Labour file
UNENDING WOES OF WORKERS :
The Plight of Abandoned Tea Garden Workersin West Bengal
Darjeeling tea from the tea
estates is the famed best tea and
is a pride to our country. Recently
during his visit to England, Prime
Minister Modi presented Darjeeling
tea to the Queen of England.
But neither the fame of
Darjeeling tea nor the pride
enjoyed by our country by its best
taste and quality, have never
brought prosperity in the lives of
the tea garden workers of
Darjeeling tea estates who are the
real producers of the famed
Darjeeling tea, by investing their
blood and labour power. On the
contrary from the times of the British
Colonial rule, till today it is the
British tea companies or their
collaborator Indian companies that
have prospered, earned wealth by
way of huge profits and drained that
wealth to the parent foreign tea
companies.
Since 2002, 100% of FDI has
been permitted in to the tea
plantation sector, in the name of
economic development of our
country, particularly the tea sector.
Even this policy has not brought
out any happiness in to the lives of
the living and working conditions of
the tea garden workers, but had
profited the tea plantation owners
and tea companies.
Now a distress situation
pervades in the tea estates of
many tea gardens in North Bengal,
where mounting hunger looms
over several thousands of North
Bengal tea garden workers, leading
to ‘starvation’ deaths of workers.
Within 45 days (from Sept 15 to
November 31, 2015), 13 starvation
deaths have been reported. These
deaths have occurred in the tea
gardens abandoned by Duncan, a
leading tea company.
But the administration of
MamataBenarji’sgovernment
denies that the deaths are due to
starvation but are due to ailments
or natural deaths, but after much
public out-cry and condemnation
about these starvation deaths, the
administration admits that due to
abandonment of the gardens the
workers are under stress.
Without taking any immediate
step to rescue the tea garden
workers under distress, the Chief
Ministers simply warns the owners
of tea companies that the state
government would take-over, if they
contd from page 10
earth and environment remaining
as a eternal living peril.
This is nothing but the blatant
betrayal of India and its suffering
people to be of the U.S. imperialism
and imperialist corporations.
But the persistent demand
and to struggle to make Dow
Chemicals totally to the Bhopal
devastation shall continue at least
to spread awareness among the
people about the real comprador
class nature of our rulers the
representatives of the ruling
classes.
eyes. And our Supreme Court, the
highest court of justice, could not
find time to hear the petition but for
only one hearing, and the
government has not moved a single
application for urgent hearing on
the matter.
Such has been the willful
criminal apathy of our rulers with
regards to rendering justice to
Bhopal victims and in cleaning-up
of the toxic waste penetrated in to
December 2015
cannot administer them properly.
And to eye wash the public a CID
probe was ordered in to the issue.
These actions of the state
government will in no way bring any
relief to the suffering tea garden
workers who are on the brink.
The Duncan tea company
began its operations in India from
1857 by clearing large swaths of
dense forests in North Bengal to
establish its extensive tea
plantations.
It
transported
industrious tribal people from
ChotaNagapur
and
Santal
paraganas as indentured, near
slave labour. It exploited these tribal
labourers to the utmost and earned
huge profits. Even after the transfer
of power in 1947, in India, the
workers continued to work almost
in the very colonial conditions
(living and working). These workers
households were not even issued
with ration cards issued by public
distribution system, but the state
government supplied PDS grain to
companies to issue to tea garden
workers.
Presently the Duncan had
abandoned 15 tea gardens, and
30 tea estates in North Bengal are
now either closed or abandoned by
their owners.
Thus DuncanCompany by
abruptly abandoning the gardens,
it stopped paying wages to its
workers. It also terminated food
rations. It cut electricity and drinking
water supplies to worker colonies.
For several years pensions and
P.F. funds of the workers had not
been paid. So the worker households of these are facing conditions
of acute starvation. These workers
for survival are forced to travel to
neighbouring gardens and working
at very low, piece-work rates
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