invisible chains? crisis in the tea industry and the ‘unfreedom’ of labour in assam's tea...

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This article was downloaded by: [Columbia University] On: 08 December 2014, At: 08:35 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Contemporary South Asia Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ccsa20 Invisible chains? Crisis in the tea industry and the ‘unfreedom’ of labour in Assam's tea plantations Deepak K. Mishra a , Atul Sarma b & Vandana Upadhyay c a Associate Professor, Centre for the Study of Regional Development, School of Social Sciences , Jawaharlal Nehru University , New Delhi, India b Former Professor of Economics, Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi; Visiting Professor, Institute of Human Development , New Delhi, India c Assistant Professor, Department of Economics , Rajiv Gandhi University , Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh, India Published online: 30 Mar 2011. To cite this article: Deepak K. Mishra , Atul Sarma & Vandana Upadhyay (2011) Invisible chains? Crisis in the tea industry and the ‘unfreedom’ of labour in Assam's tea plantations, Contemporary South Asia, 19:1, 75-90, DOI: 10.1080/09584935.2010.549557 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09584935.2010.549557 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content. This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms &

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Page 1: Invisible chains? Crisis in the tea industry and the ‘unfreedom’ of labour in Assam's tea plantations

This article was downloaded by: [Columbia University]On: 08 December 2014, At: 08:35Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registeredoffice: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK

Contemporary South AsiaPublication details, including instructions for authors andsubscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ccsa20

Invisible chains? Crisis in the teaindustry and the ‘unfreedom’ of labourin Assam's tea plantationsDeepak K. Mishra a , Atul Sarma b & Vandana Upadhyay ca Associate Professor, Centre for the Study of RegionalDevelopment, School of Social Sciences , Jawaharlal NehruUniversity , New Delhi, Indiab Former Professor of Economics, Indian Statistical Institute,Delhi; Visiting Professor, Institute of Human Development , NewDelhi, Indiac Assistant Professor, Department of Economics , Rajiv GandhiUniversity , Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh, IndiaPublished online: 30 Mar 2011.

To cite this article: Deepak K. Mishra , Atul Sarma & Vandana Upadhyay (2011) Invisible chains?Crisis in the tea industry and the ‘unfreedom’ of labour in Assam's tea plantations, ContemporarySouth Asia, 19:1, 75-90, DOI: 10.1080/09584935.2010.549557

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09584935.2010.549557

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the“Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis,our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as tothe accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinionsand views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors,and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Contentshould not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sourcesof information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims,proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever orhowsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arisingout of the use of the Content.

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Anysubstantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing,systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms &

Page 2: Invisible chains? Crisis in the tea industry and the ‘unfreedom’ of labour in Assam's tea plantations

Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions

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Invisible chains? Crisis in the tea industry and the ‘unfreedom’ of labour

in Assam’s tea plantations

Deepak K. Mishraa*, Atul Sarmab and Vandana Upadhyayc

aAssociate Professor, Centre for the Study of Regional Development, School of Social Sciences,Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India; bFormer Professor of Economics, IndianStatistical Institute, Delhi; Visiting Professor, Institute of Human Development, New Delhi,India; cAssistant Professor, Department of Economics, Rajiv Gandhi University, Itanagar,Arunachal Pradesh, India

During the post-liberalization period the Indian tea industry has been facing asevere crisis. This study looks at the question of inter-generational occupationalmobility among tea garden labour in Assam, against the backdrop of, on the onehand, a fall in tea auction prices, decline in exports, and closure andabandonment of tea gardens; and on the other hand, increasing labour unrest,at times leading to violent protests and confrontations, declining living standardsand worsening human security in the tea gardens. On the basis of data collectedthrough first-hand primary research in three tea gardens of upper Assam, thepaper analyses limitations on the inter-generational occupational mobility of teagarden labourers. We also probe into the reasons behind the relative mobility orimmobility of tea garden labourers within and outside the tea gardens.

Keywords: Assam; tea gardens; plantation labour; occupational mobility

I. The context

The tea industry in India has been said to have been going through a crisis since theearly 1990s, primarily because of a fall in tea auction prices. Other manifestations ofthis crisis include decline in exports, closure and abandonment of tea gardens;increasing labour unrest at times leading to violent protests and confrontations, non-payment and curtailment of wages and other statutory benefits of workers, decliningliving standards and worsening human security in the tea gardens (The Hindu 2010;The Guardian 2007; Ramadurai 2002). The crisis in the tea sector, particularly inAssam, has led to labour unrest and apprehensions regarding the future prospects ofthe sector and of the workers depending upon the sector (Misra 2003; Lahiri 2000).Relations between tea garden employers and labourers have deteriorated over thepast decades and the crisis in the tea industry has aggravated it. However, there is alarger dimension to this tension as well. The exclusion of these communities from themainstream lies in their non-inclusion in the Scheduled Tribes of Assam,1 despite thefact that they are tribes.2 This is the root cause of the growing restlessness amongthe tea garden labour community (Misra 2007; Gohain 2007).

