Tea Plantation Labour in India if the planter was able to induce a family comprising husband, wife and two children to work on the plantation he could save considerably on recruitment costs than if he employed four workers of four families. In the latter case the planter would have to bear the recruiting costs of these workers and also provide separate houses for each of them. As a result, employment of child labour continued even after labour shortage was overcome by the 1950s. In fact the Plantation Labour Act which was passed in 1951 and came into effect in 1954 clearly allows employment of child labour in plantations. Section 2(c) of the Act defines a child worker as one who is either male or female and is less than 14 years of age. Interestingly, the Act does not mention the minimum age. At the same time, the Child Labour(Amendment) Act of 1985 which regulates the employment of children in the unorganised sector has stipulated 14 years as the minimum age of employment. This Act is not applicable to the tea industry. Most of the child workers are employed in the two States of Assam and West Bengal.(See Table 3) Xaxa’s study of Assam shows that according to the State’s Labour Department there are over 80,000 child workers in the State. Xaxa has argued that this may be an overestimation because a large section of child workers may not be children but adolescents or adults who are kept in the category of children in order to pay them lower wages. This may be true to some extent because the wages of children in both the States are half those of adults and employers may continue to keep workers who are over 14 years of age as children. With thelow, almost non-existent, employment opportunities in the plantation regions these workers could not protest too strongly lest they lose their jobs. Howsoever, the fact remains that the category of child worlker is an exploitative category because it encourages parents to force their children to work rather than send them to school and offers the planters aleverage to reduce the wages of workers. On .looking at the data on wages (Table 4) we can clearly see that thex:e 13 a connection between low wages and child labour. In the South Indian States the wages are substantially higher and the wages of Chlld:.['en are two-thirds that of adults. In North India, on the other hand, wages are low and children are paid half the wages of adults. In fact the wages of children in South India are at par with the wagesof 10 Introduction adults in North India, Therefore it is not ‘economical’ for planters to employ children in the southern States while it is in Assam and West Bengal. The low rate of wages in the latter States in fact force Parents to send their children to work in order to increase the family income, Besides this, educational opportunities (especially post-primary) are better in Tamil Nadu than the two northern States and parents prefer to send their children to school. In Assam and West Bengal, on the contrary, there is little scope for post-primary education for children of plantation workers. Hence availability of schooling facilities is g vital factor for reduction of child labour. Wages As mentioned earlier, wages of tea plantation workers are the lowest in the organised production sector. Our studies show that the avera monthly wage of workers in Assam and West Bengal is less than Rge 600 per month while in Tamil Nadu it is around Rs. 850 per mont}-sl. Though workers in Tamil Nadu are paid more in comparison the‘. wages are much lower than those of mine workers. The workers ,in th1r two northern States get rations of food grains at subsidiged ratee whereas workers in Tamil Nadu get rations at fixed prices which ars lower than market prices, However this does not compensate for the low wages in North India. ¢ TABLE 4 Daily Wages(Cash) State Assam (average for all zones) West Bengal Tamil Nadu Daily Wage (Rs.) \ Adult Child 23.60 11.80 24,30 12.15 40,00 25.00 Incentive Pai) a7 32 24 ­40 Ming 14 Qigg‘) 21 §1 14. 12 K At the time these studies were conducted the average daily wagg an adult worker in Assam was Rs. 23.60, in West Bengal it WalsgROf 24.30 and in Tamil Nadu it was Rs. 40. Children were paid halt g wages of adults in Assam and West Bengal but in Tamil Nadu they N Rs. 25. The worlkers are paid wages for time as well as piece worlk, ,fi:: 11