermarriage and other social relations. Many of the tea gardens insisted on a morning master of the labours. The Biggest Among All: – At present Monabari Tea Estate is known as the biggest tea garden of Assam. In November 2007, five individuals lost their lives and at least 250 injured when a rally in demand of Scheduled Tribe status by All Adivasi Students Association of Assam(AASAA) turned violent between the participants and locals in. In addition to emigrant labourers, tea planters also forced labourers to increase the birth rate, so that each garden could garner enough labour force. These estates are located in remote areas and this contributes to the backwardness and exploitation of them by the tea planters. The sun rises much earlier in the Northeastern states of India. Tea Garden labourers of the Brahmaputra Valley in Assam get ₹167 as daily wage, but including statutory and non-statutory benefits and other benefits, their daily wage is around ₹214 per day. As we know, Assam is considered as the world's largest tea growing region. Conclusion: Inclusion of tea gardens hospitals under PPP with NHM, Assam highlights the intention of the Govt. Their music is usually collectively performed for a variety of occasions like weddings, festivals, the arrival of seasons, ushering-in of new life, and harvests. They are heterogeneous, multi-ethnic which includes many tribal and caste groups. He worked there for … A tea garden union activist said the workers were forced to work for Rs 95 to Rs 110 per day whereas the minimum daily wage of an agricultural worker was Rs 240. [15] The sacrifice, toil and hard work of these labourers gave shape to the tea industry of Assam. The Tea Gardens of Assam were first established by the British colonial government, who realized that there is a lack of labor to employ in the field. Home List of Tea Garden at Assam. Halmari tea - 100 years of legacy. Pando, one of the three members of a panel set up by the Assam government to write an ethnographic report on the community, Among the 96 ethnic groups who are officially listed as 'Tea-tribes' in Assam, nearly 40 are recognised as "Tribals" or Scheduled Tribes(ST) in other parts of India while the "non-tribals" among the Tea-garden community distributed in 50 groups are categorized as Scheduled castes (SC) and Other Backward classes(OBC) in states outside Assam like Jharkhand and Odisha. They are demanding an increase in daily wages of tea garden workers of the state from the existing daily wage of ₹167 ($2.1) to ₹350 ($5). Music is an important component of the community. A splendid example of this kind was the incident of the Kacharigaon T.E in 1921 in Sonitpur. Next day we headed towards Cinnamara tea estate, one of the ancient tea garden in Assam.I heard that it will complete 175 years in 2018. Perhaps many people don’t know but… Yes, he was none other but Maniram Dewan. The ABITA has embarked on a partnership with National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) of the Government of India promoted and partnered by the Government of Assam. Therefore, Narayan Ghatowar, a prominent intellectual of the community advocated that Assamese be imparted in the schools only by "Sadri" knowing teachers. According to a report of 2013, there are 765 large and over 10,000 smaller tea gardens in Assam state. Assam Tea Gardens. They believe in a universal supreme God and worship him/her in different names like Marangburu, Mahadeo, and Singboga. Some of the freedom fighters who became martyrs are Christison Munda, Doyal Das Panika, Mongol Kurku, Tehlu Saora and Bankuru Saora. The Assam Tea Garden project is an initiative to improve the data collection process of the tea gardens which will in turn improve the quality of data and lives, through better monitoring and evaluation. But the dialect spoken in Assam is different from the tone spoken in the Chotanagpur region because the tone spoken in Assam is influenced by the Assamese language particularly in Upper Assam. “Very often the elephants would destroy fences, uproot trees, and terrorize the employees,” says Tenzing Bodosa, who operates two tea gardens in Assam with more than 70 workers. But with so many, a full list is a bit tricky. The tea industry is a crucial part of Indian economy. The residents of the estates have benefited from the PPP mode as was decided by the Govt. It also complements the flavors of a few spices like cardamom, ginger, and cinnamon. The Tea garden hospitals are required to send monthly reports on physical progress on key deliverables and financial achievements in a format prescribed, NHM, Assam. Facing the atrocities many tea garden labourers often become insane. It alleviated the scarcity of labourers on the plantation by recruiting from outside Assam through contracts. On 8 January 2019 central government led by Bharatiya Janata Party approved The Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order (Amendment) Bill 2019 in Cabinet to accord "Scheduled Tribe" status to at least 36 tribes of this community and tabled it in Parliament. Flogging was common practice in the tea gardens. Another example of Congressmen apathy towards the community can be cited here. But still several times they tried to protest against the atrocities of the planters and Estate managers. Dhols, Mandars, and Kartals are the traditional musical instruments used during the dance for music. Almost every major Hindu festival is celebrated by the community, with Christians celebrating Christian festivals. Assam tea is manufactured specifically from the plant Camellia sinensis var. No need to register, buy now! Healthcare facilities in the 800-odd tea estates across Assam has always remained a major issue, with labour unions, NGOs and other organisations continuously complaining of lack of doctors, nurses, medicine, ambulances and various kinds of equipments and other facilities. The situation remained the same up to 1900. Topping the charts in tea-garden tourism, the plantation is spread on the banks of Brahmaputra River. [19] As per the statistics shared by Assam Government, in 2012, there were 68,465 small tea gardens in the Brahmaputra Valley and 825 large tea gardens in … But most of these protests were ruthlessly suppressed. The community is rich in a variety of music and dances. Even after Indian independence, the amount spent on tea garden education in the first five-year plan was just 0.26 million (2.6 lakhs) .i.e. Initial effort of planting Chinese varieties in Assam soil did not succeed. The tea garden labourers never got any form of help or encouragement from Upper Caste Hindu dominated Indian National Congress leaders of Assam. [citation needed]. It was just meagre 6%. (6) As per SRS 2007-09 data, Assam is having the highest maternal mortality (380) of which tea garden community constitute the most. Out of 2,272 recruits, 250 died on the way to Assam. With many state governments now suspending critical labour laws to support industries, tea workers in Assam risk even further vulnerability if the state were to follow suit. Assam tea is a particular type of black tea that’s well known for its rich, malty flavor and many potential health benefits. Non-education, poverty, addiction of males to country-beer, poor standard of living, rising population and inadequate health facilities provided to them are the problems in their lives. It was onky by an Act of 1901 that wages increased to ₹5.5 for men, and ₹4.5 for women. They celebrate many festivals during different seasons. They are not a single ethnic group but consists of different ethnic group speaking dozens of languages and have different set of cultures. Assam: Tea garden workers stage protests against increase in working hours ACMS submits memorandum to Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal regarding the issue Tea garden workers, led by Assam Chah Mazdoor Sangha (ACMS) on Friday staged protests in the tea estates of Assam over changes of labour law increasing working hours from 8 hours to 12 hours.