The exploitative tale behind your morning brew

Bikram Tanti worked as a tea leaf plucker in Dheklapara tea estate in the Alipurduar district of West Bengal till a few months ago. He earned a paltry Rs 100 per day for working nearly 7 hours. 

After a serious injury while collecting firewood in the forest, he has not been able to work. 

Without an income he is unable to feed his four young children properly or undergo the surgery that doctors prescribed. His wife, Chandmani, who earns Rs 125 per day breaking stones, rues that his condition is getting worse.

Unable to pay the house rent, the family has shifted to a room in an abandoned hospital of another Dheklapara estate that had been shut down.

“It’s an irony that I live in a hospital but I can’t get treatment,” he said, trying to force a smile. 

The dilapidated hospital where Tanti lives epitomizes the woeful health services in the tea estates of North Bengal.

The tale behind the brew

There are 346 tea gardens in North Bengal, commonly known as the Doars region. It is famous for its premium crush, tear and curl (CTC) tea that caters mostly to the domestic market.  

The tea estates employ over 3 lakh labourers. They work as tea leaf pluckers and pruners, as well as workers in the processing factories.  

These pluckers are shown smiling in corporate companies’ advertisements, along with Bollywood celebrities endorsing their brand. 

But beneath the clever marketing lies the reality of the tea garden workers’ harrowing lives. 

Companies close but tea estates run illegally

In the past two decades, 11 gardens in the region have shut down their operations, citing internal and trade union problems as well as profit losses. 

The closure of these companies, mainly in Dheklapara, Bundapani and Raipur, left thousands of workers jobless. 

But once the companies left, local groups took over the tea estates. They run the estates illegally, meaning the contract workers are illegally employed.

Wage disparity

“The fixed daily wage in operational tea gardens is Rs 202. It’s quite low in the wake of inflation,” said Mani Kumar Darnal, general secretary of National Union of Plantation Workers. 

“But workers in a closed estate run illegally – due to the nexus of some local goons, politicians and cops – and are paid around Rs 100 or even less for working six hours per day and with no statutory benefits,” he added.

Without other livelihoods, the villagers are forced to work in closed tea gardens on a very low wage.

The work is irregular even in operational tea gardens, claimed the workers. 

Lack of medical facilities

They work without any basic health facilities and suffer from malnutrition, tuberculosis and other serious ailments. 

“No one’s thought about arranging medical facilities for these people in closed tea gardens. The abandoned hospitals in closed tea estates are like haunted movie sets with broken windows and broken beds,” Darnal added. 

Even the operational tea gardens have a bare minimum health infrastructure to treat minor ailments. 

Official tea gardens tell another story 

The management from the official tea estates believe people prefer to work in the closed gardens because of fewer working hours, despite low wages.

“They then take up other jobs,” said Jayanta Biswas, manager of JayBirpara tea estate.

He also said his estate offers full health facilities. 

“Our hospital is well-equipped. We make arrangements to shift to other hospitals in case of emergencies and take care of them,” he said.

Abysmal health parameters

In 2015 voluntary organisations conducted a study among the tea workers. They found that 1,400 people had died in 17 closed tea gardens of North Bengal between 2000 and 2015. The major reason for the deaths was malnutrition. 

The survey found many workers having poor Body Mass Index (BMI) – the ideal BMI being 18.5 to 24.9. 

“We surveyed 1,272 workers in closed Raipur tea gardens and found 42% having a BMI less than 18.5. This was just above the 40% critical value when a community is categorised as famine affected. A lot of workers had a BMI as low as 14,” said Abhijit Mazumdar, member of the Siliguri Welfare Organisation, a civil society group that was involved in the survey. 

“Because of lack of the financial resources they don’t eat nutritious food required for maintaining proper BMI. The situation is so pathetic that they go to bed hungry,” Mazumdar told Village Square. “Starvation leads to malnutrition.” 

Battling malnutrition 

The health officials at Birpara government hospital near Bundapani and Dheklapara estates conceded there was a huge demand for blood because of malnutrition and anaemia.  

“There’s a shortage in our blood bank often as the demand is high in areas having tea estates. Around 30 people come every day requiring blood,” said Kaushik Garai, the hospital’s medical superintendent.

But government officials said that they offered the best facilities. 

“We have a special centre for treating malnourished people,” said Sumit Ganguli, the Chief Medical Officer of Health, Alipurduar district. 

Inadequate infrastructure 

The hospital staff, on condition of anonymity, said there’s inadequate infrastructure. “We have just one ambulance to cater to the several thousand – mostly tea garden workers,” they said. 

Phulmoni Ming, who works illegally in the estate where she had worked for three decades before it closed in 2013, said that it took at least 2 hours for the ambulance to arrive. 

Also, the hospital refers critical cases to Alipurduar district hospital 70 kilometres away, or Siliguri 110 kilometres away, losing time. 

The hospital also faces a severe shortage of doctors, nurses and other medical staff.

The tuberculosis affliction 

Huge consumption of alcohol due to depression also has caused a rise in tuberculosis cases, according to Mazumdar.

Sukhdeo Kharia suffers from tuberculosis yet continues to drink against his doctors’ advice. 

“The poverty and frustration and the future of my three minor children saddens me,” he said.

People like Kharia said that liquor helps them forget their problems – even if it is just momentarily. This adds to the cycle of poor health and poverty. 

“We run health programmes for tuberculosis and other diseases in tea garden areas,” said Ganguli. 

But many tea workers believe this is not enough. They are at a loss for a lasting solution, which only adds to their stress and poor well being. 

Gurvinder Singh is a journalist based in Kolkata.