Tea workers fear eviction

Workers of four tea gardens held various programmes on Tuesday marking one year of their protests against setting up of an economic zone in Chunarughat upazila of Habiganj.

The gardens are Chandpur Tea Estate, Ramgonga Tea Estate, Begumkhan Tea Estate and Jual Bhanga Tea Garden. 

Tea workers are one of the most marginalised and disadvantaged groups in Bangladesh. They live in small, thatched-roofed mud houses where they are allowed to stay as long as a family member is working.

Atit Bakti, 54, head of a five-member family, said they will starve without assistance from the government and other benevolent people if the economic zone is set up.

A registered worker gets a meagre Tk 85 as a daily minimum wage, which ranks among the lowest in the world, said Sadhon Santal, president of Chandpur tea garden unit of Tea Labour Union.

President of Bangladesh Tea Workers Women's Forum Gita Rani Kanu alleged that the government is using political influence to fulfill its target. “We have helped tea workers to resist the move, but the wind is stronger on the other side,” she added.

The government's attempt to set up an economic zone is just another case of discrimination against tea workers, said Nripen Paul, general secretary of Bangladesh Cha Sramik Union, Lashkarpur valley.

“We have been living and cultivating on the land for over 150 years, but still we don't have a place of our own," he added.

Central member of Bangladesh Adivasi Forum Swapan Santal, and a resident of the area, said many family members of workers don't have jobs on the tea estate, so they survive by growing crops on spare land within the estate.

Without this land, it would be impossible for workers and their families to survive, he added.

Upazila chairman and Awami League's  upazila unit secretary Abu Taher said the demand of the tea garden workers is illegal.