Tea tribes: How Assam’s chaiwalas may spoil Modi’s cuppa

On a balmy afternoon in early February, as a bunch of middle-aged men engaged in a discussion about the coming elections and the foreigners’ issue in Assam at a roadside tea stall in Guwahati, the conversation suddenly veered to the “badly made” cup of saah (Assamese for tea). One said it was too sugary. Another complained it was totally xereka (too much water, very little milk).

If Assam is known for its obsession and pride with tea, the community that grows it lives a world away from the kettle of political discourse. It was only after 160 people, most of them tea garden workers, died drinking toxic ‘sulai’ (country liquor) on the evening of February 21 that their impoverished lives started making national headlines.

The BJP and Narendra Modi had promised a new life for them. And the tea tribes — a mix of tribals whose ancestors were brought by the British from the Chotta Nagpur division of present-day Jharkhand to work in the tea gardens of Assam — who can play a decisive role in one-third of Assam’s Lok Sabha seats are known to have switched to the BJP. But those promises remain unkept and the hooch tragedy only accentuated their bleak situation.

The bitter reality of tribal life

The latest hooch tragedy was the worst that the state has seen in many years. While the death toll rose to 160, many of those who survived, estimated to be more than 500, have lost their eyesight and are facing other health complications. Those affected are largely from the tea garden areas of Golaghat and neighbouring Jorhat districts.

The tragedy has jolted the BJP government in the state out of its slumber to crack down on the hooch syndicate. The government has now banned molasses which is widely used to make sulai in the state. The CM also wants tea tribes working in gardens and their periphery areas to attend awareness meetings on the evils of consuming such illegal country-made liquor.

But sulai is not the only poison flowing through the dingy labour lines of the tea estates and the slums in their periphery. Working on a daily wage less than ₹170 — ₹167 in Brahmaputra Valley and ₹145 in Barak Valley, the nearly 60 lakh (six million) tea garden workers have been struggling to overcome the lack of basic facilities, malnutrition, illiteracy, epidemic diseases like malaria and other vector-borne diseases, and sexual harassment of women both inside and outside tea gardens. While starvation is not very uncommon, addiction to locally brewed liquor is just one more woe that adds to the plight of these people.

Back in 2012, as many as 13 tea labourers died of starvation following a lockout in southern Assam’s Bhuban Valley Tea Estate. Even though there have been no reports of such high number of starvation deaths of late, activists working in the area say many of the diseases that kill the people of the community are a direct result of malnutrition and starvation.

Malnutrition, anaemia and maternal mortality for women working on tea plantations is unusually high. Assam has the highest maternal mortality rate in India, with over 237 maternal deaths per 1,00,000 live births. Infant mortality rate is 44 per 1,000 live births, the second highest in the country.

Nearly 1 lakh of the 3.5 lakh child labourers in the state (as per 2011 Census) work in tea gardens. While these children often become the victims of child trafficking, nearly 54% of the tea tribes’ population is illiterate.

Before the hooch tragedy hit them in February, the tea garden workers were bracing for a menacing March. Every year, with sporadic rain from March to monsoon a few months later, malaria and other vector-borne diseases claim a number of lives in the tea gardens.

But the biggest malady to hit the community is politics, says independent journalist and researcher Samir K Purkayastha.

The tea tribes, a unique Assam-specific ethnic group originating from a mix of tribes, mainly Adivasis, were first brought by British tea planters to the state from Chhota Nagpur division of present-day Jharkand in 1841. In present-day Assam, they form about 20 per cent of the total population of 3.12 crore. These tea garden workers are mostly spread across districts of western/lower Assam; Morigaon, Nagaon, Sonitpur and Darrang in central Assam; Golaghat, Jorhat, Sivasagar, Dibrugarh and Tinsukia in eastern/upper Assam; and North Cachar and Karbi Anglong districts in Barak Valley.

Adivasis in Assam can be broadly divided into two communities, the tea gardens workers and those who came out of the tea gardens at the end of the contract and settled in and around tea garden areas.

The state that produces nearly 51% of the country’s tea — the largest in India — has almost 850 tea estates. There are 112 different tea tribes in Assam. Politically, the community plays a decisive factor in about 45 of the state’s 126 Assembly constituencies (they have 8 MLAs in the Assembly). Their votes decide the fate of at least four of Assam’s 14 Lok Sabha seats.