*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]

Contemporary South Asia

Vol. 19, No. 1, March 2011, 75–90

ISSN 0958-4935 print/ISSN 1469-364X online

� 2011 Taylor & Francis

DOI: 10.1080/09584935.2010.549557

http://www.informaworld.com

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Against the backdrop of the context described above, it is important to know theextent of labour mobility in the gardens of Assam. Here we are not only concernedwith a group of workers in a particular industry or sector; we are also concerned witha community who were brought as indentured labour to Assam in the colonialperiod, and whose descendents are still seen as outsiders in their homeland afterthree generations. The study attempts to examine the linkages between the colonialroots of labour organization in the plantations and the present labour marketscenarios in Assam. It is based on both quantitative and qualitative data collectedthrough first-hand primary research in three tea gardens of upper Assam. Firstly, thestudy attempts to analyse the extent and types of inter-generational occupationalmobility among tea garden labourers in Assam. Secondly, it tries to probe into thereasons behind the relative mobility or immobility of tea garden labourers withinand outside the tea gardens.

The tea sector in Assam, while facing the challenges posed by globalisation, hasopted for a strategy of cost reduction that involves increasing casualization of thelabour force. Given the specific characteristics of labour relations in plantations, thishas meant the existence of a labour force that lives within or in the vicinity of thegardens, but is forced to look for alternative livelihood opportunities. Evidencepresented here clearly documents the limited opportunities for vertical occupationalmobility within or outside the gardens. There seems to be a historical continuity inthe range of constraints faced by plantation labour – while the specificities of theplantation economy creates barriers for them to move to alternative occupations,restructuring of labour relations within the gardens makes their livelihoods all themore vulnerable and uncertain.

II. The tea gardens of Assam: the colonial legacy

The tea industry in India began with the founding of the Assam Company in 1839.After the cancellation of the monopoly rights of the British East India Company totrade with China in 1833 by the British parliament, its directors decided to explorethe possibilities of production of tea in Assam, which they had annexed in 1925(Bose 1954, 1–2). Since then, during the colonial period the industry saw continuousexpansion and consolidation.

The development of the plantation sector in Assam,3 in several ways, wasdetermined by shifting colonial interests. It has been argued that productionorganization in plantation economies is characterized by a pattern where capital andmanagement were brought from the imperialist countries, whereas labour and landwere procured from the colonies. A study of the processes through which land andlabour were made available for these profit-oriented enterprises emphasizes theinvolvement of the colonial state in creating the conditions for the establishment andconsolidation of the plantation economies. Essentially, this involvement causedsignificant disruption of the pre-colonial/pre-capitalist economies. As in other partsof the world, the colonial state was deeply implicated in forcibly creating a labourforce and a land pool for the plantation sector in India. The overall regulativeframework as well as the administrative structures of the colonial state createdconditions under which large chunks of land were made available to the plantations,and it was possible for the planters to bring in labour from the relatively denselypopulated and poorer regions to create a labour force to clear the forests and work inthe plantations.

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This shift of land use from subsistence agriculture, practised by the indigenouspeople of Assam, to export-oriented commercial agriculture in plantations wassudden and swift and ‘(w)ithin fifty years of its inception, the rate of expansion ofplantation acreage far outstripped that of the area under traditional crops’(Dasgupta 1983, 1289). This rapid transformation in land use was made possiblethrough a variety of means including preferential treatment to planters, sale or leaseof land at very cheap rates, concessions in land revenue, dilution of existingprovisions to accommodate the concerns of the planters, and wilful negligence of theinterests of the local farmers and tribal communities (Dasgupta 1983; Guha, 2006).Dasgupta (1983) has argued that discriminatory land revenue policies under whichconcessional land revenue was adopted for the planters while the revenue burden ofthe farmers’ cultivation of traditional crops was increased not only constrained thegrowth of traditional cultivation, but also gradually led to the encroachment uponcultivated land by planters. Such a policy of negligence resulted in grossunderutilisation of land in the plantations. On the other hand, the policy led todisplacement of the indigenous population from crucial livelihood resources likeforests and grazing lands. The enclosures that resulted in the creation of the enclaveeconomy of the plantations had long-term implications for the growth of the localeconomy. It also set the basis for a severe disjuncture between the advanced,capitalist, export-oriented agriculture of the plantation sector and the subsistenceagriculture of the local economy.

