Tea Plantation Labour in India The lack of proper education of the children of plantation workers is bound to affect their occupational mobility in future. These children, like their parents, will be doomed to work as plantation workers with little or no possibilities of their moving to better or skilled occupations. The survey on labour in tea estates therefore throws up that the overall situation is not very good. Despite several decades of progress and the steady increase in tea prices, plantation workers have remained less developed and isolated. Several factors are responsible for this state of affairs but the most important is the apathetic attitude of the employers towards labour welfare. Unfortunately, though managements all over the world are recognising the fact that labour can be an asset through development of human resources, the managements in tea estates are still living in a pre-industrial age. They are unable to comprehend that Iabour welfare is not a drain on their coffers, it could in fact lead to much higher productivity which the industry needs very ?adly if it wants to increase production to meet the growing demand or tea. ‘ Though the government has passed protective legislation aimed at job security and cultural development, it has not ensured that these are effective. The trade unions too have not taken up issues relating to %abour welfare very'seriously. For instance, though there have been industry-wide movements in West Bengal over wages, there has never been any such movement for the implementation of the Plantation Labour Act. The sufferer is obviously the worker. . Urgent Issues The present problems of plantation labour and their families have their roots in the historic process of the plantation system. During the early years plantations faced the problems of shortage of labour but they did not allow a labour market to develop in order to keep wages low. The plantationfs preferred to employ forced labour who were bound to work on plantations at the low wages offered. In order to perpetuate such a system the employers had to ensure that first local labour, even if available, was not employed. These peoplé would have better bargaining power and if they felt that wages were not adequate, they could return to their earlier occupations. Migrant 114 Conclusion labour was therefore seen as one of the means of having a captive labour force. Secondly, the regions surrounding the plantations had to remain backward so that the existing labour force had no other source of employment other than work on plantations. For example, in Dooars the Forest Department tried to lure plantation workers to cultivate forests by offering them eultivable land. This was strongly opposed by the planters’ lobby and the government had to look for forest labour elsewhere, The growth of plantations and their large labour force would encourage local industries to meet the growing needs of the workers and the planters. However, this did nothappen and instead the planters preferred to import most of the goods from elsewhere rather than have them produced in the region. These included the crude goods needed by the workers such as cloth, umbrellas and even foodgrains. In this way they ensured that the region outside the plantations remained undeveloped and the plantations emerged as énclaves within abackward area,: These methods may have served the objectives of the planters of having a captive labour force but when this system continued even after the problems of labour shortage were overcome it created new problems for the plantation workers and their families. The. large numbers of unemployed within the families of the workers looked towards the plantations for gainful employment. The employers were ­again in an advantageous position because now they could continue to Jkeep wages low by employing family members of the workers. Many of these people work as casual labour on the plantatiofig'. The employers used this ag another means to keep wages lows They indicate to the permanent workers that if they demand highéer wages the number of . temporaryworkers will be reduced. Such a move will decrease the family income as fewer members will be employed. Hence even though there is a labour market, it is heavily tilted in. favour of the employers. : This situation can be eased to some extent if the government takes ­up some measures. First, there is a need to create new av.enu-es of members of the workers. Education is an important means of achiev e i m n p g loym t e hi n s t . The for p t o h p e ula f t a i m o i n l ­y in the plantations . need better schooling facilities. It is also necessaxy to establish centres where technical training will be given to the new generation so that they can take up other activities. It is significant that there are no 115