Tea workers' union seeks MGNREGS safety net from Mamata Banerjee government

In a letter to Mamata, the National Union of Plantation Workers (NUPW), which is affiliated with Intuc, has said that workers of several tea estates of the Terai and the Dooars are not getting work for six days every week because of low yield in plantations hit by inclement weather

Tea workers at a garden in the Siliguri plains.: File picture

TT, Siliguri, 27.05.24 : The distress in north Bengal tea industry has prompted a leading tea trade union to write to chief minister Mamata Banerjee, seeking jobs for tea workers under the 100 days' work (MGNREGS) scheme.

In a letter to Mamata, the National Union of Plantation Workers (NUPW), which is affiliated with Intuc, has said that workers of several tea estates of the Terai and the Dooars are not getting work for six days every week because of low yield in plantations hit by inclement weather.

Mani Kumar Darnal, the NUPW general secretary who sent the letter to Mamata, said several tea companies these days were engaging less number of workers every week.

“Workers are losing out on wages because of the ‘no work, no pay’ system. Many tea workers are the sole breadwinners in their families. That is why we have written to the chief minister to provide jobs under MGNREGS for workers so that they can at least this loss in their earnings can be compensated,” said Darnal.

Over three lakh workers serve in the tea estates of north Bengal.

As of now, a tea worker in Bengal earns ₹250 per day. Under the MGNREGS, the daily wage rate, after the Centre's revision in March this year, is the same.

In his letter, Darnal said that the Bengal government should create one manday per hectare of tea plantation.

A trade union leader explained it. “This means that if a garden has 1,000 hectares of plantation area, 1,000 mandays (optimally) can be created. Tea workers can work under the scheme on rotation, which means a worker who has not been engaged in the garden today can work under the MGNREGS, and tomorrow, another worker can replace him depending on the situation. This will eventually help workers earn roughly the same amount every month,” the trade union leader said.

Jobs like land development, micro and minor irrigation work, watershed management and drainage, which are stipulated under the scheme, can begin in tea gardens, he said.

In the letter, NUPW leader Darnal also said that the state government could mull over the proposal of providing jobs to one member of every family or household in a tea estate.

“As tea leaf production is low now, tea companies are in distress and cannot provide regular jobs to workers. Hence, if every household in the garden has a job card, they can tide over this crisis,” said Darnal.

Trinamool leaders, when told about the letter, said that the BJP-led Centre had stopped providing funds to Bengal for the 100 days' job scheme.

“That is why the state government used its own funds to clear the dues of those who worked under the scheme but didn’t get their wages,” said a TMC leader based in Alipurduar, a district with over 60 tea estates.

The NUPW leaders, however, said that the Mamata Banerjee government has introduced Karmashree, a scheme to provide 50 days’ work to people. “At this time of crisis, this scheme can be extended to tea gardens,” one of them said.