2014 election

The results of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls saw a large section of the tea tribes, traditionally a Congress votebank, going to the BJP. Like many other parts of the country, Assam too was swept by the Modi wave that saw the BJP winning seven of the 14 seats in Lok Sabha and coming to power in the state in the 2016 Assembly elections for the first time. Two of the Lok Sabha seats were won by Kamakhya Prasad Tasa (Jorhat) and Rameshwar Teli (Dibrugarh), both from the tea tribe community. In the coming elections though, Tasa’s name has been dropped from the BJP’s list of candidates due to “poor performance”.

For the tea tribes, it was the BJP’s 2014 election promise of Scheduled Tribe (ST) status and a slew of measures to improve their condition that held the main attraction — a status, they believe, will help them overcome their main problems apart from quota benefits in government jobs and higher educational institutes. Assam is the only state in India where the community has been denied ST status. In other states of India, their counterparts — such as Mundas, Santhals, Kurukhs, Gonds, Bhumijs and nearly a dozen others — enjoy ST status.

In Assam, the ‘tea tribe’ community is included in the list of Other Backward Castes (OBC). The demand for inclusion of tea tribes in the ST list has always hit a hurdle with stiff resistance from existing ST groups who fear the new entrants would eventually cut into their privileges.

Wary of losing its votebank in the coming election, the BJP government at the Centre introduced a Bill in Parliament in January to grant ST status to the tea tribes and five other ethnic communities. As expected, the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order Amendment Bill, 2019 has met with severe opposition by existing ST communities.

But even if the proposed Bill becomes a law, it would leave 76 tea tribes out of the list. Following the introduction of the Bill, the Assam Tea Tribes Students’ Association (ATTSA) raised the demand that ST status should be granted to all the 112 tea tribes from Assam, and not just 36.

According to the current proposal, an estimated 25 lakh people of the tea tribe community will be eligible to get the ST status.

ATTSA activists say leaving out 76 tea tribes from the list will be a grave mistake and a great injustice for the tea tribe community of the state. It is believed the state government submitted the ethnographic reports of only 36 tea tribes to the Union ministry of tribal affairs. That is why only these 36 tribes have found a place in the ST list.

But the influential All Adivasi Students’ Association of Assam (AASAA) has supported the government’s move to include only 36 tea tribes in the ST list. AASAA general secretary Stephen Lakra believes that it’s not possible to include all the tea tribe communities in the ST list. “There are already scheduled castes and OBCs among the tea tribes. How can they be included in the ST list?” he told reporters at a press conference back in February. In the coming Lok Sabha elections, the seats which the BJP is contesting have a considerable chunk of voters belonging to six communities, including tea tribes, that have been demanding ST status. However, after failing to deliver its promise, the BJP is now trying to woo the tea tribes with budgetary sops.

According to Purkayastha, how these tea tribes vote could decide the fate of the elections in Assam. But ST status is not the only promise made to the community that would weigh in.

Ahead of the 2016 Assembly election, the BJP had promised to ensure that tea workers are paid ₹350 per day. Back in December last year, the Assam Chah Mazdoor Sangha reminded the ruling BJP government of its promise. “Modi often refers himself as a chaiwala, he is yet to fulfil his promises of assuring the minimum wage of tea workers,” general secretary Rupesh Gowala told reporters.

Although early last year Assam government announced a interim hike of ₹30 per day, it is still nowhere near the promised figure. In fact, the 26,000 workers under the 14 gardens of state-owned Assam Tea Company Limited are receiving a wage — ₹115 per day — even lower than what workers at private estates get. Minister of Tea Tribes Welfare, Pallab Lochan Das, recently said the government has set up a committee to revise the wage further. “We are waiting for the committee’s report,” he said.

Many in the community feel demoralised that the government waited for an election year budget — state budget was announced on February 6 — to give free rice and sugar to families living in tea gardens. The budget announced a slew of sops. (See graph)

In 2017, the government had launched Chah Bagicha Dhan Puraskar Mela for financial inclusion of the tea tribe community. The first portion of ₹2,500 each to over 7 lakh accounts of tea garden workers across 26 districts of Assam was transferred by direct benefit transfer only in January 2018. The second installment was cleared in December last year.

Why was the government waiting till now?

In his budget speech, state Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said it was a cruel irony that the members of the tea-garden community have not been able to taste the same “sweetness” in a “cup of tea” that millions world over rejoice from the tea leaves handpicked by the members of the community. “Now, we would like to ensure that ‘sugar’ finally reaches the kitchens of these families,” he added.

When reminded of this promise, many from the community recall a “tea-time story” told by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Ahead of the state assembly elections in 2016, Modi talked about his deep connection with the state as a “chaiwala”. “When I was a tea-seller, it was Assam tea I sold which refreshed people. I owe a debt to Assam for that,” the prime minister had said.

Modi is yet to pay the debt.