“The rights of the tea workers have remained neglected for a long time. The journalists, through their professional aptitude, have a responsibility to raise their issues and have them included in the national agenda,” said Rambhajan Kairi, General Secretary, Bangladesh Cha Sramik Union (BCSU) at the inauguration of the workshop.

Kairi criticized portrayal of happy images of the tea workers in advertisements printed and aired by the media. Thus the plights of the tea workers remain concealed.

Ranadhir Kumar Dev, Chairman of Srimangal Upazila Parishad confessed, “I cannot play my role for the people (tea workers) who voted me to where I am; I rather serve the interest of the owners. In conflict of interest between the owners and the workers, it is the owners who always control us.”

In addition to skill sharing for journalistic writing and research, the participants themselves (working journalists), officials of the government agencies involved with tea industry, local leaders, university professors, trade union leaders representing tea workers, and adivasi leaders shared their insights and thoughts on the condition and struggles of the tea workers and the little-known ethnic communities.

The tea gardens of Bangladesh (157) in the Northeast and Southeast are established on about 114000 hectares of public land granted for production of tea.

Prokash Kanti Chowdhury, ADC (revenue) of Moulvibazar district said “Nothing is said about the land rights of the tea workers in the lease deeds for land between the tea garden owners and the government. This is a leverage for the owners to stay passive about the rights of the tea workers,”

Chowdhury also mentioned, “40% to 45% of the workforce in the tea gardens remains in staggering unemployment. We have sent a list of 40 ethnic communities we find in the tea gardens to the Ministry of Cultural Affairs so that they get state attention in order for them to access job opportunities outside the tea gardens.”

Md. Haroon-Or-Rashid, director of Project Development Unit (PDU), an important wing of Bangladesh Tea Board (BTB) gave his opinions: “The trade union leaders are there to bargain with the owners. The government has little role in this regard.” Bijoy Bunarjee, a trade union leader disagreed, “The government should play an effective role to ensure the rights of the tea workers.”

“When an Adivasi is killed or raped, we get an assignment to cover,” said S.M. Atik, a journalist from Rajshahi working for Daily New Age. “This workshop has opened up our minds and hearts about many issues on rights, culture, languages, and other pertinent issues of the adivasis and other marginalized communities that we pay little attention to and investigate.”

Chitta Ghosh, president of Dinajpur Press Club, said, “The tea workers are hostage to the owners to a greater degree than any other industry.”

The training ended with the expressed commitment, confidence and profound enthusiasm of participants to cover the rights issues of tea workers and little-known ethnic communities with greater care and attention.

PDF version of report [ Download ]

Report by Md. Rajibul Hasan and Md. Lokman Hossain

In June 2011, without any consideration or consultation with indigenous communities, the Constitution (Fifteenth Amendment) Bill, 2011 was passed, which made all the citizens of the country “Bangalee” by nationality thus forcing homogeneity upon Bangladesh’s ethnically diverse indigenous population and denying them the right to self-identification. Without formal recognition and legitimacy, these groups and their rich distinctive languages, cultures, traditions, technologies and knowledge are in danger of being lost.

Furthermore, adivasis (or indigenous people) are at a greater threat of being displaced due to land grabbing by the politically influential Bangalee majority. Such loss of valuable property has great repercussions for the adivasi communities as this forces them deeper and deeper into a cycle of unemployment, debt, and poverty.

Integral to the protection of little-known ethnic communities is accurate information and monitoring regarding the current state of their population. Thus, Society for Environment and Human Development recently held a workshop titled, “Study and rethinking rights of little-known ethnic communities of Bangladesh” as part of a three year project, “Mapping and capacity building of tea plantation workers and little-known ethnic communities of Bangladesh” to help prepare participants to engage in participatory research, awareness raising and capacity building within their communities.  The workshop, which was held at the premises of Gram Bikash Kendra in Parbatipur, Dinajpur from 21 to 25 March 2014, was attended by representatives from a number of ethnic communities throughout Bangladesh as well as journalists, activists and development workers from a number of different organizations. The ethnic groups represented during the workshop included the Santal, Oraon, Garo, Mahle, Koch, Hodi, Rajwar, Munda and the Paharia.