Some of the key organizational features of the tea industry, which continue tohave a bearing on the labour process in the plantations, are as follows. Firstly, theplantation system has a distinct, vertical work hierarchy that maintains the classstructure of workers and management (Bhowmik 1980, 2002). Critics point out that,in essence, in its pre-marketing phases ‘the industry has still maintained the feudalrelations of production’ (Lahiri 2000; Raman 2010, 164–65). Secondly, womenconstitute over 45% of the total labour force in the industry.4 This is the onlyindustry in the organized sector that employs such a high proportion of femalelabour. The female workers are mainly employed in plucking of tea leaves and inlight maintenance work. Thirdly, employment of adolescent and child labour aspermanent workers is a special feature of the plantation industry. Non-adultpermanent workers accounted for around 3.10% of the total permanent workers inthe tea industry as a whole in 2004. The actual incidence of child labour isconsidered to be higher, as many of them are employed as casual workers. Theincidence of child labour was found to be much higher in Assam (5.23%) than in theplantations of South India, although there has been a sharp decline in the share ofchild labour since the early 1990s (Tea Board, 2004; Sarma et al., 2008). Fourthly, incomparison to other sectors, the rate of unionization is fairly high in the teaindustry. But the effectiveness of these unions in securing and safeguarding theinterests of the workers has not been very impressive. Fifthly, wages of teaplantation labourers are the lowest in the organized sector.

III. The ‘crisis’ in tea gardens: production, productivity and employment

Elsewhere we have presented a detailed analysis of the trends in growth ofproduction, area and productivity in the tea gardens of Assam and India at thedistrict level for the period 1980–2004 (Mishra et al. 2008). Although there has beensome growth in the area under tea because of an increase in the number of small tea

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gardens, in terms of growth performance in production and yield of tea, the overallpicture remains grim. The growth performance of the tea sector in recent years hasworsened further. As a significant contributor to the tea production in India,Assam has been at the centre of the worsening performance of the sector. Inalmost every aspect of the manifestation of the crisis, it has followed the nationaltrend.

A detailed analysis of the growth of productivity in tea gardens in districts ofAssam, vis-a-vis that in other parts of the country, clearly drives home the point thatat the core of the poor performance of the tea industry lies the failure to raiseproductivity at an appreciable rate. If the crisis is one of low and decliningproductivity, unmistakably it is a crisis faced, more than anywhere else, in the largeand medium-sized gardens of the state. Because of their share in total production,and more importantly the high negative growth rates in yield in some of thesegardens in recent years, they have contributed significantly to the spiral of lowreplanting and low yield. Changes in the age distribution of bushes at the districtlevel seem to suggest that although the share of area under older, relatively lessproductive, bushes has declined at the state level between 1980 to 2002, the share ofsuch bushes continues to remain high in those districts where there has beenrelatively less significant growth in the area under small gardens. This seems tosuggest that older and larger plantations have not been investing enough to plantnew bushes. Needless to say, all these changes have profound implications for thelabourers depending on the tea sector for their livelihoods.

For the period 1980–2004, employment in the tea sector has grown at a higherrate at the all India level than in Assam. Although at the all India level, the growth ofemployment was relatively robust during 1998–2000, mainly on account of thetremendous expansion of employment in Tamil Nadu, in Assam the growth rate hasdecelerated significantly. Between 1998 and 2004, however, there has been somerecovery of growth of labour per hectare at the all India level, but the situation inAssam and West Bengal continues to be dismal. As many as four out of the sevendistricts under consideration registered a negative growth in labour per hectare,while others experienced very low growth in Assam, although labour productivityhad increased relatively comfortably during the 1980s. During the 1990s, labourproductivity growth slumped in many of the districts of Assam. Between 1998 and2004, there has been a substantial deterioration in labour productivity in almost allthe major tea-producing states of India.

Employment elasticity has come down in Assam in the 1990s in comparison tothe 1980s. At the district level, it has declined for almost all the districts during the1990s. Further, employment elasticity has become negative in Assam between 1998and 2004. All these features of the labour market capture the implication of crisesof low productivity in the tea sector for labour households in Assam. Increasinglythey find it difficult to get absorbed in the tea sector, their historical source oflivelihood.

