The Darjeeling tea industry located in the core of the Eastern Himalayas is one of the oldest and most famous tea ventures in India. Darjeeling, which has been producing the best varieties of orthodox tea for decades, is facing serious problems from low yield to poor health of workers, steadily falling prices to fleeing management, old and fledgling tea bushes to competition from new estates and falling production to militancy among the workers. All these have not only dislocated thousands of workers but also brought about visible social and political tensions in the region. The tea industry in Darjeeling has been on a steady decline for several years. To a large extent, the decline is due to the deliberate neglect by estate owners, the West Bengal government (in the last decade, the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council) and of course the trade unions. 

Whose Tea is it Anyway

All the major indicators have badly suffered in the unique tea gardens of Darjeeling that is famous for the “winter pause and spring growth phenomenon.” The land under tea cultivation has gone down from 20,247 hectares in 1905 to less than 14,000 hectares today, the number of tea gardens from 148 to less than 80 and the yield per hectare from over 600 kg to less than 400 kg.  What is more worrisome is the fact that ownership has been usurped by merchant capitalists, who have neither any knowledge of the tea estates nor any attachment with them. They also don’t have any long-term interest in the gardens. These merchant capitalists who are ignorant of the historical past of tea gardens, cultural and livelihood practices in the hills and local socio-political ethos own one or two gardens each. They treat the gardens, which have long been suffering from the law of diminishing returns like a milching cow and abandon them at their whims and fancies.   Well-known tea companies like Goodricke and Tatas have quietly withdrawn. It is actually the part-time tea companies who manage the Darjeeling tea industry today.

As a result, most of the tea bushes have outlived their productive cycle. Over 70 per cent of them would be more than 100 years old. Though replantation and rejuvenation has been much talked- about, only some cosmetic changes are done here and there. The management does not want to undergo the loss of profit during the gestation period of 5-8 years after the replantation, They are impatient and try hard to get whatever little from the old bushes. This is done through overdoses of dangerous fertilizers and pesticides. Naturally, some of the developed countries have rightfully highlighted the high doses of pesticide residues in Darjeeling tea and even banned import of the tea. But this does not affect the psyche of the merchant capitalists. However, no one even knows how much of damage it is doing to the local environment, flora and fauna and the livelihood practices including bee keeping and dairying. Its deleterious impact on the workers’ health is not at all discussed.

The tea gardens remained neglected and marginalised in many ways. Except a few gardens owned by Goodrick and some others, all the companies blatantly violated the provisions of the 1951 Tea Plantation Act. The workers remained deprived of even the basic needs including hospitals and primary education. The number of tuberculosis patients in the gardens today far exceeds the number outside. Since they were owned by private agencies, the tea gardens never received any government help, including the benefits of the national poverty alleviation programmes. More seriously, even after the 73rd amendment of the Constitution, the Panchayati Raj Act was extended to the estates only recently that too after long political chicaneries and highhandedness. The provident fund defaults are at its peak. Social security measures for the workers remain far-fetched. Casualisation of workers remains an institutionalised practice.  The number of workers, which stood at 60,979 in 1961, is now drastically reduced to less than 29,000.  A striking difference is that the British companies under the colonial regime used to throw their workers out under the whimsical pretext popularly called “hatta bahira”. Now the workers apply  “hatta bahira’ to the ever fragile owners and management.

Trade Unions Too Have to Take the Blame

A study, Tea Plantation Workers in the Eastern Himalayas (Atma Ram & Sons, New Delhi, 1987), conducted in 1985-86 covering the entire tea industry of Darjeeling, showed that during the period 1979-1983 about 90 per cent of the strikes and bandhs in these gardens were caused by “sympathetic political reasons.” Only a few strikes took place on issues that directly concerned the workers, including ration supply, wages, leave and housing.

Trade unions have compromised their position in return for nothing. They have long given up the fight for the rights of the workers. They are only intervening and struggling for survival. The recent case of Glenburn tea estate is a telling example. The management of the estate, which fled in October 2003, negotiated a “settlement” with the Himalayan Plantation Workers’ Union in February 2004 under which 300 workers would be laid off to facilitate the reopening of one tea garden. Such a settlement was unprecedented.  More alarming was the fact that other trade unions remained silent on the settlement that would have far-reaching impact on the workers.

Uncertain Future

Many gardens remain closed today. Some gardens have changed hands four times in six years. The uncertainty and deprivation it generates among the workers is well known. The government-owned gardens have been the biggest failure. The prices fetched by Darjeeling tea in the international market always remained an enigma. The workers generally know only about the falling prices when their wages and fringe benefits are adversely affected. On the other hand, the management never relates the better prices fetched by their tea with any effort to improving the conditions of the tea workers. 

In the absence of any effective handling by the trade unions and the governments, it is a straight fight between the estate owners and the workers. It is today a costly bargain, a narrow choice between keeping the gardens open and abandoning the fundamental rights of the workers.  The workers are the ultimate sufferers. The hill economy is bearing the real brunt. The society remains fragmented and violent.

Short Term and Long Term Solutions

In the short run, individual ownership of gardens, particularly by the trading class, should be banned. A company must have stakes in at least five gardens. No company should be given to own and run just one garden. Besides the provision for basic amenities, the management should devote 5-10 per cent of the total sale proceeds to community welfare. This should be matched by the grant from the government. All the development projects and programmes should be refocussed by both the governmental and non-governmental agencies including the UNDP and other donor agencies. This would enable workers to opt for alternative livelihood practices. There should be massive reorientation for workers in the changing scenario.

In the long run, replantation is the only option. Compulsory replantation by the owners with the support of financing agencies, at the rate of 5-10 per cent per annum, needs to be instantly implemented. The Ambootia and Makaibari experiments with the harvesting of organic tea have been successful. This practice needs to be replicated in a more scientific and organised manner. This will also match the changing demand pattern in the world tea market. The Darjeeling tea should be steadily withdrawn from the auction centres and put more in direct sale mode and channels. There are scores of buyers particularly in the Europe and East Asia, including Japan, who aspire to buy tea directly from the gardens. Fair trading is another possibility which needs to be explored in an imperative manner.

It is essential to have a patent on Darjeeling tea as there could be claims from several agencies and countries after the Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) under WTO comes into effect. In other words, the Darjeeling tea today requires a massive and protracted intervention at three levels. A coalition in the international market-price management and safeguard of workers is the first level of action. Legislation for rejuvenating the gardens and amending the tea exclusive Plantation Act with a national regulatory authority is the other. At the local level, what is required is the implementation of the provisions of all acts and legislative measures and regulated management practices that make workers more productive, forward looking and dynamic.