Wednesday, Aug 13, 2014
Kolkata: After years of struggle, the most prominent political demand by tea workers in Assam is about to be fulfilled.
The task force on scheduling of tribes has recommended, to the Union ministry of tribal affairs, the inclusion of the tea tribes in the Scheduled Tribe (ST) list.
The final approval to this recommendation would be done by the Union cabinet. The ministry of tribal affairs has now asked the state government to provide the Devanagari version of each of these 26 tribes “at the earliest” to process the case.
The state government submitted the ethnographic records of 36 tea tribes in 2013 to the ministry of tribal affairs and recommended their inclusion in the ST list.
Known to the world as “tea tribe”, the one million strong workforce is the backbone of the tea industry in the state and produces more than 50 per cent of the beverage output in the country.
Members of the tribe constitute about 20 per cent of the state’s population.
“This has been a long-standing demand as we believe that unless we get jobs outside the tea industry, our families will continue to suffer in the vicious circle of poverty,” Madhu Hiradia, a tea tribe leader, said over phone.
“Also it will stop the racial stigmatisation of the community, but will also point out to our economically disadvantageous status. It would also enable us to benefit from reservations in colleges and government jobs,” he added.
Most tea estate workers here are either tribals or people from backward classes originally from Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh.
Their forefathers were brought to Assam by the British more than a century ago as indentured labour to clear forests and work on the plantations. Unlike modern migrant workers, these workers have lost all family connections with their homeland. Poverty did not allow their grandparents and parents to return and successive generations now no longer remember the names of either their villages or states of origin.
“We don’t know where we belong,” says 28-year-old Sumit, one of the few graduates in the area. “Neither are we accepted here; neither do we have anywhere to go. We are factually homeless. This decision will also give us the solace that we belong to the state of Assam,” he added.
The state government has also launched a Rs5 billion (Dh300 million) scheme for educational development of tea tribes, besides setting up an education commission.
“Steps are being taken to ensure that the tea garden workers do not lag behind and feel unwanted from the main society. Schemes like this will not only ensure better education for the children of tea garden workers, but also recognise their effort in giving the state a global prominence through tea,” chief minister Tarun Gogoi said at a function in Guwahati.
“This has been a major poll promise and we are happy to have been able to deliver it within months of coming to power. The demand for better wagers will certainly be taken up in the near future,” said Kamakhya Prasad Tasa, BJP member of parliament from Jorhat.
By Archisman Dinda Correspondent
Gulf News 2014. All rights reserved.