IV. Occupational distribution of workers within and outside the gardens

A crucial dimension of the unfolding crisis in Assam’s plantations is the way labour isresponding to the changes that are being imposed on them. The capacity to withstandthe on-going retrenchment and curtailment of previously assured benefits depends, toa significant extent, on their access to alternative avenues of employment. An attempt

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has been made here to understand the extent and pattern of occupational mobilityamong the tea garden labour households, on the basis of a primary survey.Depending upon the relative share in total tea production in Assam, three major teaproducing districts of Assam, Dibrugarh, Sibsagar and Lakhimpur were selected forthe survey. Three tea gardens were randomly selected from amongst the gardensoperating in the three districts, excluding the small tea gardens. One hundred andtwenty-five labour households were randomly selected from each of the tea gardensunder study and the same number of ex-tea garden labourer households were alsoincluded from the vicinity of the tea gardens to make a comparative analysis. In total750 labour households were interviewed on the basis of a structured questionnaire,which was supplemented by informal interviews, participant observation and focusedgroup discussions (for details see Sarma et al. 2008).

For the purpose of inter-generational analysis of occupational mobility, theoccupational status of all members of the households aged 15 or above was analysedseparately for the labour households residing within and outside the gardens(Table 1). For a variety of reasons, tea labour households depend on a number oflivelihood sources outside the tea gardens, although employment in the tea gardenremains their mainstay. In total 33% work as permanent tea garden labourers, andthe tea garden as a whole employs nearly 61% of adult members of those livingwithin the tea gardens. So far as employment outside the tea gardens is concerned,nearly 14% of the total adults were employed in non-farm casual work. Occupationssuch as trade and business, government service and private salaried service had anegligible presence in the occupational distribution of adults in the tea gardens. Thisreinforces the limited occupational diversification among the tea garden labourers,particularly the limited access to better occupations.

It is clear that, within the tea garden occupations, women are disproportionatelycasualized. Their presence in the relatively better paid categories of tea gardenworkers is negligible. Women of tea garden households have a relatively lowerpresence in occupational categories such as cultivators and agricultural labourers,but they have a substantial presence in unskilled, non-farm casual employment. Sucha gendered pattern of occupational diversification could have been the result oflivelihood diversification strategies within the households, which are deeplyembedded in the intra-family distribution of work, power and skills.

Workers residing outside the tea gardens depend relatively less on the teagardens, but the role of the gardens in their livelihoods strategies is not entirelyinsignificant. In total around 28% depend on the gardens for their livelihoods. Amajority of those who live outside the gardens are dependent on cultivation. Theheads of these families have very limited access to non-agricultural occupations.The percentage of adults who reported themselves to be unemployed was muchhigher among the outside tea garden households than those who reside inside thegardens.

So far as the gender differences in occupational distribution is concerned, femalelabourers have a relatively higher share in casual work in tea gardens, but have alower share than males in permanent work and other better paid occupations in thetea gardens. A substantial proportion of female adults reported themselves asunemployed. To sum up, tea gardens continue to have a significant role for labourhouseholds, living within and outside the gardens, although they have started todiversify to non-tea occupations. Opportunities for vertical mobility within thegardens appear to be extremely limited.

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Table

1.

Occupationaldistributionofworkers.

Workerswithin

gardens

Workersoutsidethegardens

Sl.no

Occupations

Male

Fem

ale

Total

Males

Fem

ales

All

1Tea

garden

casuallabour

114(18.6)

193(31.0)

307(24.8)

43(7.2)

131(24.1)

174(15.2)

2Tea

garden

permanentlabour

232(37.8)

174(27.9)

406(32.8)

14(2.3)

5(0.9)

19(1.7)

3Tea

garden

lower

supervisory

staffandserviceproviders

36(5.9)

5(0.8)

41(3.3)

9(1.5)

1(0.2)

10(0.9)

4Tea

garden

clericalstaff

2(0.3)

0(0.0)

2(0.2)

3(0.5)

0(0.0)

3(0.3)

5Cultivators

44(7.2)

10(1.6)

54(4.4)

242(40.5)

57(10.5)

299(26.2)

6Agriculturallabourers

25(4.1)

6(1.0)

31(2.5)

94(15.7)

48(8.8)

142(12.4)

7Non-farm

casuallabour(unskilled)

24(3.9)

147(23.6)

171(13.8)

17(2.8)

5(0.9)

22(1.9)

8Non-farm

casuallabour(skilled)

18(2.9)

1(0.2)

19(1.5)

24(4.0)

1(0.2)

25(2.2)

9Tradeandbusiness

5(0.8)

4(0.6)

9(0.7)

26(4.3)

9(1.7)

35(3.1)

10

Governmentservice

5(0.8)

5(0.8)

10(0.8)

11(1.8)

4(0.7)

15(1.3)

11

Private

salaried

service

0(0.0)

1(0.2)

1(0.1)

6(1.0)

1(0.2)

7(0.6)

12

Unem

ployed

87(14.2)

54(8.7)

141(11.4)

99(16.6)

255(46.9)

354(31.0)

13

Others

0(0.0)

1(0.2)

1(0.1)

2(0.3)

1(0.2)

3(0.3)

14

Non-response

21(3.4)

22(3.5)

43(3.5)

8(1.3)

26(4.8)

34(3.0)

Total

613(100.0)

623(100.0)

1236(100.0)

598(100.0)

544(100.0)

1142(100.0)

Note.Figuresin

parentheses

referto

percentages

tocolumntotals.

