On 15 December 2008, the fourth International Tea Day (ITD) was observed in all tea producing countries. In India, trade unions, in particular UTUC, INTUC, HMS and AITUC, organised the event under the facilitation of the Centre for Education and Communication (CEC), a labour resource centre in New Delhi.

On 15 December every year, tea producing countries across the World observe the ITD to draw the attention of governments and citizens on the impact of tea trade on workers, small growers and consumers. The decision to observe the ITD on this day was taken after deliberations among various international organisations and trade unions during the World Social Forum in Mumbai (2004) and Porte Allegre (2005). Subsequently, ITD is observed in major tea producing countries such as Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Indonesia, Kenya, Malawi, Malaysia, Uganda, India and Tanzania.

As part of the ITD, tea workers in India organised a seminar on 14 December 2008 and a public meeting on the 15th in Birpara, Jalpaiguri.

The theme for this year`s ITD was `Empowering Women Workers in Tea Plantations`. Workers from almost 50 plantations participated in the meeting, which concluded with the adoption of the `Trade Union Declaration on Women in Tea plantations`.

The seminar discussed the topic, `Strategies for Empowering Women Workers in Tea Plantations`. Geeta Sengupta, Chairperson, Women Development Council, Government of West Bengal, said at the seminar that the empowerment of women is linked with the human rights, and education plays an important role in the process of empowerment. Abani Roy, MP and General Secretary, United Trades Union Congress, pointed out that the fight for the empowerment of tea workers is ultimately a fight for livelihood.

The public meeting in Birpara on 15 December was addressed by important trade union leaders from West Bengal. All the speakers noted that there is need for empowerment of women in the tea plantations and society at large. The key issues of the meeting were `Implications of Globalisation and Market Integration`, `Violation of Labour Rights in the Tea Industry`, `Unity of the Trade Union Movement`, `Leadership of Women in Trade Unions` and `Awareness Generation`.

The declaration adopted, recognised the problems of women workers and called for year-long programmes, focusing on these problems. The programmes will be organised at three levels, namely, garden-level meetings and awareness generation programmes, state and regional-level meetings/conferences/seminars and a national colloquium on the empowerment of women workers in tea gardens.

When the trade unions joined hands to observe ITD, the small tea growers, under the aegis of the Confederation of Indian Small Tea-growers Association (CISTA), had organised an exhibition, a rally and a public meeting in Islampur, West Bengal. Around 1,000 small tea growers (STGs) from eight tea producing states in India met to celebrate the ITD. At the public meeting, Ashok Bhattacharya, Minister for Urban Development, West Bengal, expressed his satisfaction with the quality improvement of tea produced by the STGs. The Islampur MLA, Sayeda Farahat, emphasised the need for Tea Board schemes to percolate to the STGs.