Are We Drinking Sips of Misery? Darjeeling’s Tea
Many have said, wrote, screamt their lungs out, then disappeared into thin air.
Darjeeling Tea Industry
Tea Garden Bonus – Some Thoughts
I sometimes wonder what feeling would Narayan Gopal be having when he sang – “Aljhecha Kya re Pachyawri timro chiya ko botaima.” Was “chiya ko bot” a resemblance of wealth? Was “chiyabari” a happy and prosperous place? While the former may still be true, the latter is most certainly not – and that has today become a concern for every citizen in the Hills – be it the residents or the non-residents of the tea gardens.
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.
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.”
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.