Source.

Field

survey,2007.

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V. Inter-generational occupational mobility

Inter-generational occupational mobility can be analysed on the basis of transitionmatrices. Every element in these matrices represents the workers in differentoccupations as the proportion of the total number of sons/daughters of fathers in thesame occupation i.

Thus, the elements of the inter-generational occupational matrix are defined as

aij ¼P

OijPOj

where SOij is the number of workers in the i-th occupation whose fathers were inoccupation j and SOj is the total number of workers whose fathers were inoccupation j.

The aij are typically interpreted as the outflow from fathers’ occupation to son’soccupation or transition probabilities from father’s occupation to son’s occupation.The diagonal element aij : i ¼ j represents the proportion of workers who havefollowed the same occupation as their fathers. Thus, 1 7 aij, i ¼ j can be taken as ameasure of occupational mobility among the sons and daughters of the fathers whowere in the occupation j.

The inter-generational occupational mobility matrix created on the basis of datagenerated from the field survey brings out several key aspects of the occupationalchange of workers in the tea garden (Table 2). Among the workers whose fatherswere themselves tea garden labourers, nearly 46% have become permanent teagarden labourers; among those whose fathers were casual labourers, nearly 38% arecasual labourers in tea gardens. The tables indicate that among all the occupationalcategories reported here the highest inter-generational concentration (or immobility)of occupations has been in the categories of permanent and casual labourers.

Of all workers whose fathers were casual workers in tea gardens 47% worked ascasual labourers, 4% became permanent labourers in the gardens, no one could get asupervisory or clerical post in the gardens, and 18% became cultivators. Among thesons and daughters of permanent workers in tea gardens, 21% work as casualworkers, 38% as permanent workers in gardens, 6% as lower supervisory workersand 0.2% could get lower managerial or clerical posts. Others, in very smallnumbers, could also diversify to occupations outside gardens. Interestingly, amongthe sons and daughters of those who were employed as lower supervisory staff, 34%have become casual labourers and 7% have become permanent labourers, but noone could join as supervisory or lower managerial staff in the gardens. Thisdownwards trend gets further strengthened if we exclude the non-responses orconsider only the male workers. This clearly brings out the fact that there is very littleupwards mobility within the gardens. The sons and daughters of casual andpermanent workers do not move into better occupations offered by the gardens.

Among the workers who live outside the gardens the picture is slightly different(Table 3). Of all those whose fathers were casual labourers in the gardens, nearly10% are casual workers in gardens, 7% are permanent workers, and no one couldgraduate into a better paid job in the gardens. But they have joined otheroccupations: 23% as cultivators, 10% in trade and business, 7% each in agriculturaland non-agricultural casual workers; 32% are unemployed. Among those whosefathers were permanent workers in the gardens, only 4% could get a permanent

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Table

2.

Intergenerationalmobilitymatrix:allworkers(insideteagardens).

Son’sanddaughter’soccupation

Father’soccupation

O1

O2

O3

O4

O5

O6

O7

O8

O9

O10

O12

O13

Casuallabourtea(O

1)

0.286

0.182

0.231

0.000

0.077

0.143

0.000

0.000

0.000

0.000

0.000

0.275

Permanentlabourtea(O

2)

0.071

0.427

0.077

0.000

0.615

0.143

0.500

0.000

0.000

1.000

0.667

0.137

Lower

supervisory

staffandserviceproviders(O

3)

0.000

0.066

0.000

0.000

0.000

0.286

0.000

0.000

0.500

0.000

0.000

0.020

Clericalstaffin

teagardens(O

4)

0.000

0.002

0.000

0.000

0.000

0.000

0.000

0.000

0.000

0.000

0.000

0.020

Cultivators

(O5)

0.286

0.054

0.077

0.000

0.077

0.286

0.000

0.000

0.000

0.000

0.000

0.176

Agriculturallabour(O

6)

0.000

0.041

0.000

0.000

0.000

0.143

0.000

0.000

0.000

0.000

0.000

0.078

Non-farm

casuallabour(unskilled)(O

7)

0.000

0.029

0.192

0.000

0.000

0.000

0.000

0.143

0.000

0.000

0.000

0.078

Non-farm

casuallabour(skilled)(O

8)

0.000

0.031

0.000

0.000

0.077

0.000

0.000

0.143

0.000

0.000

0.000

0.020

Tradeandbusiness(O

9)

0.000

0.006

0.000

1.000

0.000

0.000

0.000

0.000

0.000

0.000

0.000

0.020

Governmentservice(O

10)

0.000

0.006

0.000

0.000

0.077

0.000

0.000

0.000

0.000

0.000

0.000

0.020

Unem

ployed

(O12)

0.286

0.120

0.385

0.000

0.077

0.000

0.500

0.714

0.500

0.000

0.333

0.118

Non-response

(O13)

0.071

0.035

0.038

0.000

0.000

0.000

0.000

0.000

0.000

0.000

0.000

0.039

Note:Includes

casesofnon-reporting.

