Ananda Kondo and Biren Shal, working in tea gardens 10km apart, share the same problem and the same dream. And today they share the same state of mind: Confused and hurt over the festering minimum daily wage issue.
“We are hearing about a hike in our daily wage for some time now but have not received it. It is a bit confusing for simple people like us. It is very difficult to run the household with the paltry Rs 167 (a day) we receive now. We also want a better tomorrow for our children,” says Kondo, 51, father of three daughters, at Deamoolie Tea Estate, about 530km east of Guwahati.
About 10 km away at Khobang Tea Estate, Shal, 36, echoes Kondo.
“Our wage is spent on buying essentials. There is nothing left for health care or the education of my two sons. It is becoming increasingly difficult to make ends meet with spiralling prices,” Shal says.
The eight lakh permanent garden workers in Assam’s 803 tea estates are hoping for an end to the confusion and uncertainty surrounding their wages.
Kondo and his colleague Sushen Tanti feel what they get — Rs 167 a day — or what has been announced by the BJP-led state government — Rs 217 — are “not enough”. After the government’s hike of Rs 50, planters moved Gauhati High Court challenging it, and then recently announced a unilateral increase of Rs 26.
The Congress has guaranteed a daily wage of Rs 365 within six hours if voted to power, which too has been termed “not enough”.
Tea workers are also quick to point out that those working in the unorganised sector get about Rs 350 a day along with food.
“We are not asking for the moon. We are asking for a wage that can help sustain us. The government and the management should resolve the wage issue promptly. What has been promised (by the BJP) should be implemented. Anything above that is welcome,” Shal tells The Telegraph. The BJP had promised a minimum wage of Rs 351 before the 2016 elections.
Minimum daily wage, a long-pending demand of the tea tribes, has emerged as a major issue in the upcoming three-phase Assembly elections in Assam beginning on March 27. Those familiar with the issue say it has never been debated and discussed as vigorously as now across the state’s tea belt.
Ironically, the Kondos, Tantis and the Shals play a decisive role in the outcome of 42 of the 126 Assembly seats in Assam, a reason for both the BJP and the Congress to go all out to retain or regain their support. Of Assam’s about 3.3 crore population, the tea/adivasi community makes up over a crore.
Organisations espousing the cause of the tea community in the state, such as the Assam Tea Tribes Students’ Association (ATTSA), All Adivasi Students’ Association of Assam (AASAA) and the Assam Chah Mazdoor Sangha (ACMS), are “unhappy” with the government and the planters over wages.
ATTSA’s Doomdooma unit president Babul Panika tells this newspaper after an awareness meeting at Deamoolie Tea Estate over the upcoming polls: “Why will the planters refuse to implement the recent hike of Rs 50 announced by the government? And did the government leave a scope for the planters to exploit and secure a stay (from court)?”
Panika has urged the workers to vote for the party that they think will work for their welfare, and ensure a minimum daily wage, Scheduled Tribe status and land rights.
The minimum daily wage got traction after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on February 14 announced in Sivasagar a daily wage of Rs 365 a day if his party comes to power. Subsequently, the Congress included the wage promise in its five guarantees to regain the trust of the tea community, which has mostly sided with the BJP since the 2014 elections.
The government responded with a hike of Rs 50 on February 20, taking the daily wage to Rs 217. But Gauhati High Court asked the government not to act against the Indian Tea Association and 17 tea companies till their plea against the hike is settled.
On March 22, the planters announced an interim hike of Rs 26 following a March 16 court order “that liberty should be given to the petitioners to pay to the workmen any interim enhancement of their wages as they deem proper, till the issue is finally decided by the court”.
Both the AASAA and the ACMS have flayed the “unilateral” decision.
“The planters were not keen to give Rs 50 and now they have unilaterally announced the Rs 26 hike four days ahead of elections. Was it to calm down the workers? The government and the planters have shown they are not pro-worker,” AASAA president Stephen Lakra told this correspondent from Dhekiajuli, over 410km from Doomdooma.
Amid the BJP and the Congress’s intense battle to win the support of the tea community, Lakra’s parting shot was telling: Everyone wants our vote and cheap labour but don’t want to give us our due.
