The wages of tea garden workers in Assam are “meagre”, with several “shortcomings” in implementing labour laws and welfare schemes, according to a recent report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India.
The report scrutinised the state government’s intervention in fixing wages under the Minimum Wage Act (MW Act) and deemed it “insufficient”. It further noted that efforts to uplift the lives of the tea workers have “fallen short”, lacking substantial impact on their living conditions.
The performance audit, which focused on the ‘Implementation of Schemes for Welfare of Tea Tribe’ from 2015-16 to 2020-21, highlighted that low income and poor education are key barriers to the holistic development of the tea workers in Assam.
Audit across key tea zones
The CAG report covered four major tea-growing zones — Cachar, Dibrugarh, Nagaon, and Sonitpur. These zones together account for 390 tea estates. The audit sampled 40 estates, representing 10 per cent of the total, based on plantation size and the number of workers employed.
Alongside the scrutiny of official records, the audit team conducted interviews with 590 tea workers from the selected estates to gather first-hand insights into their conditions and concerns.
"Haphazard" welfare efforts
The Tea Tribes Welfare Department (TTWD), which is responsible for the welfare of tea workers, was found lacking in its approach.
The report observed that the department’s initiatives were often implemented “haphazardly” due to the absence of basic socio-economic data on the tea tribe community.
“The wages the workers received in the tea estates were meagre,” the CAG report stressed, adding that the Assam government had not set the minimum wage for tea workers as required by the MW Act, 1948.
Furthermore, the report pointed out that tea garden workers are not included in the scheduled employment notified by the state government, resulting in their exclusion from the benefits of minimum wage standards and variable dearness allowance.
Government initiatives stalled
The secretary of the Labour and Welfare Department told the CAG that attempts by the state government to revise wages in line with the MW Act were challenged in court.
This legal dispute, the official said, has prevented wage increases from being implemented as intended.
Wage disparities in Assam
The report also highlighted significant wage disparities between workers in the Barak Valley and those in the Brahmaputra Valley. Workers in the Barak Valley were found to receive “at least 10 per cent lower” wages compared to their counterparts in the Brahmaputra Valley.
The CAG noted that the Labour Department “could not provide any justification” for this wage disparity. Moreover, it stated that the state government had never intervened to address this inequity, leaving the workers in the Barak Valley at a clear disadvantage.
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