Source:

Field

survey,2007.

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Table

3.

Intergenerationalmobilitymatrix:allworkers(outsideteagardens).

Son’sanddaughter’soccupation

Father’soccupation

O1

O2

O3

O4

O5

O6

O7

O8

O9

O10

O12

O13

Casuallabourtea(O

1)

0.097

0.106

0.083

0.000

0.022

0.131

0.000

0.136

0.185

0.188

0.500

0.000

Permanentlabourtea(O

2)

0.065

0.039

0.000

0.000

0.022

0.000

0.000

0.045

0.000

0.031

0.000

0.000

Lower

supervisory

staffandserviceproviders(O

3)

0.000

0.000

0.000

0.000

0.000

0.036

0.000

0.000

0.074

0.000

0.000

0.667

Clericalstaffin

teagardens(O

4)

0.000

0.011

0.000

0.000

0.007

0.000

0.000

0.000

0.000

0.000

0.000

0.000

Cultivators

(O5)

0.226

0.350

0.333

0.000

0.548

0.429

0.300

0.091

0.111

0.250

0.000

0.000

Agriculturallabour(O

6)

0.032

0.256

0.000

0.000

0.037

0.131

0.200

0.045

0.000

0.000

0.000

0.000

Non-farm

casuallabour(unskilled)(O

7)

0.065

0.033

0.000

0.000

0.015

0.024

0.100

0.000

0.000

0.031

0.000

0.000

Non-farm

casuallabour(skilled)(O

8)

0.065

0.067

0.083

0.000

0.022

0.000

0.200

0.000

0.000

0.031

0.000

0.000

Tradeandbusiness(O

9)

0.097

0.033

0.000

0.000

0.044

0.024

0.000

0.000

0.037

0.000

0.000

0.000

Governmentservice(O

10)

0.000

0.011

0.000

0.143

0.030

0.000

0.100

0.000

0.037

0.031

0.250

0.000

Unem

ployed

(O12)

0.000

0.000

0.000

0.000

0.000

0.000

0.000

0.045

0.000

0.031

0.250

0.000

Non-response

(O13)

0.323

0.072

0.500

0.857

0.230

0.190

0.100

0.545

0.556

0.375

0.000

0.333

Note:Includes

casesofnon-reporting.

Source:

Field

survey.

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worker status in the gardens, 11% work as casual workers, 1% could get access to abetter paid job in the gardens. Among this category, 35% are cultivators, 26% arecasual farm labour, 3% are unskilled non-farm casual workers, 7% are skilled non-farm workers and 3% are in trade and business. So, of those who have left thegardens there is greater diversification of occupations, but it is mostly to low-paid,informal sector occupations.

In order to bring out the differences in the inter-generational occupationalmobility pattern of workers belonging to the tea labour households and ex-tealabour households, we have presented the percentage distribution of workers indifferent occupational categories, after dividing them into two categories – thosewhose fathers were in some occupations in the tea gardens and those who were not(Table 4). Among the tea labour households (living within the tea gardens), nearly65% of those whose fathers were working in the gardens have found a job within thegardens, and 54% of those whose fathers were not in the gardens also work in thegardens. Among those who belong to ‘ex-tea garden labour households’ and liveoutside the gardens, the trend is somewhat different. Nearly 15% of those whosefathers had worked in the gardens were employed in the gardens themselves, while18% of those whose fathers were working outside gardens have joined the gardens.

Table 4. Distribution of workers in occupations according to father’s occupation.

