Small indigenous groups living in tea gardens of Sylhet division are gradually losing their own languages and cultures as the hard-pressed people have very little unawareness about the matter.

Around seven lakh people live in 158 tea gardens in Sylhet division, according to Bangladesh Cha Sramik Union, an organisation of tea workers.

Use of own languages by the indigenous tea workers, generally introduced as 'Cha Jonogoshti' (tea people), sees a decline as the people belonging to different ethnic and language speaking groups generally speak Bhojpuri or Bangla for communication with other groups.

“Our children do not want to learn Mundari language as we often use Bangla. Our new generation do not know much about their own identity, language, culture and heritage,” said British Munda, 45, a tea worker of Mirtinga tea garden in Kamalganj upazila of Moulvibazar.

His neighbour Dipali Kanda, 34, echoed the same.

“With a daily wage of Tk 85, we tea garden workers struggle for existence. There is hardly any scope to think of anything else,” said Satyajit Mahali, head of a five-member family at Deoracherra tea garden in Kamalganj.

Mamata, a Santali girl residing at the tea garden, said she knows Santali dance but she cannot speak her language.

Mesbah Kamal, professor of history at University of Dhaka, said he has so far identified 15 different language speaking communities and 131 ethnic groups among the people living in tea garden areas of Sylhet region.

Indigenous tea workers are not able to practise their own culture and lifestyle due to their poor living conditions, he said.

The government should come forward to protect the languages and cultures of small indigenous groups so that their original identities are not lost in course of time, said ASM Zakaria, acting head of anthropology department at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology.

Jyoti Sinha, district cultural officer of Moulvibazar, said, “As part of the government's steps to protect the tea people's languages and cultures, we are trying to constantly interact with them.”