Assam Tea Garden Workers in Dire Straits: CAG Report

The Assam government has drawn flak from the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) for its ‘insufficient’ efforts in ensuring the welfare of tea garden workers in the state or in fixing their wages under the Minimum Wages Act. In its latest report, the CAG noted that the wages of the tea workers were meagre and the implementation of the welfare schemes for them had shortcomings. The report expressed anguish over the implementation of labour laws and worker welfare provisions and noted that efforts to improve their lives have fallen short of making any substantial change.

Low income and lack of education have been major barriers to the overall development of the tea workers in the state, the report said, based on its survey in four zones- Cachar, Dibrugarh, Nagaon and Sonitpur. There are 390 tea estates in the four sampled zones, of which 40 estates (10 per cent) were selected based on the size of the plantations and number of workers employed. Apart from scrutiny of records, the exercise included interviews with 590 workers in the selected estates.

The performance audit on ‘Implementation of Schemes for Welfare of Tea Tribe', which was carried out during the period 2015-16 to 2020-21, noted that the Tea Tribes Welfare Department (TTWD) tried to address the issues of the workers, but without basic socio-economic data. And, as a result, the implementation of their initiatives was tardy.

The report said that wages the workers received in the tea estates were meagre, and noted that the Assam government did not fix the minimum pay as per the MW Act, 1948. It found that workers were not part of scheduled employment notified by the state government, as a result of which they do not get benefits of minimum wage standard and variable dearness allowance. Besides, there was a disparity of wages among workers of Barak and Brahmaputra Valley.

The audit report​ mentioned that as per the 2019 wage rates, tea workers of Assam were being paid the least wages compared to other tea-producing states like Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and West Bengal. The CAG wrote in its report that the Assam Tea Employees Labour Welfare Board did not undertake any mandated welfare activities, and 85 per cent of the expenses borne for it during 2015-20 are related to administrative expenses.

During the period 2015-16 to 2020-21, the TTWD had drawn up plans for implementation of 187 welfare schemes involving a cost of Rs 600.19 crore. But, it said, actual implementation was carried out in only 82 schemes at a cost of Rs 210.65 crore against the budget allotment of Rs 365.60 crore. Meanwhile, the tea industry is facing a number of challenges like sluggish growth in domestic consumption, rising food inflation and slow recovery of exports post the Covid pandemic.

Chairman of the Federation of All India Tea Traders Association (FAITTA) Sanjay Shah explained that there are underlying concerns over the ability of the market to absorb the several rounds of price increases (of tea), which have been inevitable given the sharp rise in main raw material prices last year. With some recovery in demand from the pandemic period, average prices in 2022-23 were at Rs 180 per kg, he said. said tea production in the calendar year 2023 closed at 1,393 million kg as against 1,366 million kg in 2022.

At the 10th Annual General Meeting of the FAITTA, Shah said tea production in the calendar year 2023 closed at 1,393 million kg as against 1,366 million kg in 2022 when the orthodox tea market was buoyant as the Sri Lanka situation had turned in India's favour.

But, after successive years of clocking over 250-million kg levels, shipments sharply declined in 2020 and 2021 and exports registered some recovery in 2022, touching 231 million kg. In 2023, exports closed at 228 million kg. After many years of relative stagnation, Indian tea exports now appear to be on a higher growth trajectory.

Meanwhile, small tea growers in West Bengal have urged the Tea Board to defer the last date of plucking green leaves this season to December due to a significant shortfall in production due to huge crop loss so far this year due to adverse weather conditions. The request has been made in the wake of a Tea Board order which has fixed November 30 as the last plucking date of green leaves for all manufacturing units situated in Dooars and Terai region of West Bengal.

The Tea Board’s latest production data in July 2024 shows that West Bengal produced 41.59 million kilograms as compared to 52.95 million kilograms in the year-ago month. Production across India was 146.84 million kilograms in July – a significant slump from 171.53 million kilograms in the same month of 2023.