Within gardens Outside gardens

All workers Male workers All workers Male workers

Fathers in Fathers in

Son’s/daughter’soccupation

Teagardens Other

Teagardens Other

Teagardens Other

Teagardens Other

Casual labour tea 23.35 6.78 10.00 16.56 10.00 16.56 8.33 6.65Permanent labourtea

36.12 44.07 3.91 1.10 3.91 1.10 4.17 1.48

Lower supervisorystaff and serviceproviders

5.14 5.08 0.00 1.10 0.00 1.10 0.00 2.22

Clerical staff in teagardens

0.15 0.00 0.87 0.11 0.87 0.11 1.04 0.25

Cultivators 5.14 5.08 32.17 24.67 32.17 24.67 35.94 42.61Agriculturallabour

2.94 1.69 20.43 10.42 20.43 10.42 21.35 13.05

Non-farm casuallabour(unskilled)

7.64 6.78 3.48 1.54 3.48 1.54 4.17 2.22

Non-farm casuallabour (skilled)

2.20 3.39 6.52 1.10 6.52 1.10 7.81 2.22

Trade andbusiness

0.59 0.00 3.91 2.85 3.91 2.85 4.17 4.43

Governmentservice

1.03 1.69 1.30 1.32 1.30 1.32 1.56 1.97

Private salaried 0.15 0.00 0.00 0.77 0.00 0.77 0.00 1.48Unemployed 15.42 25.42 15.22 34.98 15.22 34.98 9.38 19.95Non-response 0.15 0.00 2.17 3.51 2.17 3.51 2.08 1.48

Source: Field survey, 2007.

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A majority of the workers are engaged in labour-intensive rice farming forsubsistence.

We also investigated the extent of occupational mobility in earlier generations, byconstructing an inter-generational occupational matrix. This is done by crossclassifying the occupation of the fathers of the current workers with that of theirgrandfathers. This exercise, notwithstanding the limitations of non-reporting as wellas recall errors in reporting of data regarding earlier generations of workers, stillprovides a basis to understand inter-generational occupational changes in thepopulation under study. In the earlier generation, the extent of occupational changewas less pronounced than that in the current generations. For example, among the teagarden households, 80% of those whose fathers were permanent labourers,themselves became permanent labourers in the gardens, which increases to 82% ifwe drop the cases of non-response. Similarly among the ex-tea garden labourhouseholds living outside the gardens, 47% of those whose fathers were cultivatorsbecame cultivators. If the cases of non-reporting are disregarded, the share goes up to65%. However, there was significant inter-generational mobility between twooccupations – tea garden labour and cultivation. In the case of tea labour households,63% of those whose fathers were cultivators joined the tea gardens as casuallabourers. Similarly among the ex-tea garden labour households outside the gardens,7–10% of those whose fathers were cultivators joined the gardens. So the dependenceupon tea gardens was quite significant for the earlier generations. The extent ofoccupational mobility appears to be very low. Most of those whose fathers were teagarden labourers joined the gardens as labourers and most of those whose fatherswere cultivators continued to pursue the same occupation. There was very littlevertical movement in terms of changes to better paid occupations within the gardens.

VI. Occupational mobility of tea garden workers: causes and constraints

The occupational diversification of the workers in tea plantations depends on twosets of variables: (1) the willingness or desire to change the occupation and (2) thecapacity or ability to do so. There are a number of reasons for which the tea labourhouseholds, given a chance, would prefer to continue to work within the gardensthemselves. Decisions to change occupations are often taken at the household levelrather than at the individual level, and it is possible that in spite of the wage ratewithin the garden being lower than the expected wage rate outside the garden for aspecific individual, the total family earnings outside the gardens might be lower thanwhat the household could earn inside the garden, mainly because a higher number ofhousehold members could find employment within the garden. In such cases therewould be no incentive for labour to move out of the plantation sector even if thewage rate is higher outside. It is the total household income and not the wage rate assuch that influences labour’s decision.

There could be various constraints that limit the employment choices of the teagarden workers as well. The ‘unfreedom’ and bondage characterizing the labourregimes during the early history of the development of the plantation sector has hada lengthy impact on labour relations in the plantations.5 The pre-capitalist/feudalstructure of relations between labour and capital/management in the gardens (Behaland Mohapatra 1992) may still influence labour relations to some extent. Bondagewill also have acted as an impediment to the emergence of labour as an independentfactor of production under a capitalist mode of production.

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One of the key constraints faced by those who want to move into otheroccupations is lack of education and skills. Although there is provision for schoolingin most of the gardens, more often than not these schools offer education only up tothe primary or upper primary levels and for higher classes children have to travel along distance. The problem of access is acute as most of the gardens are located inisolated pockets with poor connectivity to nearby urban centres and villages, as thereis virtually no public transport available for the children. The poor quality ofteaching in these understaffed schools, along with diversion of ‘teachers’ to otherwork, compound the problem. On the demand side, the single most important factorcontributing to the lack of interest in schooling is the availability of jobs withingardens as ‘non-adult’ workers. It suits both the parents and the management, butlimits the scope of learning and future occupational diversification among the youngworkers.6

Another significant factor influencing the occupational diversification process inthe vicinity of tea gardens is the nature of the local economy. Tea gardens not onlydiffer in their sizes and the volume of tea leaves produced, but also in terms of theirlocation. Relatively larger tea gardens located along National Highways are moreoften than not more closely integrated with the local economy. The agriculturalgoods produced within and outside the gardens flow into local markets more easilyand the purchasing power infused through wages and salaries in the gardenssustains, to some extent, the local non-farm economy – particularly retail trading ofvarious kinds. The flow of labour to and from the tea gardens is as such less robustthan that of retail goods (like daily consumables) and local products (particularlygrain, dairy products and so on). These linkages are relatively weak in remotegardens with poor connectivity.

