Tea Plantation Labour in India Status of Education .Provision of schools for tea garden children is government responsibility in Jorhat whereas it is the responsibility of the management in Dibrugarh. As to the status of education in the two districts, refer Table 15, TABLE 15 Condition of Schocls in the Four Gardens n Factlities Type .of' building Condition of building No. of schools in the garden No. of rooms No. of teachers No. of students G.ame facilities Distance of Middle and High School from garden No. of schools from garden Jorhat A B pucca good puceca good 1(LP) 1 hall .3 118 Nil 3(LP) 1 hall 9 376 Nii 2 km 2 km 22 86 c pucca good Dibrugarh D 1 pucca, good 1 pucca 1(LP) lroom 3 600 football 2(LP) 4 rooms, 1hall 4 408 football Ikm 1.5 km 511 166 ‘E[‘he school buildings available in the four gardens are far from uniform, Th.e schools comprise either of an open hall or a couple of Tooms, Cor‘xmdering the number of students attending school, the space available is inadequate. As for the teacher-student ratio ,it is more favourable in Jorhat than in Dibrugarh, The former had ’12 teachers for 494 students, while the lattey had 7 teachers for 1008 students. The fic:verxtllrlnent-.managed schools (Jorhat) have a larger number of teachers than e estate managed schools (Dibrugarh), At the time of survey, ere were only 108 students studying in Middle Bducation (M.E,) or gib}rllilgh iChoo_ls in Jorhgt whereas the figure was as high as 677 in by garh. This has nothing ,to dowith the quality of education imparted gFar Y loiw th t e ihog m c a en n 1t a r g e e e s ment. The Dibrugarh gardens are situated near urban andehence th ewo rkerahave greater a a c c c c e ess to educghonal 2 36 Living Conditions of Tea Estate Labourers in Assam Of the total 200 households from Jorhat and Dibrugarh districts that were studied, 187 heads of households were males and 13 females. Interestingly, as many as 12 out of the 13 female heads of households were from Jorhat. Labourers living in plantation estates generally represent a complex ethnic mixture. This is s0-because labourers were recruited from different social, cultural and linguistic backgrounds when plantations were being opened up in Assam, Tea gardens studied in two districts were no exception to this ethnic complexity. The break-up ameong different ethnic groups is given in Table 16.' TABLE 16 Eihnic Composition of Labourers in the Four Gardens of Jorhat and Dibrugarh Ethnic Groups Jorhat Dibrugarh Total Oraon Tanti Nil 39 39 18 9 27 Lohar 17 5 22 Karamkar 4 9 13 Mura 9 1 10 Munda 2 8 10 Bhuyan 3 4 7 Bhumij il Nil 11 Savar 7 Nil 7 Kumar 8 Nil 6 Bauri Nil b 5 Patra 4 Nil 4 Others 19 20 39 Total 100 100 200 NOTE: Gwala, Parja, Korwa, Bhai were two houscholds each and Kharia, Teli, Brahiin, Ghatwal, Nayalk, Rajput, Gorik, Ganja, ete, were one household eachin the Jorhat district, In Dibragarh distvict, Majhi, Ghasi, Ganda, Santals were three households cach and Behra and Mahato two each and the remaining five groups were one household each. 31