In Tamil Nadu’s Nilgiris, Tea Estate Workers’ Union Demands Basic Amenities

The Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu is a major tea-producing area. The district has an abundance of tea gardens, which are a feast for the eyes, like a green blanket draped over the lap of a hill. Numerous tea estates are owned by both government and private companies here. Various parties have demanded that the major companies, which own 1000 to 2000 hectares of land, should provide basic facilities to the people working there. A few tea estates are functioning successfully with excellent wages for the workers, medical facilities and educational facilities for children. The tea estates here are earning good profits by exporting tea powder to various countries after getting ISO certification. The workers of the tea estates yearned to renovate the old houses of the people working there, provide them with basic toilets, door-to-door drinking water and medical facilities and pay them a wage befitting their work.

Union president Uthagai Siva says that despite several petitions to government officials on important issues, no success has been achieved. “We submitted a petition to the district collector to resolve their basic problems through our trade association. He said that we have asked the concerned departments to personally visit their residential areas”, he said.

Thousands of tea workers are employed in the tea estates of the Nilgiris district. The union demanded that the estate management should pay the workers the salary, bonuses and labour rights that they are entitled to when the goods are exported.

Referring to the lifestyle of the tea plantation workers and the petition to the collector, Nilgiris Plantation Workers People’s Development Association chairman Uthagai Siva said, “The tea workers in Nilgiris district have been working here for four generations as tea workers from Trichy and surrounding districts. They still live in the houses built about 80 years ago”. “We need help to get basic facilities,” he said, adding: “They are not provided with basic facilities like education, drinking water, roads, and medical care. These factories operating in different countries with ISO certification also have to take care of the lives of the workers. For this reason, the government should send the relevant officials to look into the situation.