Archive for October, 2008

Are there any constitutions to protect the tea workers?

October 13, 2008 · Filed under Tea plantation workers · Tagged , , ,

Photography: Salman Saeed

The condition of the forlorn tea workers depict many kinds of abuse, discrimination and deprivation that are very difficult to overcome. There are constitutional safeguards,laws and mechanisms intended to ensure human dignity, but for the tea workers human dignity is only a dream. Their conditions violate the maximum provisions of the Bangladesh Constitution, different instruments, laws and rules that commit social, economic and human dignity. The SAARC Social Charter, in the hands of the South Asian States, upholds the same commitment. It’s implementation is a big challenge indeed.

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Relationship of Tea Workers With Managers

October 9, 2008 · Filed under Tea plantation workers · Tagged , , ,

Photography: Salman Saeed.

Social and economic distance of the tea workers with their Bengali supervisors including the managers is much wider. Francis Rolt, a British writer, gives a vivid description of the severe discriminatory conduct of the hierarchy towards the tea workers: “the tea gardens are managed as an extreme hierarchy: the managers live like gods, distant, unapproachable, and incomprehensible. Some even begin to believe that they are gods, that they can do exactly what they like.”

“Managers have anything up to a dozen laborers as their personal, domestic servants. They are made to tie the managers shoe lace, to remind them that they are under managerial control and that they are bound to do whatever they are asked,” writes another British human rights activist, Dan Jones.

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Language

October 9, 2008 · Filed under Tea plantation workers · Tagged , ,

Photography: Salman Saeed.

The tea workers are completely cut off from their origins in India. They can only partly recall the languages of their forefathers. They speak “a sort of distorted Hindi” that passes as a common language on the tea estates. They also speak in Deshali, which is a mixture of Bengali and language of Orissa. Their accents while speaking in Deshali testify their cultural corrosion.

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Dependency

October 9, 2008 · Filed under Tea plantation workers · Tagged , , ,

Photography: Salman Saeed

The tea workers are so much cornered that they depend solely on the companies for food, medicine, accomodations, education, etc. They do not have choices about their life and amenities. That is because they do not have a social standing in Bangladesh.

The only social relationship that exists between the tea workers and the Bengalis is one of business. The Bengalis own majority of the shops in the area. On the weekly holiday,Sunday, some of the tea workers work in Bengali houses. But the Bengalis would hardly allow them into their houses. They treat them as untouchables. Glasses, plates, or other equipment are generally kept separate for the tea workers. However, among themselves whatever their identity or origin, the tea workers maintain quite good relations.

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