![](\"https:\/\/s25491.pcdn.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/WTN191029_SLIDE768x428px_OxfamAssam_Grocery-by-DWBolton.jpg\")
Workers on tea estates in Assam currently receive the equivalent of just $0.04 per 100g of bagged black tea sold to consumers. Increasing this amount by the equivalent $0.10 would enable a living wage, according to Oxfam. Photo by DB World <\/p>\n Workers on tea estates in Assam currently receive the equivalent of just $0.04 per 100g of bagged black tea sold to consumers. Increasing this amount by the equivalent $0.10 would enable a living wage, according to Oxfam. Photo by DB World <\/p>\n
JORHAT<\/strong>, Assam<\/p>\n A report by Oxfam International likely to discourage UK supermarkets from sourcing tea in Assam, due to working conditions at origin, incited a storm locally with tea planters who warned Oxfam to retract its findings. Critics questioned the methods used to calculate wages and cited a miscalculation of worker benefits in the report.<\/p>\n Oxfam is a confederation of 20 independent charitable organizations focusing on the alleviation of global poverty, with its headquarters in Kenya, a major tea exporting country. Assam produces more than half of India\u2019s tea. <\/p>\n Advertisement <\/p>\n The Oxfam study was conducted jointly with the Tata Institute of Social Sciences and the UK\u2019s Bureau for the Appraisal of Social Impacts for Citizen Information (BASIC). The report, titled \u2018 \u2014 An agenda for change to respect, protect and fulfill human rights on Assam tea plantations<\/em>, is based on interviews with 510 workers at 50 tea estates supplying international tea brands and supermarket private label brands.<\/p>\n \u201cWorkers on tea plantations in the Assam region of India are systematically denied their rights to a living wage and decent working and living conditions,\u201d according to the report, adding, \u201cHalf of households interviewed receive government \u2018below poverty line\u2019 ration cards. A third experience recurrent debt. Some workers have remained in the same pay grade for 15-20 years.\u201d<\/p>\n Oxfam International writes that \u201cthe root causes are deeply embedded in the history and evolution of the Indian tea industry, which has led to a pervasive inequality of power between the women and men who produce tea and the brands and supermarkets that sell it to consumers.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFor every kilogram of packaged Assam tea that is sold, tea brands and supermarkets take a sizable cut \u2013 up to 95% in some cases \u2013 while a marginal proportion \u2013 less than 5% \u2012 remains on tea estates to pay workers,\u201d according to the Oxfam report.<\/p>\n Planters responded: \u201cSuggesting in any way that people should stop sourcing tea from Assam is not only irresponsible, it is demeaning to everyone who has put their sweat, blood, and tears into maintaining the quality and efficiency of a tax-paying industry which supports not only the people working for them but all ancillary businesses built around it.\u201d<\/p>\n India Tea Association secretary general Arijit Raha told <\/em>, Oxfam\u2019s study came to conclusions on issues based on findings in some tea gardens that did not reflect the true picture of the industry.<\/p>\n \u201cThe study has drawn reference through an illustration on how much of the price consumers pay for tea is received by the worker. The analysis, regrettably, has left out the share of the price being paid to the producer organisations providing employment to the workers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n ITA gardens bear 50% of the social and infrastructural costs mandated by the Plantation Labour Act. Oxfam\u2019s calculations were based on 13-hour workdays \u201cwhen none in plucking worked more than seven hours a day,\u2019 said Raha.<\/p>\n Conditions cited in the report could be made better, according to senior planters who provided a written rebuttal, noting \u201creal issues that people on the ground face\u201d include but are not limited to gender insensitivity, alcoholism, lack of proper skill-based education, and cultural taboos, according to planters.<\/p>\n Wage Progress<\/strong><\/p>\n The report notes that Assam government\u2019s commitment to increase the minimum wages of tea plantation workers to $4.50 per day (INRs351) has met with hurdles tied to the financial viability of the sector. Last year workers in the Brahmaputra River Valley received an increase to INRs167 ($2.43) per day. Wages in the Barak Valley were increased to INRs145 ($2.11) per day. Recently workers were awarded the maximum 20% year-end holiday bonus. Nationally India legislators are pressing for a minimum wage of INRs350, a little more than $5 per day.<\/p>\n See, <\/p>\n \u201cAs an industry, in the last 20 years, the owners and workers have survived by being equitable to each other whether it was amenities, wages, bonuses, or lock downs, thus ensuring the quality of the world\u2019s best tea,\u201d counter planters.<\/p>\n The statement continues: \u201cInstead of maligning the reputation of over a million people which might cause further unemployment, a better way would have been to identify issues on the ground and solutions to overcome them, which is how we work. The report carelessly \u2018addressed\u2019 a few issues such as living conditions and the lack of healthcare facilities. Please note that the living conditions of housing complexes are what the people living in them make it. Workforces and their families are provided accommodation, access to healthcare, rations, job security, job prospects for future generations, over and above the wages and bonuses, they earn. Bonuses constitute approximately 20% profits in addition to the salary.