Tea Tribes are Far-Away from the Advantages of Urbanisation: A Case Study on Barchapari Tea Garden of Golaghat District, Assam.

Abstract

Assam is blessed with a high potential for development of resource based and demand base industries The tea industry of Assam is the single largest industry of the state playing a dominant role in the economy of the state. It does not only contribute a bigger share in state income but also contribute substantially to the national exchequer every year in the shape of foreign exchange earnings through its exports. Assam produces more than 50% of the tea produced in India and about 1/6th of the tea produced in the world. About 17% of the workers of Assam are engaged in the tea industry.
Tea is a labour-intensive industry and is heavily reliant on a large workforce. It is the only sector where majority of the workers are female. Majority of the tea garden workers are the descendants of those who were transported to Assam as slaves by the East India Company, primarily from Jharkhand, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal. Today, those slaves' descendants are known as tea tribes. These workers continue to live with the basic amenities that the tea planters or companies provide. The primary issues facing tea workers are a low standard of living and a lack of access to healthcare, education, and other resources. This paper will focus on how tea labourers, also known as tea tribes, live in precarious circumstances and are remote from the benefits of urbanisation. Here, an effort is made to assess labourers' urbanisation by their quality of life. The study aims to confine urbanisation to factors like women's empowerment, health status, and educational attainment, despite its wide-ranging effects. According to the study's observation of both primary and secondary data, tea garden workers continue to live in extremely poor conditions. They lead a solitary life and are distant from the urbanised world.