Most of the 163 tea estates in Bangladesh are located in the north-eastern region of Bangladesh-Maulvi Bazar, Hobiganj, Sylhet, Brahmanbaria districts, etc. Tea plantation workers lead a life of hard labour, erosion of cultural identity and captivity. Illiterate, they are unaware of their rights, and this entails a life full of suffering for them and for their children.
Their poor housing conditions, low wages, long working hours, social discrimination, and de facto restriction on free movement deprives them of many basic human needs and rights. Deprived, exploited and alienated the tea workers live an inhumane life. The tea workers are so much cornered that they depend solely on the companies for food, medicine, accommodation, education, etc. Their conditions violate the maximum provisions of the Bangladesh Constitution, different human rights instruments, laws and rules that commit social, economic and human dignity.
It is important to be aware of how the workers struggle in their life in order to earn their daily basic necessities, and to what extent they are being exploited by their owners. At the end of the day, whether proper measures of law are being taken against those being oppressed is a matter of concern at this stage.
Today Bangladesh has almost 156 tea gardens apart from the ones in North Bengal, with approximately 118,000 workers in this sector. During the 1850s and 60s the tea garden workers were brought by the British colonial companies from different parts of India. Unfortunately, these workers were treated much like slaves since they had to give up their right of sovereignty as it was reinstated with the tea estate proprietors.
Still today these deprived workers are being treated like those in British days as they have a different style of living. Even today, the minimum expected standard of living is very poor.
One commitment that the Saarc Social Charter sets for the South Asian States is to enable its citizens to “satisfy basic human needs and to realise his or her personal dignity, safety, and creativity.” The Social Charter also specifies the “access to basic education, adequate housing, safe drinking water and sanitation, and primary health care,” which should be guaranteed in legislation, executive, and administrative provisions, in addition to ensuring “adequate standard of living, including adequate shelter, food, and clothing.”
These people are basically trapped into the social stigma which they inherited from their ancestors and living an inhumane life which is no less than an animal. Even their basic necessities are not properly ensured although they are living within the territory of Bangladesh. Very sadly, these poor people lack their basic rights.
These people do not receive proper medical treatment and the payment is miserably lower than the minimum standard. Since they belong to different ethnic communities, it is unlikely that they intend to interact with other people and end up facing social discrimination. These people are purely illiterate and the trend has been passing from generation to generation.
So the children of these workers tend to become the same as their parents. They depend entirely on the tea estate owners, and have nowhere else to go or either to shift from their profession, thus they became the sole victim of the tea estate owners. It appears that their social standing falls outside the scope of Bangladesh. Many attempts have been made so far to bring the poor condition of the workers in control but much has not been done yet.
The Labour Act was introduced in 2006, which when it came into force negated the other existing laws such as the Tea Plantation Ordinance, 1962 and The Tea Plantation Labour Rules, 1977. Unfortunately, the Law is not satisfactory since there was a huge cry from the tea plantation workers that the minimum wage rate was not sufficient.
The Labour Act, 2006 also contains special provisions that have been adapted regarding the female workers during and after their pregnancy. A female worker, after her pregnancy, may perform light work provided it has been approved by a medical practitioner. Moreover, she would be entitled to regular payments along with the maternity benefits. Adequate recreational and educational facilities, housing facilities, daily necessities have been duly enacted in the Labour Act. However, prime concern is, to what extent these laws are being implemented and whether the tea plantation workers are genuinely benefiting from these laws.
It is indeed true that many of these rights are legally recognised, but their implementation remains a big factor. Most of the government officials do not even bother to monitor the compliance properly as they very simply abide their legal duties and deprive the innocent workers of their rights which is assured under the said law.
Thousands of cases have been seen so far about the poor tea plantation workers who are not even aware of these laws and are being deprived out. The current wage rate of the tea plantation worker in Bangladesh is considerably lower than the neighbouring countries India, Sri Lanka.
Since there is an urgent need to improve the social condition for tea plantation workers, the NGOs should be invited to work among the tea plantation workers. Involvement of various NGOs may prove to be very helpful in providing support to the tea plantation workers with regard to healthcare, education and special support for the female workers.
It is strongly suggested that the NGOs should fully cooperate with the trade union. Additionally, it is of paramount importance that lawmakers and policy strategists come together to protect the basic rights of Bangladesh’s tea plantation workers, since they are largely responsible for a major source of export in Bangladesh.
