A DECISION TOO LATE
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| Workers at Dumchipara tea estates are suffering from hunger and malnutrition. |
With the industry in all perishing due to drop in rainfall, extreme whether conditions, factories are closing down and the management leaving on whim, tea garden workers are deprived of their basic salaries and rights they are promised, like provident funds payment, bonuses, pension, electricity, medical facility and education.
The extent of the persisting problem is clearly visible in the sufferings of the locals, Maria Soreng, 38, has greyed and can't walk without a stick while husband Dominique has rashes all over is body, and all this is due to low levels of immunity caused by malnourishment.
Since May 17, the Duncans tea processing plant at Dhumchipara in Alipurduar locale of North Bengal, where Dominique works, has been "pretty much" close. Dried tea leaves lie strewn on sorting tables and a durable lock holds tight the entryway of the handling shed.
And even at gardens that are operating, living conditions for the predominantly female workforce are said to be precarious, with access to housing, sanitation, healthcare and drinking water far from adequate. A delegation of the State Assembly’s Standing Committee on Labour that visited four tea estates cited malnutrition as an apparent cause for the recent deaths of workers and said the State government was not doing enough to resolve the crisis. Separately, an international fact-finding mission headed by the Global Network for the Right to Food and Nutrition that visited tea gardens in West Bengal and Assam earlier this month painted a grim picture of extremely low wages driving thousands of families to hunger and malnutrition.
While West Bengal's Labor Minister told lawmakers the administration was giving occupations under the MGNREGA, restorative vans and early afternoon suppers to specialists at the shut tea plants, and tested resistance individuals to demonstrate the passings were because of starvation and not regular causes, there is an implied confirmation that there is an emergency requiring the State's intercession.
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| A Worker in Raipur Estate died soon after this picture was taken. |
The Minister's remark that none of the death certificates show starvation as the reason for death is heartbreakingly unexpected since intense yearning and lack of hydration leave a man excessively feeble, making it impossible to work or even blend out looking for sustenance or water as charity. The casualty eventually kicks the bucket of organ disappointment or a pioneering contamination that the body can't battle.
The depressing circumstance of these specialists starkly highlights the nonattendance of a government disability net for provincial specialists, and particularly work in the manor segment.
Transcending fanatic political contemplations, the West Bengal government needs to act critically to address the emergency and, if justified, make solid legitimate move against the administrations of tea bequests that have handled their specialists on the precarious edge of starvation and passing. A more extended term recovery and re-skilling bundle is likewise required to work at the old domains discover elective work, and measures must be taken, independently, to restore this key business giving part.
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