According to the statistical evidence of 2007 From the Tea Board of India, the country is second in the position of tea production and the consumption of the world. When we enjoy every sip of a cup, we don’t even know that tea workers are being used at the same time. The most affected and marginalized women are forced to sell their work for low wages, which is not sufficient to maintain their livelihood. Profits go into the hands of plantation owners, managers and company giants. In tea plantations, the caste, class and gender-specific interface dictates an extreme socio-ionicity-political backwardness.
The tea plantation was created as a colonial unit during the British rule. Despite the independence in 1947 and the wording of the plantation work law of 1951, their heir continues to thrive on the exploitation of workers, which is a form of modern slavery. Although ‘modern slavery’ has no place in the legal area, The United Nations recognizes it.
Although the implementation of the Labor Act in Kerala and Tamil Nadu is better than in Assam and West Bengalen, and the British started in Assam in Assam in the early 19th century, it is not a strenuous task to see the miserable conditions of tea workers less through the tea workers Well -known poems.
Here are 5 less well -known poems that clarify the inhuman emergency of tea workers.
1. Ek Garam Chai Ki Pyali Mai Kya Harj Hai? By Adil Hussain
It is known from films like English Vinglish and what people will say that Adil Hussain is a phenomenal actor. But his revealing poem about the miserable and isolated conditions of tea workers in India raises concerns about it. He belongs to Assam and his connection with Oxfam India stimulates him to raise awareness of her vulnerability.
“Ha, agar aap assam ki chaibagaan may kaam nearin map toh koi Harj Nahin
(They don’t regret to have a cup of tea unless they work in the tea gardens in Assam.)
Yaha Ke Chaibagaan Ki Laborers Ki Baat Hi Kuch Alag Hai
Yeh log zyada paani nearin pete kyuki na hi yahan bathroom shark na bathroom jaane ki chhoot. “
(These tea workers are unique. They don’t drink enough water because there is no bathroom, nor do they have freedom to access it.)
Hussain mentions several topics from employees in tea gardens in Assam. Although it is a one -minute poem, it can raise awareness of the pain they endure in the fields.
2. Darjeeling Tea from Bibhusha Rai
Darjeeling tea is a poem that has secured The second prize In the Wingwort poem competition in 2022. Bibhusha Rai’s belonging to Darjeeling village had her experience the exploitation of tea workers through companies that have their work. Her poem is enjoying a look at the tea workers in the area for people who are unique due to its high -quality aromas, who do not receive fair wages for the sale of their workforce.
Source: Sikkim project
For generations, women and men and men have obliged to extract tea leaves from rough hilly areas. With her poem, she condemned the policy of “differentiness” to the workers who have lived in the country for generations. In its core, Bibhusha’s poem speaks against discrimination, which has an impact on unpaid and revised workers who contribute their hard work and commitment to people’s thirst.
In addition, their frustration appears through the poem on basic rights, including education and jobs that are inaccessible to the workers who live in the region.
“Men and women
Deal for tea
Sweat and blood
Run through the hills
But the tea
You are not in possession of you
Belonging to
Operated by humans
From the outside. “
3. Fikka Chiya by Srijana Subba
Srijana Subba comes from a tea garden hamlet in Darjeeling and demonstrates the struggle of bad tea workers through her short poem to get an acceptable bonus. Bonus is a right to support the livelihood of employees and the dreams of their children.
Source: Wikimedia Commons
“Kulis gather in the factory
And call 22% bonus
Oh! Then Saheb gives 22%
I don’t believe
This year too
You will negotiate
And shed their crocodile tears
Of the company that runs on loss “
This poem finds its relevance In a 2024 demonstration Where tea employees in the workforce in Siliguri, West Bengal, participated in the workforce to demand a 20 percent bonus of 16 percent. The workers presented: “We don’t beg” and “We ask for our rights”. They are with low -paid workers who sell their work to make expensive teas. You cannot even expect steps if production decreases.
4. The tea plant from Udoi Kumar Baruah
He comes from Guwahati, Assam. In his poem, he wrote the generation condition of tea workers in the region. It radiates the urge of the workers to free themselves. Three words are mentioned in the poem: blood, sweat and effort of a worker who works for non -suspicious hours in the fields, whose work is exploited by owners and companies to build up their future.
“We are the center of a world of handicrafts
Would you hear the sad ballad of those who only bear fraud?
After their loyalty to our service from dawn to dusk
whose blood sweat toila is used as fuel by a few narcissists
To let your dreams run “
This poem could be understandable by an instance of the migration of workers during the colonial period from Bengal, the United and the Central Provinces, etc. and tribes such as Munda, Kol, Gauda, Bheel, etc. In Assams folklore and songs you can understand the miserable conditions under which the workers live. There is a regional song that reflects compulsion and deception that are aimed at workers.
5. Kamal Kumar Tanti and his poems against injustice and racial discrimination
Kamal Kumar Tanti is a poet from Assam who is known to communicate advanced thoughts through his poems, which he won the Saitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar in 2012. He mentions that indigenous people have their own history to tell the world. He notices the intersection of society, culture and human experiences. His collection of poems translates into “postcolonial poems” touches the cultural transformations of adivasi workers who were sold by their indigenous countries to Assam. They had to go to the Assimilation of the mainstream culture.
“I am history: of two lost centuries
From centuries in the time of colonial
From centuries in the time of the colonized “
History is the core of his poetry, which spends British colonial politics, which caused indigenous people from Bihar and other central regions to become tea garden workers in Assam.
As a student of history at the University of Delhi, Nashra Rehman is always enthusiastic to share
Your understanding of gender history and a link between past and the present. It is high
Passionate to convey in the awakening of minds that refer to “how and why women are
Marginalalized ”through their publications.
