Work life experience of Adivasi (indigenous) workers in Tea Plantation Industry on conflict‐ridden areas in India: A qualitative study in Assam

• Published date: 01 May 2022
• Author: Diganta Das
• Date: 01 May 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2446

ACADEMIC PAPER

Work life experience of Adivasi (indigenous) workers in Tea

Plantation Industry on conflict-ridden areas in India: A

qualitative study in Assam

Diganta Das

Centre for studies in Society and

Development, Central University of Gujarat,

Gandhinagar, India

Correspondence

Diganta Das, Centre for studies in Society and

Development, Central University of Gujarat,

Gandhinagar, C/o Gajendra Nath Das,

Bennibari, Baksa 781316, Assam, India.

Email: diganta253@gmail.com

The Tea tribes are also known as Adivasis in Assam. They work as wage labourers in

Tea Plantation Industry. This study asks three questions: (a) What are the levels of

exploitation of Adivasis in general and in Bodoland Territorial Area Districts (BTAD)

of Assam in particular due to conflict? (b) What are the causes of lower level of edu-

cational attainment and employment nature of Adivasi youth? (c) What is the status

of Adivasi women in general and conflict areas in particularly? This study is done an

in-depth interview using 60 Adivasi workers as respondents in 2018. The key finding

of the paper is that the Adivasis face with double discernment both as workers in

Tea Plantation Industry and minority in BTAD areas of Assam, India. Violations of

human rights are seen as common occurrence with Adivasi workers.

1|INTRODUCTION

The Tea tribes are also known as Adivasis in Assam. They work as

wage labourers in Tea Plantation Industry. Scholarly work discussing

how the ethnic conflict induces violence and threat of life by armed

groups on Adivasis, pushes them into the trap of poverty apart from

their prevailing obstacle as tea plantation workers in Tea-Estate is a

new line of academic research, as India have such demography with a

large numbers of indigenous community constitute its population. In

the existing literature, this part of research appears to be an absent

dimension that required to be filled up. Most of the existing literatures

have mainly focused on the status of Adivasis involved in Tea Planta-

tion Industries in general, but they have missed those Adivasis resid-

ing in conflict-prone areas in Bodoland Territorial Area Districts

(BTAD), Assam. They have faced threat for their live as minority

groups in that area. Existing research did not investigate how the con-

flict induces violence and displacement, armed group's indiscriminate

attack and murder pushes Adivasi workers into more poverty grip

apart from their existing deplorable condition from Tea-Management

Authority and State Government inside the Tea-Estate.

In India, the selective Adivasis/Tea tribe literature has focused on

topics, such as Women tea plantation workers’strike in Munnar, Ker-

ala (Kamath & Ramanathan, 2017), locating the historical past of the

women tea workers of North Bengal (Dutta, 2015), Nutritional Survey

of Tea Workers on closed, re-opened and open tea plantations of the

Dooars region, West Bengal (Biswas, Chokraborty, Berman, &

Berman, 2005), the social determinants of health of women tea plan-

tation workers in India (Rajbangshi & Nambiar, 2020), effect of mater-

nal nutritional status on the birth weight among women of tea tribe in

Dibrugarh district (Gogoi & Ahmed, 2007), Plantation Social System

and mode of exploitation of Tea plantation labour in North-East India

(Xaxa, 1985), socio-economic and political problems of Tea Garden

workers in Assam (Singh, Narain, & Kumar, 2006), role of trade union

leadership in a plantation system (Sarker, 1996), trade unions and

women workers in tea plantations (Sarkar & Sharit, 1999), human

resource development for industrial workers in tea industries

(Sahu, 2004), women workers in tea plantations (Bhadra, 1985), eth-

nicity and isolation of marginalised of tea plantation workers

(Bhowmik, 2011), development of Tea Garden Community as the

Adivasi identity politics in Assam (Biswajit, 2008), ‘Lazy’Natives, Coo-

lie Labour and the Assam Tea Industry (Sharma, 2009). Against those

existing literature, this work is to explore the status of Adivasi society

in conflict-prone areas within and outside of Tea-Estate. This study

will help to get answer to the cause of Adivasi deprivation from basic

human rights to live a life of dignity and freedom in a conflict-prone

area of BTAD, Assam.

This study seeks answers on three questions: (a) What are the

levels of exploitation of Adivasis in general and BTAD areas in

Received: 18 August 2020 Accepted: 27 August 2020

DOI: 10.1002/pa.2446

J Public Affairs. 2022;22:e2446. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa © 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd 1of9

https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2446