It's just after dawn on the Ramjhora estate in northern Bengal. In this remote region, not far from India's border with Bhutan, tea has been the bedrock of the local economy for more than 150 years.
But five years ago this estate was shut down when the owner packed up abruptly leaving unpaid salaries and no alternative employment.
Weeds are now infesting the tea bushes, buildings are abandoned, and estate workers say that they have been slowly dying because they are not eating enough food.
Exact numbers are hard to pin down. But one study released recently estimates that more than 700 people have died in this region in little more than a year from malnutrition.
Not enough food
One of the community leaders at Ramjhora, Prahlad Sharma, says local people want to work, and they're desperate for help.
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This article provides another view of the area, compared to the mostly positive article in the New York Times.
Aloke, You may want to be in touch with Ankit Lochan. The Lochans are doing what they can to protect workers rights in the Indian Tea Industry. A great deal has been written of this effort on T'Ching. Shen
On Oct 16, 3:24 pm, Ankit Lochan snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote:
hi Aloke
I am afraid that unfortunately more old garden workers of Dooars area of West Bengal will be sucked into this dreadful situation like that of Ramjhora workers, in forthcoming years. Let us have a look at the present scenario of CTC tea production in Dooars area (and this scenario is applicable to other tea areas in India like Assam etc.) New tea plantations have come up on the land which was used earlier for paddy or any crop ( even illegal utilization of forest land ) other than tea, since eighties ( in these years, the Indian tea prices were remunerative till the year 1999). Let us call the owners of these tea plantations "Small growers". The overall cost of production per kg of green leaf with small growers is much less due to higher productivity of labour, higher productivity of land and less overhead costs. In short. Small growers are more efficient in every respect and hence more suitable for survival. The Green leaf from these new tea bushes are sold by the small growers to the "Bought leaf Factories", which buy green leaf from small growers at a price which gives them some profit to process tea green leaf into CTC teas. These "Bought leaf factories"will buy the leaf only, when they are able to make some profit and it is mainly the price of green leaf per kg which keeps them operational for making some profit , besides their less cost of processing leaves and along with their less over head costs and better efficiency. Both of these "Small growers"and "Bought leaf factories" are at liberty to stop their respective operations , any time it is not remunerative to their operations.
So one way we can look at the situation is that COMPOSITE gardens UNITS like Ramjhora had two types/part of operations One part - the production of green leaf (role of small growers) And other part - processing of green leaf and sale of CTC teas( role of bought leaf factories ) And gardens like Ramjhora can not be operational on their own strength till either their cost of total cost of production is less than the sale price or the Indian CTC prices jump up or the Government of India comes to rescue. And what is applicable to Ramjhora is going to be applicable to one of our dooars gardens also, I am afraid ( though no one who is connected with this garden in any way, will like that to happen)- by name of New Glencoe. Under the same management is another Dooars garden by Name of Soongachi which has an yield of 2500 KMTH where as New Glencoe has a yield of 1700 kgs per hectare. (Any one interested to know the reasons for the same is invited to visit us and our garden).
S.M. Changoiwala, Director Gopaldhara Tea Co Pvt LTD. KOLKOTA, INDIA Gardens- Darjeeling-Gopaldhara, Avongrove, Rohini Dooars - Soongachi and New Glencoe email- snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com website-
Thanks for the update. This is indeed a sorry state of affairs. But, I'm afraid that the laws of demand and supply will apply for tea that is being grown for the commodity market. Maybe that's why the higher priced Darjeeling plantations are doing OK. They can get the prices they need to survive.
For the CTC, the solution is to either raise the demand (how?) or reduce supply. The article describes the unfortunate effects of reducing the supply.
Or manufacture different tea from the leaves. For (just one) example, it's no secret that the Pu'er boom is inducing manufacturers to buy maocha from Burma. In Dooars, I believe, a similar assamica variety is being grown, and sun-drying should be no problem.
In saying this, I don't mean to be flippant or to minimize the difficulty both bosses and workers are in. I also don't mean to imply that making Pu'er-style maocha is an idea I dreamed up myself!
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