DOT Desk
Majority of the tea plantation workers in the country are being deprived of their rights mainly because of legal bottlenecks and irregularities in government monitoring agencies, a study has revealed, reports The Financial Express.
The workers cannot enjoy their rights due to lack of awareness, education and training, said the study conducted by the Transparency International Bangladesh .
The findings of the study titled ‘Working atmosphere in tea estate and workers rights: challenges to good governance and way forward’ was presented at a press conference organised by the TIB at its office in the city.
TIB Executive Director Dr Iftekharuzzaman, its adviser to executive management Sumaiya Khair and members of research teams Dipu Roy, Golam Mostafa and Md Rabiul Islam attended the press conference.
Giving a brief outline of the tea sector, the study said the country grew 78.95 million kg of tea from 229 tea estates in 2017.
The sector, with a contribution of Tk 18.25 billion to Bangladesh’s GDP, has created direct and indirect employment for nearly 0.5 million people.
The report said nearly 1,22,840 workers are employed in the tea estates, of which 21,997 are working on temporary basis.
Making an overall observation over the living standards of the tea workers, the study said some initiatives, both by government and owners, have helped improve the status of tea plantation workers in the last 10 years.
“Despite some visible improvement in the last one decade, tea estate workers are one of the underprivileged communities mainly due to lack of good governance in agencies concerned,” the report said.
It also said tea plantation workers are deprived of various facilities, including minimum wage, leave, healthcare and residence due to some legal bottlenecks.
“Considering overall circumstances, wages offered to the tea plantation workers are the lowest compared to that in other sectors,” it said.
Despite all odds, the workers are bound to continue with their profession due to unavailability of their own land, language barrier and differences in culture and religion, the study said.