Building a Wider
Horizon With Labour
The government's currency crackdown has hurt hundreds of thousands in south India's vast plantations growing rubber, tea and cardamon, where cash is the lifeblood of the local economy. Plantations are among the biggest employers in the private organized sector in south India. United Planters' Association of Southern India (UPASI), an apex body of planters in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka, says about 13.5 lakh people are directly employed in the sector. In total, about 67.5 lakh people are dependent on the sector. The sector is also crucial to an estimated 12.9 lakh growers, the majority of whom hold less than one acre, UPASI data shows.
