Are We Drinking Sips of Misery? Darjeeling’s Tea
Many have said, wrote, screamt their lungs out, then disappeared into thin air.
Darjeeling Tea
Darjeeling Hills Tea Garden Workers
I was going through these two receipts from Reliance Smart and could not stop thinking and writing about the plight of our Darjeeling’s tea garden workers and their ongoing demand for 20% Puja bonus.
G20 Tourism Meet in 5-star Hotels in the Tea Gardens – While Tea Workers are Landless
The so called “tea tourism” venues chosen for this summit is the prime example of unsustainable tourism. The UN Environment Program and UN World Tourism Organization defines Sustainable Tourism as “tourism that takes full account of its current and future economic, social and environmental impacts, addressing the needs of visitors, the industry, the environment and host communities.”
These massive constructions in a fragile mountain ecosystem are not at all sustainable. Further, I would be surprised if any of these 5-star resorts that have come up had their Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) done. The impact these massive hotels place on local resources are huge, and other than working paltry jobs, these massive hotels don’t benefit the local communities in any way, shape or form.
RETHINKING THE TEA INDUSTRY – Tea Garden Familes Aren’t Bonded Labourers
The way the tea industry is set up is highly feudalistic with the workers having zero rights. This was a model championed by the colonial Britishers. They did not want the natives to have any rights, and to remain bonded to the tea companies. This modern day bonded labour practice has continued in the tea gardens of Darjeeling hills, Terai and Dooars.
NO LAND FOR TEA GARDEN, CINCHONA GARDEN WORKERS – But…
I cannot help but wonder, why would the WB Govt post a quarter page ad on the front page of a leading Nepali language daily, about Parja Patta rights being given to “refugees” in Nadia, while denying the same rights to the people from Darjeeling hills, Terai and Dooars?
It’s because TMC knows that they will get away with murder, literally, as long as it happens in the North. They will continue to deny us our rights, for as long as we remain divided. They will keep the South appeased, as there are more MP and MLA seats in the south. They will to keep the indigenous communities of the North deprived, because they can afford to do so.
But, can we, the people from the North, afford to keep on appeasing a government that discriminates our region and people deliberately?
Harish Mukhia – A visionary
Harish Mukhia was a trailblazer, who revolutionized the Darjeeling Tea Industry, and continued to serve our region and people till his last breath. A humble grounded man, who helped all those who sought his help, and considered his wife Mani as the main inspiration behind his success This is his story.
Parliamentary Standing Committee Scathing Findings on Darjeeling and Dooars Tea Industry – Recommends Legislative Action for Ensuring Parja Patta Rights and Other Reforms
The report takes note that “the tea garden workers in Darjeeling hills, Terai and Dooars do not have land or ‘Parja-Patta’ (land rights) on their ancestral tea growing lands. To dwell on their ancestral homes, they must send at least one family members to work for the tea company. On failure to send a family member for work, they lose their rights to live on their ancestral lands. Since the land rights are vested with tea company, there have been instances when the aged workers having no children were denied the right to even repair their houses on their ancestral lands.”
TEA TOURISM, EXPLOITATION?
The tea garden workers despite working for generations, are still deprived of their right to land – Parja Patta, they are paid less wages than what other workers, even unskilled labourers make in West Bengal, the facilities they are entitled to are rarely provided. Adding salt to their woes, the WB Govt has allowed the tea garden owners to build commercial real-estate labeling it “tea tourism”.
DARJEELING TEA INDUSTRY: Prayers, Petitions and Pathological Indifference
Tea workers of the region are working below minimum wage, and over the years systematically all of their facilities have been stripped off. In order to support and sustain their family, they are forced to do small scale animal husbandry and horticulture. This is in addition to 12-14 hours of back-breaking labour every day.
Dazzling Darjeeling: Where Tea Grows in the Sky
When the opportunity to visit India presented itself to me, I knew right away that majestic Himalayan Darjeeling would be the top of my list, as the world-famous Darjeeling tea grows there. Darjeeling is all about tea estates covered in clouds; white mountain tops in the distance and tasty tea. If you enjoy at least an occasional cup of tea, it’s definitely worth visiting the Indian paradise of tea in West Bengal, Darjeeling! It’s the place to see how hundred-year-old tea bushes grow, how locals pluck the leaves and it gradually becomes the tea we all know.