It is not the first time the Socialism Or You Money Back
blog has posted upon the dire conditions of the workers that provide us with
our daily cuppa – here, here and here - and we make no apology for returning to the subject.
Tea workers are vulnerable to exploitation because the
plantations control so many aspects of their lives. A joint investigation by Radio 4's File on Four and BBC News in Assam, north-east India, found workers
living in broken houses with terrible sanitation. Many families have no toilets
and say they have no choice but to defecate amongst the tea bushes. Living and
working conditions are so bad, and wages so low, that tea workers and their
families are left malnourished and vulnerable to fatal illnesses. There was
also a disregard for health and safety, with workers spraying chemicals without
protection, and on some estates, child labour being used.
Plantation owners in India are obliged by law to provide and
maintain "adequate" houses, and sanitary toilets for workers. Yet
homes on the tea estates were in terrible disrepair, with leaking roofs and
damp and cracked walls. Many toilets are blocked or broken. Workers said their
homes were not repaired despite repeated requests to management, often over
many years. The drains are open and unlined and many clogged with effluent. In
some cases, cesspits are overflowing into the living areas of people's homes. Many
homes have no electricity, and on one estate workers had to drink rainwater
piped from a stream.
McLeod Russel's Assam estates supply tea to the companies
that own PG Tips, Liptons, Tetley and Twinings. A manager on an estate owned by
the world's biggest tea producer admitted with an astounding degree of
understatement there is "a huge backlog of repairs". The manager
described conditions for some workers as "not acceptable". The head of the Assam branch of the Indian Tea
Association, which represents tea producers in India, also accepted that
conditions appeared to be well below standard. "Let me be clear,"
Sandip Ghosh told the BBC, "cesspools and open defecation are not
acceptable to me or the association. These issues need to be addressed."
Many Indians live in dismal housing, but Indian law says
decent housing and sanitation are part of a tea worker's pay. This is the
justification plantation owners give for the extremely low wages in the
industry. Tea workers in Assam earn 115 rupees a day, just over £1 ($1.50) ,
significantly below the minimum wage (177 rupees in Assam). This combination of
appalling conditions and low pay on tea plantations can be deadly. Studies have
confirmed levels of malnutrition on tea estates are very high, even by India's
woeful standards.
Nine out of 10 patients from tea plantations are
malnourished, according to the medical director of Assam Medical College, one
of the main general hospitals serving the tea region. Professor AK Das says
malnutrition makes tea workers and their families vulnerable to diseases caused
by their unhygienic living conditions. "Diseases of poverty" are
common, he says, with lots of patients coming in with diarrhoea, respiratory
tract infections, skin lesions and serious infections like TB and meningitis. He
describes a tragic cycle: children come in so weak from malnutrition they
struggle to recover from curable illnesses, and then quickly relapse after they
are released from hospital. As a result, Prof Das says, tea workers' children -
and their parents - are significantly more likely to die of their illnesses
than other patients at the hospital.
The BBC found other abuses. One girl who said she was 14,
was picking tea at the prestigious Doomur Dullung estate. She said she had been
working full time for two months. Doomur Dullung is owned by one of the oldest
tea companies in the world, Assam Company, and supplies Twinings, Yorkshire
Tea, Harrods and Fortnum and Mason. Two other children said they had been
employed full time on estates owned by Assam Company since they were in their
early teens. The UN rules on child labour say no child under 15 should work
full time.
There was also a disregard for health and safety on some tea
estates. On one estate owned by Assam Company workers were spraying pesticides
without the protective equipment required by law. These workers said although
protective equipment was given out once a year, it would wear out within a
couple of months and was not replaced. They reported side effects including
breathing difficulties, numbness of the hands and face, a burning sensation on
the skin and profound loss of appetite. On one McLeod Russel estate, workers
were spraying chemicals with overalls but no other protection. Professor Das
said he regularly sees patients suffering serious side effects from pesticide
exposure.
Tea estates also police access to the workers' living areas
very tightly, despite access being guaranteed by law. The right of public
access is supposed to enable people to visit them to check on their welfare. Yet
the BBC was denied entry to the workers' living area of one of McLeod Russel's
estates, and were even imprisoned briefly within the factory compound.
The fact that there is a very serious issue with living and
working conditions on tea plantations in Assam is well known. In January last
year Columbia Law School's Human Rights Institute published a major study into
conditions on estates part-owned Tata, the giant Indian industrial conglomerate
that also owns Tetley Tea. The report said the "inhumane" and
"abusive" conditions it found were endemic throughout the industry.
All the estates the BBC visited have been certified by the
Rainforest Alliance and awarded its "frog seal", displayed on the
packaging of many leading tea brands. Rainforest Alliance is an NGO that claims
to work to conserve biodiversity and ensure sustainable livelihoods. It says
its frog seal signals that businesses are managed according to "rigorous
criteria" designed to "protect workers, their families and local
communities". Stephen Ekka, an activist with the local NGO PAJHRA, is
campaigning to improve conditions on the tea estates. He told the BBC he
believes the Rainforest Alliance's frog logo "is more about selling tea
than about empowering workers".
Contact the World Socialist Party (India)
E-mail: wspindia@hotmail.com
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