Representatives of trade unions and activists under the Right to Food Campaign, who visited five abandoned and closed tea gardens in north Bengal last month, have urged the State government to ensure minimum living wages to the tea garden workers.
“The State government needs to ensure payment of a minimum living wages in the tea sector to avoid starvation deaths and deaths due to poverty in the long run. This is possible if instead of the present wages of Rs. 95/90, the State government plays a positive role in the present wage negotiations or if it declares a living wages as the minimum wages in the tea sector,” a report submitted to the State’s Chief Secretary said.
The representatives pointed out that immediate help is needed for the aged people in the tea gardens.
“People in peril other than the elderly need to be identified by the State government and NGOs and aid should be given to them. Community kitchens under the SAHAI scheme need to be started,” Fr Irudaya Jothi, one of the members of the team, told The Hindu on Saturday.
The representatives also suggested special supervision at the ICDS centres and immediate arrangements for drinking water.
Other than extending work under the MGNREGA and ensuring its payment on weekly basis, if it is not possible on a daily basis, the representatives have said that measures need to be taken to sort out legal hurdles to reopen the gardens immediately.
“The team recorded 65 deaths in four closed and abandoned tea estates in less than a year. While not all these deaths were due to starvation, not all deaths were in natural course or due to old age either,” Debjit Dutta, another member of the team and spokesperson of United Tea Workers Forum, said.
He said that deaths were because of causes associated with malnutrition, hunger, and diseases associated with poverty such as tuberculosis.
Though the 12-member team said that they were somewhat satisfied with the relief in the gardens they agreed that relief could not be a solution to the crisis.
In the five tea gardens - Dheklapara, Bundapani, Red Bank, Surendranagar, and Raipur - the team visited they have compiled the number of workers to 3,780.
