Tea Plantotion Labour in India TABLE 2 Nature of Labour Force in Tea Gardens Habitution lgiifl:nt:. es.: Total ) dult 44'3_,276 135689 578,885 Year 1991 Adolese. 6,167 3,045 9,202 Child 52,143 37,185 89,598 Adult 452,331 131,53¢ 583,865 Year 1993 Adolese, 10,007 3,008 13,915 Child 40,634 30,484 71,118 SO[]RCE: ((1) Gnvdern’menbofAs Sam,An nua 1 Admlnls ini tratloi n Repo:t 1991 92! P ! Commissioner, Guwahati, if; ;ggléisflge ';'(:al labour for(.:e employed in tea industry of Assam 'stood workers 583 gGCorrespondmg figure was 668,898 in 1993, Of 668,898 (13,915) and ;hflsd “"31'97 adults and the remaining were adolescents force in, ren(71,118). A comparison of the position of labour fi orce as w1e9l9l1 agandado1l9e9s3c,enfs ;_lh abouo arn. wiBnucts reawsheereian sthethesizaeduloft adult Iabour labour force .­showed an increase of i increase was by 4713, mere 1213, , with respect to adolescents the " Empl., is a p oyment of ch : ildren in . tea plantation estates of northeast India indss(i);fir?i 11}:2 1365} industry itself, Acute labour shortage faced by the few decades, how i e n v i e t r i . al stages gave rise to this practice, r, t ¢ here has been a i the surplus labour force within the tea eg growing trend areas. Mainly d Since the last . ; of incronse ¥ 20 Living Conditions of Tea Estate Labourers in Assam to reduce the cost of production by paying the lower children's wages to the adolesecent labour force. The bulk of labour working in tea plantations lives within the garden and is described as a resident labour. Besides this, a substantial size of labour force comes to work from outside the garden. This is known as non-resident labour and in local parlance as a basti labour. In 1991, 175,919 out of 501,576 labourers came from outside the garden. In 1993, however, thexe was some decline in the labour force coming from outside the garden, the number coming down to 165,926. More and more land is being used for tea-growing in Assam. There has also been an increase in production as well as productivity. The average yield per hectare in the Assam Valley was 1656 kgs. in 1989. This went up to 1685 kgs. in 1990 and 1700 kgs. in 1991. In the Surma Valley, the average yield was 1117 kgs. in 1989 and 1150 kgs. in 1991. Interestingly enough, belying these statistics is the steady decline in the employment: of permanent labour force in the tea industry. In 1960, there were 507,111 permanently employed workers in the tea gardens _of Assamn-which-steadily dwindled 6 454,412 in 1970, 432,980 in 1980 and 427,375 in 1990. There was a slight improvement in 1991. (See Table 3) This may be due to the initiatives taken by the trade unions. TABLE 3 Permanent Employment in Tea Gardens Year 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1990 1991 SOURCES: No. of estales T99 47 751 756 769 848 848 Areain hectares 161,940 169,659 182,325 188,794 196,469 230,363 233,284 Production In 000 hgs. 182,311 181,355 212,027 263,655 283,876 888,181 396,604 Permanent . iworkers 507,111 494,892 454,412 440,127 432,980 427,375 487,678 (1) AX.Nag,“The Condition of Tea Garden Labourers in North-East India and Its Background”, in 8, Karotemprel and B, Datta Ray(ed.), Tea Garden Labourers of North-East India, Shillong: 1190, p. 56, (2) Tea Board, Tea Statistics 1989, 1990 and 1991,