The Tea Tribes Of Assam

Neha Singh

Every day hundreds of people wake up to a steaming hot cup of fragrant tea as they sit on

their warm beds. They are transported to the beautiful mountains of Assam where the tea

comes from. Little thought is spared to the tea worker shivering in the cold as she plucks

the tea leaves one by one. It is a job that requires dextrous fingers, long hours of work

while standing up and backs bent with heavy load as the leaves fill the sacks the workers

carry on their backs.

The Assam tea tribes student’s union has filed a petition in the Assam high court,

demanding that tea workers who are mostly tribals from the states of Jharkhand, Bihar,

Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh be given scheduled tribe status in Assam. The states

from which they originally came are among the poorest in the country and do the worst in

terms of human development indexes. Post-independence these tribes, like the Oraon and

the Santhals were given scheduled tribe status in these states but not in Assam.

The tribals are the most deprived in these states due to a history of marginalisation,

exploitation and suppression by non-tribals. They lost their land, access to forest produce

on which they depended and their livelihood in these states to non-tribals. Consequently,

they had to migrate to Assam during the colonial period, to work in the tea estates there

in order to make a living.

In Assam too these tribes face the same exploitation and they need the same sort of

privileged scheduled tribe status there as well. They have been given the worst jobs with

little pay. Those who have protested have been killed. Their numbers are reducing at a

fast rate.

The Assam tea tribe union also wants the term ‘tea tribes’ to be abolished. This is

because the term is derogatorily connected to their work. Also, it is important to

recognise the tribes by their traditional names by which they prefer to be called. The term

tea tribe does not convey the cultural uniqueness of the various tribes that come under

this term.

Without reservations it will not be possible for the deprived tea tribes to compete in

schools and jobs with non-tribals because the latter will always have an unfair advantage.

Giving the tea tribes scheduled status will provide them reservations in schools, colleges,

and all types of government jobs. Education and better job opportunities will enable the

children of tea workers to escape the drudgery of working like bonded labourers in tea

gardens.