Tea Plantation Labour in India permanent. On the other hand, all those covered in Valparai taluk work on plantations. ~ The average annual household income for the entire sample is Rs 5325.68; in Nilgirisit is Rs. 5561.73 and in Valparaiitis Rs. 5066.26. The average annual income of a plantation worker is Rs 10,085.64, and that of an individua] having a non-plantation job is Rs. 6787.76. But as the dependent population is quite large, that is, 486 (45.8 per cent), the overall average annual income of a household gets reduced to Rs. 5325.68. The monthly average income for a household in Nilgiris is Rs. 463.48 and in Valparai it is Rs. 422.19. The monthly income of an individual worlking on a plantation is Rs. 840.47, and that of an individual working elsewhere is Rs. 561.48. But taking into consideration the ind d i e v p i e du n a d l ents, redu t c he es mon to thl Rs y , a 44 v 3 e . r 8 a 1 g . e i (T n a c b o l m e e o 2) f an Category of Workers Plantation Non-plantation Unemployed TABLE 2 Average Income of Plantation and Non-plantation Workers No. of Workers 531 43 486 Monihly Rs. 840.47 561.48 0.00 Annual Rs. 10,085.64 6,737.76 0.00 In the entire sample, 531 (50.1 per cent) people (all adults) are employed as plantation workers (including the 25 (2.4 per cent) in Coonoor taluk who work on the gardens of small growers). Of these, 257 (48.4 per cent) are men and 274 (51.6 per cent) are women; (87.87 per cen pe t r ) man a e r n e t te work m e p rs o . rary Of wor t k h e e rs 20 a 0 nd t 3 e 3 m 1 po ( r 6 a 2 r . y 33 200 per cent) are worlkers both in the permanent are women and 164 (49.55 per cent) are men. Women outnumber men 107 {50.45 per cent) as well as in the temporary category. ‘ lelpza_nt I at n l c o l n udin c g onte o x n t e . w T o h m e a y n ar f e rom dra 2 w 0 n h f o r u o s m eho 3 l 5 d househ . A small section comprising;43 (4.1 per cent) pecple has jobs outside olds (27 persons, s from the Nilgiris and 16 82 " , Tea Plantation Labour in Tamil Nadu persons, including three women, from 15 households from Valparai). The overall average size of these 35 households is 5.51(5.2 for the Nilgiris and 5.93 for Valparai); much higher than tha}t of our general sample. Twenty-three(53,48 per cent) of these 43 are in the age-group of 17 to 21 years, eleven(25.58 per cent) between 23 and 26 year's, eight(18.6 per cent) between 28 and 40 years, and only one person is over 50 years old, Of this 39 are men and four are women. Two women and 37 men are temporary workers, and only two men and two women have permanent jobs outside the plantations. All the fotn: women(one from the Nilgiris and three from Valparai) have passed Senior Secondary School. Two work as tailors(one each from Nilgiris and Valparai), and one as a midwife in a Primary Health Centre, and the fourth one is a Balwadi teacher. The latter two are permanent employees but their salaries are just Rs. 75, and Rs. 120 per month respectively. Of the two permanent men, one, an M.A,, is a clerk in the Bharatiyar Transport Corporation(BTC) and the other is a salesman in Khadi Bhavan; the latter earns about Rs. 600 per month. As can be seen, just one of the four permanent employees, that is, the one working with the BTC has a decent income, Rs. 3000 per month. Out of this sample of 43, five men are illiterate (three from Nilgiris and two from Valparai). All the three from Nilgiris work as daily wage labourers whenever they get to do so. The two from Valparai work in tea shops. In the case of two men from Nilgiris their wives work on the plantations, one as a temporary worker and the other oneis permanent. In the third case the parents of the twenty-year old unmarried person are permanent workers on a plantation. In the case of the men from Valparai, one’s wife is a permanent worker on a plantation; in the other case, the person’s mother is a permanent and the brother a temporary worker, : Of the remaining 34 from the sample, 11 are from Valparai and 28 from the Nilgiris. These men have between four to thirteen years of education; but they are all employed as masons, mechanics, cleaners (in trucks), tailors; some work for daily wages in tea shops, provision stores, etc. Income from jobs outside the plantation, is low; yet due to the saturation where jobs are concerned on the plantations people are forced to go out. Some amount of schooling, it appears, enables people to go out of the plantations and find jobs; but there are hardly any jobs 83