Teo Plantation Labour in India From the table one finds that Tantis, Lohars, Karamkars, Muras, Mundas, Bhumijs are found in tea gardens of both Jorhat and Dibrugarh districts. This shows that their spread is much wider than the other groups. Oraons are numerically the single largest group in our sample. But they are mainly confined to an estate in Dibrugarh. In fact, 31 out of 39 Oraon households came from just one of the gardens. The ethnic composition shows that the labourers come not only from groups which in the place of their origin were identified as tribes but also from caste groups, Tantis, Lohars, Karamkars, Kumars, Patras, Gwalas, Nayaks, etc. are the major caste groups in tea gardens and form a substantial segment of the tea garden population. In our sample, they represent 40 to 50 per cent of the total households. Tribal groups do enjoy a slight numerical advantage vis-a-vis the caste groups but they represent a much larger va?iety of social groups in terms of their ethnicity. We have looked into the age and sex compositions of the workers in | the four gardens. The data on this aspect is given in Table 17. Out of 452 workers employed in four tea gardens in the districts, 250 (55.3 per cent) were males and 202 (44.7 per cent) females. OF ali the worker s and over 28 per cent in the age group of 25 to 34 years. employed, over 38 per cent each were in the age group of 15 to 24 years workers employed da b t el a ow on 14 ch y i e l a d rs la wa b s our only The n f u i m ve b , er In v o i f ew of the fact that is still su Seems quite intriguing, bstantial at the State level, this figure TABLE 17 Ago Structure of Labour Force Surveyed Jorhal Age Mule Female Dib i rugarh Male Female Tolal Below 14 1 15-24 32 2 1 gg ~ :gi | 27 25 G 1; ’?g 4 35 42 24 128 ;5-04 32 25 65 17 53 175 5-64 16 20 i 60 8. 4 Nil Nil 12 Total 117 107 133 95 452 a8 Living Conditions of Tea Estote Labourers in Assam The level of education among the plantation labourers has been generally very low. Table 18 shows that out of 452 workers employed, 81.85 per cent had no formal schooling whatsoever. Nearly 6 per cent had schooling upto primary level and over 13 per cent had secondary and higher secondary level of education. Out of 87 educated workers 61 were from Dibrugarh district. This shows that the educational status is somewhat better in Dibrugarh than in Jorhat of the six workers who passed higher secondary, one was from Jorhat and the others from Dibrugarh and that too from just one garden. It is interesting to note that at the time of survey there were larger number of workers with secondary and higher secondary educational levels than primary level, the number of educated at the latter level being 27. It also needs to be noted that out of 87 workers, with different levels of education, 60 were the heads of various households. TABLE 18 Status of Education of Labourers Education Status Nliterate Primary Secondary Higher Secondary Total dorhat Male Female 93 1056 12 3 9 1 1 Nil 115 109 Dibrugarh Male Female Total 88 84 370 8 4 27 32 T 49 b Nil 6 133 95 452 A very large proportion of labourers’ children do not go to school. (See Table 19) The situation is far more deplorable in Jorhat. In fact in one of its gardens the enrolment is as low as 15. The position seems slightly better in Dibrugarh but even here one finds some diserepancy between the official data and the data of our survey with regard to Garden C. On official record Garden C has shown a very favourable trend as far as children’s education is concerned, Our survey does not Support such claim. In Garden D of Dibrugarh the picture is slightly better. This may be due to the fact that there was higher level of education among the workers themselves in comparison to the workers in other gardens. 39