@walkbangladesh

Wrong চা! ☕️ No end to slavery for tea workers! Plucking two leaves and a bud at a time. Throwing them over their shoulders to the bag fastened on their backs. Might feel mechanic. Does feel mechanic 😞 There are about 98,000 permanent registered workers and 30,000 seasonal workers in the industry. The estimated number of tea communities is believed to be around half a million. The workers are low-caste Hindus and ethnic indigenous peoples, originally from various Indian states brought to East Bengal (now Bangladesh) by British tea planters in the mid-19th century with a false promise of a better life. They were cut off from their roots and consequently lost much of their language, culture, and customs. Despite backbreaking jobs, they get a pittance of a wage. Although housing is free, most workers cannot afford anything beyond mud-walled, thatched-roofed shanties, and as long as a member of the family has a job in the estate, their relatives can live with them. Despite living on the land for generations, the land won't become their own. Poverty is endemic. Trade unionists say the majority of the households on tea estates endure extreme poverty. Medical facilities are scarce as doctors and necessary medicine are not readily available. 80% of women in tea estates give birth at home without proper medical facilities. As mandated by labor law, workers receive five percent of the company's profit – but tea industry workers do not get it. Tea companies are supposed to ensure education for children of workers, but there are no schools except for some run by charities. Tea planters discourage education for workers' children to keep them unskilled for other professions and get trapped in tea estates for eternity. British tea planters treated tea workers as slaves and even forced them to do dehumanizing works like cleaning their shoes to remind them constantly that they are lesser beings. The same mindset has been ingrained in owners' psyche during the Pakistan rule (1947-1971), and nothing has improved in independent Bangladesh. 🎨 @tufans_artbin