Resource persons present at the workshop facilitated by Philip Gain included Mr. Moazzem Hossain, chief executive of Gram Bikash Kendra, Dr. Tanzimuddin Khan, Associate Professor, University of Dhaka, Mr. Dulal Chandra Biswas of the University of Rajshahi and Arok Toppo of Caritas Rajshahi. Various adivasi activists also attended the event including Rabindranath Soren from the Jatiyo Adivasi Parishad.

Participants had the opportunity to learn about different aspects of adivasi life and culture from an anthropological perspective from Boktiar Ahmed of the Department of Anthropology, University of Rajshahi. Furthermore, Clara Tumpa Baroi from SIL Bangladesh spoke about the organization’s initiatives to teach and preserve the languages of Bangladesh’s ethnic communities and highlighted the importance of language preservation to the greater culture. “If a community loses its language, it loses its identity. Language is essential in the preservation of culture,” said Baroi.

The participants also received training in writing, developing case studies and profiles as well as various aspects of field research such as conducting surveys, interviews and focus group discussions followed by practical fieldwork and exercises in various adivasi villages around Dinajpur.

Philip Gain, the director of SEHD and Tanzimuddin Khan of the University of Dhaka both highlighted the importance of gathering empirical evidence and the “emic” (bottom-up) research approach to study these communities wherein those being researched are also the researchers.

Through the workshop, participants gained a deeper understanding regarding the diversity of Bangladesh’s ethnic groups as well as the distinctive challenges that they face and must overcome. According to Momota Mankin from the Joenshahi Adivasi Unnayan Parishad, the workshop was an eye-opening experience. “I didn’t realize how many small ethnic groups there were in Bangladesh. In Modhupur, where I am from, we see predominantly only two ethnic groups, the Garos and the Koch. This workshop helped me realize the true ethnic diversity of Bangladesh,” said Mankin.

The workshop also helped develop a greater sense of unity amongst the participants in spite of differences in ethnicity, religion, geography and culture. “We must all work together for our common rights,” stressed Rabindranath Soren, president of Jatiyo Adivasi Parishad.

Bichitra Tirki, a prominent adivasi land rights activist also highlighted the importance of research and documentation for the adivasi rights movement, “We tend to fight for our rights with sticks but we need to do so with words as well, which this workshop will help us do”.

The skills developed during the workshop will allow participants to actively engage in research activities to help study and map these small and little-known and neglected ethnic communities and to define their various needs and constraints thus allowing civil society and other stakeholders to more effectively advocate for their rights and recognition. It is hoped that the tools and resources provided will empower them to act as change makers within their own communities and to create an effective network of researchers and storytellers to make the adivasi communities of Bangladesh an undeniable national voice.

PDF version of report [ Download ]

Asfara Ahmed is a researcher and contributing author at SEHD.

First Published: Dhaka Courier, 3 April 2014

Kairi also pointed out that legal remedy to tea workers deprivations have tactfully been kept away from them. “A worker has to go to the labour court located in Chittagong in case of a legal fight, which is nearly impossible for a low-paid labour,” he said. “Neither political leaders nor the state cares about the systematic deprivation of tea workers. It is very shameful that the government is not holding elections for such a big trade union as tea workers’,” deplored Kairi. Other labour leaders including Parimal Sing Baraik also reiterated the call to end tea workers’ ordeals.

While the labour law is discriminatory in the case of the tea workers, the owners ignore their legally binding essential obligation. To illustrate owners’ neglect Delwar Hossain, labour inspector (general) Sylhet Division said, “What we find in the tea garden is that the owners do not issue appointment letter to the workers. This is violation of law and we are now asking the management to issue proper appointment letter.”

The management response with regard to issuing of appointment letter to the workers is that they would raise the matter at the upper level. “We have taken some measures (cases) in this regard. We have fined three managers so far,” informed the labour inspector who also makes it a point that according to law, a worker shall be made permanent within six months of his/her appointment. But in the case of tea workers they are not made permanent within the period.

The participants, government officials, tea community leaders, researchers and tea garden officials shared their insights and opinions in the program based on their engagement with tea communities and the tea industry.

