Small Tea Grower (STG) segment accounts for almost 36% of the total tea production (2014) in India. For most, tea is the only source of livelihood. The Tea Board of India defines a Small Tea Grower as a person who has a tea cultiv
In its worst form, bonded labour practice is an employer-employee relationship that institutionalizes
and operationalises through the feudal system of debt and intergenerational bondage. Forced labour is an extension of bondage.
Social security in India has been seen as an economic, social and cultural entitlement and not as a right. In fact the provision of social security for some has become the justification for denial to many.
A drastic increase in export of manufacturing goods during 1990s made India internationally known as a base for global commodity chains. The sector has mostly migrant workers living in closed community that can't be approached.
Home-based workers constitute a huge workforce at the end of the supply chain that is kept invisible by design, to ensure minimum responsibility and maximum profit for the supply chain leaders.
So far India has no formal policy on international migration. There are only limited schemes and programmes to safeguard the interests of migrant workers.The only law which is applicable, is the Indian Emigration Act of 1983.
There are close to 2 million tea plantation workers, who are fourth/fifth generation indentured workers, predominantly adivasis and dalits and more than 50 per cent women.
According to The Hindu Survey (1993), every year 1.8 lakh workers die and 11 crore get injured in occupational accidents. In India, occupational risks are maximum and compensation minimum
A market-led economy pushes for labour flexibility upsetting traditional employer-employee equations and segmenting labour into formal and informal. The informal workers are deprived of basic labour rights and rendered expendable.