During every election, tea tribes in Assam who number around 30 lakh and nearly influence 40 assembly seats are held hostage to the political rhetoric.
In the last 5 years, tea garden workers have expressed unhappiness with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government as it has not fulfilled the promises made to them in the last election of providing Rs 351 as daily wage. To satisfy the core voters, Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently in his rally in Assam said that Congress had neglected them for years, while BJP had taken all steps for education, employment, and healthcare of the tea workers.
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Bimal Lugun, education secretary of the All Adivasi Students’ Association of Assam (AASAA) said that even though an almost unanimous decision has been taken by the tea tribe community to not vote for the BJP for not living up to its promises, they aren’t sure if Congress has provided a viable alternative.
“Our demand is from as early as 2012 to hike the wage, at that time we demanded Rs. 330 and even after the Labour Commissioner’s office projected a figure of Rs. 351.33 nothing has happened,” said Lugun adding “now the matter is in the court and we will go with it.”
The Assam Tea Tribe Students’ Association (AATSA) also demanded a rise of Rs. 351 but the BJP government only raised the wage to Rs. 217 in the interim order.
Dhiraj Gowala, President of AATSA is of the opinion that the owners want to employ lesser wages which has compelled them to take legal action.
Congress Manifesto, released on Saturday, March 20 also highlighted the plight of the tea workers and promises to raise the daily wage of tea garden workers to Rs 351. However, the workers do not seem convinced. “We are tired of what all these parties have been saying,” said a tea garden worker from the Fatemabad Tea Estate under the Sorbhog legislative assembly constituency.
In his speech, PM Modi too promised that if elected to power again in Assam, the BJP state government will work to support tea garden workers by giving their due wages.
Assembly elections in Assam for 126 seats will be held in three phases starting from March 27 and the counting of votes will take place on May 2.
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