Beside sharing information with others and learning from avid researchers, participants received hands-on experience in conducting focus group discussion (FGD), face-to-face interview, and writing case studies in the unique training. Each of them was grouped with a small team that visited a couple of labour lines in five tea gardens. Every team conducted a FGD with Panchayet (an elected body of representatives of tea workers to look after various issues of a labour line) members and filled in a questionnaire that was designed to collect data on socio-economic status and ethnic composition of tea communities. Each participant also interviewed at least one tea worker and wrote case studies on issues ranging from health to education, livelihood to landlessness.

Mohammad Giashuddin, deputy director of labour (DDL) of Department of Labour, while describing the structure and functions of the departments of the Ministry of Labour and Employment, put forward some of his observations on the rights of tea workers. He said that the labour law ensures many rights to the tea workers, but those are not implemented. The workers lead a very hard life. Scarcity of clean drinking water, insufficient sanitation and housing etc characterize the labour lines.

“The tendency to deprive the tea workers is a legacy of British companies that brought the workers in promising good fortune, but deceived them,” opined Giashuddin who partially blamed the deprivation of workers on garden authority. “Tea garden managers earn a good sum of money in many ways, but they do not know laws,” he observed. However, he held the labour leaders’ failures to press their demands ultimately responsible for the labours’ deprivations. “There are hardly any cases filed against the owners,” he said.

The session at this point became vibrant as a participant threw a question to DDL, “While the elected representatives of tea workers union are driven out of labour house [the trade union office], and the government has kept the house under lock and key, where will the workers go to claim their rights?” It can be mentioned here that the first ever trade union elections for the tea workers took place in 2008. But in 2009 the elected trade union officials were removed from office by force and a government-backed ad-hoc committee was installed in their place. Later in the face of a spontaneous country-wide strike of tea workers, Awami League government emptied the house and promised fresh elections. That election is yet to be held.

In response to such query DDL confessed his limitations as a government official and said that he would hold elections if directed by the government.

Prakash Kanti Chowdhury, ADC (revenue), Moulvibazar said that the condition of tea workers and their community is improving.  At least 40 schools have been established in the tea gardens in Moulvibazar district since 2010. Not all the gardens have satisfactory health, education and housing facilities, but the government is monitoring these issues. “There was a time when we (administrative officials) hardly met any garden manager, but now as they have to come to us for renewal of lease deeds, we have a chance to look into the facilities they provide for workers,” said the ADC. “In the proposed tea policy 2012, we have recommended that the tea garden authority provides a spacious house with at least two rooms and a veranda as well as sufficient health, sanitation and education facilities,” he added.

In answer to a query from a participant whether the government ever had a policy discussion over giving tea workers legal rights and ownership on the land they are living in for more than one and half century, Mr. Chowdhury said that a inter-ministerial body comprising the ministry of land, ministry of labour and other line ministries will need to sit together to decide on that.

Reacting to such question, Robiul Hasan, Manager, Kalindi tea garden feared that if tea workers are given ownership to land, they will stop working for the tea industry. He claimed that tea community is doing much better than earlier times. “Soon there will be time when no illiterate person will be left in tea gardens,” asserted Hasan.

Md. Haroon-Or-Rashid Sarker, director, Project Development Unit (PDU), Bangladesh Tea Board said that per kilogram tea is sold at more than 300 Takas while production cost is maximum 100 Takas. He opined that if the owners of tea gardens spend more from this huge profit for the workers, it will benefit the industry itself in the end. “The ration provided to the workers is of inferior quality. If the workers are sick all the time, it hampers production. These problems can be solved easily,” Rashid said.

The training ended on 11 February with participants going back to their communities with confidence and profound enthusiasm to continue writing and reporting various issues of tea communities.

The training workshop designed to share tools for rethinking rights, justice, developing minds among the tea workers in particular was moderated by Philip Gain. To prepare the participants for hands on training Dr. Tanzimuddin Khan, associate professor of Dhaka University, this writer and Philip Gain talked on Focus Group Discussion (FGD), case studies, survey, and applied research techniques.

The training ended on 11 February with participants going back to their communities with confidence and profound enthusiasm to continue writing and reporting various issues of tea communities.

PDF version of report [ Download ]

Writer is Research and Documentation Officer at Society for Environment and Human Development (SEHD).

Report by Md. Ashraful Haque
First Published: Dhaka Courier, 20 February 2014