BENUP RAJ BHATTARAI

Government tea estates in Ilam and Jhapa are reeling under labor crisis. The number of laborers at seven tea estates in the two districts has gone down by around 58 percent over the past 13 years.

Triveni Group, which took over the management of the state-owned Nepal Tea Development Corporation (NTDC) for 50 years, has been paying Rs 158 per day to the laborers. Other tea estates and factories in the district are paying the daily wages of Rs 200 to Rs 700 depending on the nature of work.

Ilam Tea Estate, which had 120 workers on its payroll about a decade ago, currently has only 40 workers. “Our regular works like plucking leaves, spraying pesticides, cutting tea plants and removing weeds, among others, have been affected due to laborer shortage,” CB Rai, manager of the estate which is spread over 50 hectares, said.

The shortage of laborers in tea industries in Ilam and Jhapa has affected the production and processing of tea. And laborers are not interested to work in these seven estates, which are managed by Triveni Group unless the management increases daily wage. These industries export CTC, orthodox and green tea worth millions of rupees to India as well as other countries.

Laborers say they are leaving tea industries managed by Triveni Group as the facilities there are very less compared to other industries.

These industries provide laborers temporary residence as well as one thermos and an umbrella every two years. Similarly, workers also get 300 grams of tea per month and an annual leave of 13 days. “Other industries offer us more facilities,” a female worker who recently left her job at Kanyam Tea Estate, said.

Loknath Dangal, administrative chief of NTDC´s central office at Birtamod, said the tea estates have been facing labor shortage as people are living for greener pastures abroad. He also said the corporation is trying to retain laborers by providing additional facilities. “We have been providing overtime facilities for laborers working for more than eight hours,” he added.

The laborers plucking tea leaves are paid Rs 4 per kg in tea estates in Tarai and Rs 8 per kg in those in the hilly region.

Published on: 30 September 2013 | Republica