Britain’s biggest tea brands like PG Tips, Tetleys and Twinings buy tea from various tea estates in India, in which thousands of workers work from day to night in inexplicably pathetic conditions. The joint investigation by Radio 4’s File on Four and BBC News in Assam brought up sup harsh truths about the living conditions of tea workers in North East India.
This particular estate is owned by McLeod Russel, the world’s biggest tea producer. McLeod Russel’s Assam estates supply tea to the companies that own PG Tips, Liptons, Tetley and Twinings.
Toilets & Sanitation
Leaking roofs, damp and cracked walls, broken toilets clogged with effluent, cesspits overflowing into living areas and no electricity. The sanitation in these plantation cannot get worse. The water supply is so bad that estate workers have to drink rainwater piped from a stream. The manager admitted that there is a huge backlog of repairs.
Malnutrition & Exposure to Chemicals
According to the medical director of Assam Medical College, 9 out of 10 patients from tea plantations are malnourished. “Diseases of poverty” range from diarrhea & respiratory tract infections to skin lesions and serious infections like TB and meningitis. Tea workers in Assam earn 115 Rupees a day which is significantly below the minimum wage of 177 Rupees.
Also, workers spray pesticides without the protective equipment required by law.
Child Labour
BBC also found children below the age of 15 working full time on plantations.
Access Denied
BBC reporter Justin Rowlatt, who was leading this report was practically imprisoned briefly within the factory compound with his team. The right of public access is supposed to enable people to visit the plantation workers to check on their welfare, yet he was barred from filming any further.
PG Tips, Tetleys and Twinings, have said they will work to improve the tea estates they buy from in India after the investigation.
An appalling price to pay, for a cup of tea.
News Source: BBC