After China, it is India that exports tea leaves the most to the world. 18% of the tea leaves grown in India are sent abroad.
Zee News Editor-in-Chief Sudhir Chaudhary and reporter Vishal Pandey brought before us the ground report from the tea gardens of Bengal. Tea has always been an essential part of India's culture, wherein tea is offered to any guest who comes home for a visit.
But, Zee News brings before you the actual plight of the tea garden workers, who are the real farmers and because of whom we are able to have tea everyday. Our reporter spoke to some of the workers who say the condition of the tea gardens are deteorating everyday. They are not getting paid. Tea estates are shut for quite some time now. There is no money to even buy food.
After China, it is India that exports tea leaves the most to the world. 18% of the tea leaves grown in India are sent abroad. The Indian tea industry earned Rs 3,955 crore from foreign exports in the year 2017-18 and Rs 4,321 crore in the year 2018-19.
According to the data of 2018, the domestic and foreign trade of the Indian tea industry was more than Rs 40 thousand crores.
But if we speak on the daily wages that these workers get, is sometimes even less than the rate of a cup of prepared tea sold at eating joints.
There are one thousand 585 large tea plantations in India. They are mostly in Bengal, Assam and Tamil Nadu. These big tea plantations account for 52% of the total tea trade, while 48% is owned by ordinary farmers.
Currently, tea estates are the third highest employment sector in the country after Indian Railways and the Indian Army. The tea industry employs 1.5 million people directly and 45 lakh people indirectly.
In West Bengal itself, 3 lakh 37 thousand 316 farmer labourers and other workers work in the tea industry. Despite all this, there is no improvement in the condition of the tea garden workers, nor is anyone thinking about them.
According to a tea estate worker, there are around 200 tea estates. Many are closed. The situation is very bad. Family of 3 and a half to 4 lakh labourers runs from income from these tea gardens. The plantation labourers are the least paid. Previously the facilities that were given is also not given now. Gradually it is decreasing.
The basic issue for the labourers is that if these tea estates shutdown then they will have nothing to even eat and drink. The government rate for tea plantation workers is Rs165 wages daily. But they get Rs 600 per week. West Bengal government is doing nothing for them.
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 "Plight of tea plantation workers")
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