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State Lends a Helping Hand To Tea Garden Workers

By sachiv1, Section News
Posted on Fri Jun 08, 2007 at 04:30:45 AM EST

In a bid to share the problems of workers at sick and closed tea gardens, the state government has decided to bring them under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA). Earlier, this Act was not applicable to a tea garden since it did not come under panchayats.

Ailing tea gardens have created a large and unemployed workforce. The government, however, denied on Thursday that workers are dying of hunger in these gardens.

Under this programme, 18,817 job cards have been issued and 9,12,600 man-days have been created among plantation workers of closed tea gardens in North Bengal, District Magistrate of Jalpaiguri R Ranjit said.

Ranjit said the NREGA is a demand-driven scheme and according to demands of the district, Rs 7 crore has already been allocated to it. He said plantation workers are now employed to construct drains, make trenches to block elephants from entering human habitation, develop land and build roads. "The demand for jobs is mostly from workers of tea gardens like Ramjhora, Red Bank, Chamurchi and Kathalguri," he said.

Referring to reports in the media of plantation workers and their family members dying of malnutrition, Ranjit said, "These are old reports. There have been 571 deaths in the last 15 months and the total population of the 14 closed tea gardens is 75,000. This is a death rate of 6.4 per 1000 people. The rate for West Bengal as a state, on the other hand, is 8 per 1000." The DM said regular camps are being organized in the district for health check-ups and mid-day meals are also being provided.

Tea industry sources said the efforts might not bear much fruit as tea gardens need to increase production and cut down on cost of employment, which is not possible. How long can the NREGA sustain such a big workforce, they wonder. "We need to look at the scope of diversification in tea gardens, and try to introduce new crops, keeping 51 per cent of the land under tea cultivation. However, that is not possible as land ceiling laws in the state will not permit more than 5 per cent of land to be used for such purposes," said an industry expert.

Director of Tea Development (DTD), Tea Board of India, G Boriah, was optimistic about the government's plans. "Sincere entrepreneurs can avail subsidies and financial benefits provided by the government and banks and run the gardens profitably," he said.

(Source - Indian Express, 08/06/07)

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