This was written for me by my daughter who is a 3rd year Geography student at Durham University, to share her experience of life on a tea estate in S.India this summer. Some of the photos used to illustrate this blog were taken by the tea estate workers with cameras given to them by Harriet. We are very grateful to them for this extra insight into their lives.
‘In August I spent some time on a tea estate in the Nilgiri Hills of South India doing research for my dissertation. I was researching about rural-urban migration from the tea estates to the surrounding towns and cities. I wanted to find out what they experience in their daily lives on the estate and compare this to when they move to the towns and to evaluate the consequences of this migration.
We started on the tea estate, where focus groups with tea factory and field workers had been organised. Through a translator we talked about their families and their lives on the estates, they described the benefits they were experiencing since the influx of Fairtrade money. For example, education bursaries, medical assistances and death assistance and more recently a pension scheme for when the workers retire. However, they generally agreed that one of their favourite benefits was the almirah – a steel cupboard which everyone spoke about with much enthusiasm as it meant they could keep their possessions safe.
They also talked of hardships that they still experience; for example, back problems from the intensity of estate work, the level of pay and their living conditions.
I was given various tours and was shown the community college which the company had established before Fairtrade where people can take courses such as English, sewing and plastering. I was shown schools, met doctors and saw many of the workers’ houses. The houses varied but most families had a loo out the back, a kitchen, and two rooms, usually with sofa-come-beds. I also noticed the shrines in their houses often taking up a whole wall. Religion is very important in their lives. They look forward to the religious festivals such as Christmas and Diwali which will mean at least a day off work if not more and which Christians and Hindus will celebrate together.
However, the workers said that their favourite time of day was their tea break at 10.30am [sounds familiar?] when they all get together, are given cups of tea and have the opportunity to speak to their fellow workers.
Then I was taken to Tirupur, a city about 80 kilometres away on the plains where we talked to ex workers; they had left the estates mostly due to a dislike of previous living standards and an expectation that life would be better in the town.
They all said that if the conditions were as they are now then they would have never left.
Many of them spoke of the unexpected hardships they were experiencing in the cities – a diminished sense of community, poor living conditions and the difficulty of getting a job. Many of the older ex-workers said they were on the government’s 100Rs for 100 days scheme because they couldn’t find work in the factories. These workers took us to their houses outside the city of Tirupur, they were tiny – just one room. Despite this they were incredibly hospitable and we were given a very sweet cup of tea in every single house!
In contrast to the older people’s regrets, the younger workers who had left spoke of improvements in their lives – for example, most worked in garment factories where they earned 300-400Rs a day and the work was much less intense with generally good working conditions.
Even these ex estate workers spoke of the love of the tea estates. One said ‘The estates, even if you leave, they never leave you, they will always be in all of our hearts’. This is perhaps not surprising, given that many of these worker’s families had been on the estates for three or four generations.
However, it was interesting that everyone still working on the estates thought they’d be the last generation; this is because the worker’s children have enjoyed the benefits of the tea estates’ emphasis on education. Unlike their parents, these children are now educated and will not accept a tea worker’s job, and want a job ‘as per our qualifications’, they’ve studied and so they want to be nurses, teachers, engineers, and so on. Most workers expressed a sadness that they will be the last generation of many to work on the estate, but they all want the best for their children.
Inevitably it is causing a labour problem on the tea estates which they have been trying to address. We visited a hill tribe about 3 hours away from Coonoor, where the people are enthusiastic about work on the estate. For them the living conditions with all the benefits of education and medical care, which some are rejecting as insufficient, are seen as a welcome improvement.
I think that unless something is done to prevent further loss of the labour force in this area tea may no longer be produced in the beautiful Nilgiri Hills, which might then be taken over by property development. All efforts should be made to make the work attractive, and well paid; enough to make the jobs appealing and worthwhile.
Having experienced the beauty of the estates and the friendliness of everyone there means that I will definitely be going back at some point soon.'