\u201d<\/p>\n Supermarkets Targeted<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cSupermarkets and tea brands in India retain more than half (58.2%) of the final consumer price of black processed tea sold in the country, with just 7.2% remaining for workers (using plucking costs as a proxy indicator of labor costs),\u201d according to the report. Supermarkets and tea brands retain some INRs40.4 ($0.61) from the sale of a typical 200g package of black tea priced at INRs68.8 ($1.06) while workers collectively receive just INRs4.95 ($0.08) per pack.<\/p>\n Workers on tea estates in Assam currently receive the equivalent of just $0.04 per 100g of bagged black tea sold to consumers. Increasing this amount by the equivalent $0.10 would enable a living wage, according to Oxfam.<\/p>\n Oxfam ethical trade manager Rachel Wilshaw was quoted in <\/em>: \u201cDespite some pockets of good practice, supermarkets\u2019 relentless pursuit of profits continues to fuel poverty and human rights abuses in their supply chains. \u201cSupermarkets must do more to end exploitation, pay all their workers a living wage, ensure women get a fair deal, and be more transparent about where they source their products.\u201d<\/p>\n She added: \u201cSupermarkets are snapping up the lion\u2019s share of the price we pay at the till but the workers who toil for hours to harvest tea and fruit face inhumane working conditions and are paid so little they can\u2019t even feed their families.\u201d<\/p>\n Peter Andrews, head of sustainability at the British Retail Consortium (BRC) which represents the UK\u2019s major supermarkets said, \u201cour members are working hard to address existing injustices and continue to collaborate internationally with charities and business groups on this vital issue.\u201d<\/p>\n Oxfam India enlisted a Bollywood actor who hails from Assam to on their behalf in a one-minute . In the clip he uses poetry to describe the \u201cpathetic\u201d condition of the labor force in the Assam. Actor Adil<\/em> Hussain, star of the show English Vinglish<\/em> and a member of the cast of Star Trek: Discovery<\/em>, described the plight of workers who refrain from drinking water when they are thirsty due to sanitary concerns. <\/p>\n He says (loosely translated from Hindi): \u201cThe thing about the tea estate workers is different here (Assam). They don\u2019t drink too much water because there is neither a bathroom, nor the freedom to use it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe truth behind these smiling faces is really something else. The helplessness of those exploited for 160 years is something else after all.\u201d<\/p>\n Support us as we work together to uplift the conditions of over a million tea estate workers, appeals Hussian.<\/p>\n The planters said if one really wanted to ease the plight of the workers, they should encourage more people to invest in Assam tea and source more of the tea directly from the gardens to ensure that there is enough money to pay suggested daily wages so they can \u201cgo over and above providing alternate income sources, education, and a better lifestyle for the workforces and their families.\u201d<\/p>\n The industry is experiencing an \u201cobvious lurch\u201d with tea sales at an all-time low. Prices at auction are determined on the whims of blenders, traders, brokers, and other middlemen, not on the owners or the workers, they say.<\/p>\n Unless the report by Oxfam is retracted, the group of planters warned that researchers may not be welcomed as in the past. \u201cIf they ever come back for any purpose, research, development, or otherwise, they might face a lot of opposition, not by the management, but by the workforce itself.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cGeneralising based on inaccurate facts harms the reputation of the industry and its workers and also tarnishes the image of Indian tea, which has a pride of place in the world,\u201d said ITA\u2019s Raha.<\/p>\n Sources: , , , <\/em><\/p>\n Workers on tea estates in Assam currently receive the equivalent of just $0.04 per 100g of bagged black tea sold to consumers. Increasing this amount by the equivalent $0.10 would enable a living wage, according to Oxfam. Photo by DB World JORHAT, Assam A report by Oxfam International likely to discourage UK supermarkets from sourcing<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/s25491.pcdn.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/WTN191029_SLIDE768x428_OxfamAssam_tea-aisle_AS293154424.jpeg\")
Workers on tea estates in Assam currently receive the equivalent of just $0.04 per 100g of bagged black tea sold to consumers. Increasing this amount by the equivalent $0.10 would enable a living wage, according to Oxfam. Photo by Adobe Stock. <\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/s25491.pcdn.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/WTN191029_OxfamAssam_grocery-shopper_AS218838215.jpeg\")
Supermarkets retain two-thirds of the consumer price while workers in Assam get less than 5% according to Oxfam International. Photo by Adobe Stock. <\/p>\n\n
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