Sarbopraan Sangskritik Shakti, a platform of cultural activists, is going to arrange “Chita Kabya Concert” to express solidarity with the ongoing movement of tea garden workers in Habiganj and Sylhet protesting the government decision of setting up economic zone by acquiring their land.
As a sign of protest against the government move, the activists will host the day-long event on Shoparjito Shadhinota Chattar at TSC around 11am Saturday.
The organisation has been campaigning for the event titled “Hats off to the life, who farm for food not product” since January 3 on popular social networking site Facebook.
The protest programme will see the start with the slogan of “Tea workers' paddy fields should not be taken away”, where hundreds of artists across the country and the groups struggling for the right of the tea workers are expected to participate.
“Chitra Kabya Concert” include paintings, documentaries, and photo exhibitions, poetry reading, street drama and concert.
The organisers urged upon the countrymen to join the event to raise voice against the government’s decision to acquire 512-acre of three tea gardens at Chunarughat of Habiganj and in Sylhet for setting up a special economic zone.
Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority (BEZA) has decided to build the zone on the land which was leased out to Chandpur Tea Estate operated by a British company named Duncan Brothers. Recently the lease has been cancelled to establish the economic zone.
Being angered by the initiative, thousands of tea workers there took to the streets apprehending eviction while they had been using 951 of 3,951-acre as farm land for 150 years.
Their ancestors and they gradually turned the vast tract of land into cultivable by removing jungles. If the government finally acquires the land of the 16,000 tea garden workers covering different indigenous and Dalit casts of Chandpur Tea Garden, Begum Khan Tea Garden, Jual Bhanga Tea Garden and Ram Ganga Tea Garden, they will face severe food crisis as they are wholly dependent on cultivation for their staple food rice.
Majority of the tea workers are very poor and their daily income is as low as Tk69, the lowest wages in the country. They are unable to meet their needs with the poor income.
Besides another organisation “Sarbaprana Cultural Force” has chalked out a day-programme to voice solidarity with the movement in the capital on February 6. There will have photo exhibition and documentaries, dramatic performances and poem citation.