The political scenario in Assam, as in many other north-eastern states, has beendeeply influenced by the politics of identity and difference. The question of migrationto Assam has long been politically emotive (Vandekerckhove 2009). The perceived‘otherness’ of the tea garden labour force is a factor influencing the occupationaldiversification strategies of the households (Misra 2003, 2007; Gohain 2007). One ofthe key factors influencing the slower pace of integration of tea labourers is the self-sufficiency of the economies of the tea gardens. The labour market in the tea gardenareas remains deeply segmented in this aspect. The labour outside the gardens, unlessthey belong to the ‘the garden community’, hardly compete with the garden labourersfor the employment available inside the gardens. Similarly the flow of labour from thegardens to the local labour markets, though increasing, remains constrained. The twoimportant channels through which this flow continues are: the assimilation of asection of garden labourers into the nearby villages as cultivators and agriculturallabourers; and access to jobs in the urban informal sectors. But one of the factors,which has influenced the scope for diversification, is access to homestead land. As it isbecoming increasingly difficult to get permanent jobs in the gardens, manyhouseholds have tried to diversify their sources of earnings, but without shiftingtheir base from the gardens. When the households opt to move out, they prefer tomove to localities or villages with a tea labour community. One of the characteristicsof migrant labour in the plantation sector is that historically they were brought inlarge numbers from the same localities. This has resulted in strong social bonding andkinship and hence might act as an impediment to a decision to move out.

Behind the reluctance of individuals and households to opt for an occupationoutside the garden lies the significance attached to the garden as a ‘way of life’ and as

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a ‘home’. However, behind these ‘tea-garden-as-way-of-life’ arguments there couldbe economic reasons for not moving out of the tea garden. Although there wereseveral complaints about payments being delayed or denied, by and large, theprovisions of the Tea Labour Act provides some amount of social security to theworkers. The provision of subsidised food as part of wages acts as an added incentiveto stay. In spite of some leakages and non-observation of provisions of the act atground level, permanent workers in the garden do have access to some social securityprovisions that are better than in alternative occupations available to them.

We attempted to find out the mean social security score for different categories ofhouseholds.7 It is found that tea garden casual labourers do not have the same accessto social security as the permanent workers, but still, their social security score ishigher than that of casual workers in other sectors. This, in the final analysis, makesthe tea garden job more lucrative than other alternatives for the workers. Tea gardenlabourers who have settled outside the garden face a variety of constraints (Misra2003, 2007; Mishra 2005). First of all because of the very nature of their settlements,the labour community had noticeably poor access to anti-poverty social security,agricultural extension and other welfare schemes. Apart from their geographicalexclusion, the lower political bargaining strength of the tea garden labourcommunity resulted in exclusion from grassroots political bodies such as gramsabhas. There have been attempts at land grabbing by the local dominantcommunities that push the adivasis back to the tea garden. The tea gardens, onthe other hand are severely downsizing their labour forces and hence the only optionfor the tea garden labourers is to join the agricultural labour market at abysmallylow wages. Low levels of literacy, high drop-out rates among the children andalcoholism further aggravate their plight.

VII. Conclusion

Plantation economies in general, and the tea sector in particular, have historicallybeen associated with bondage and indentured labour systems, implying varyingdegrees of unfreedom for labourers (Raman 2010; Brass and Bernstein 1992; Post2003). Notwithstanding the re-organization of the sector in response to changingmarket conditions and state intervention, there seems to be limited mobility of teagarden workers or their descendants in terms of diversification of sources of earningsand employment. In the context of rapid and increasing mobility of workers acrosssectors and spaces under globalization, the apparent inter-generational immobility oftea garden labourers is an important and, to some extent, intriguing question thatdeserves detailed research attention. The labour market scenario in the tea gardens isunique in the sense that the supply side is governed by a set of factors (such asimmobility, poor asset ownership and restricted skill set) that import thecharacteristics of a reserve army of labour. In contrast, the demand side of thelabour market is highly responsive to market conditions. The market fluctuations inlabour demand conditions, our analysis shows, have largely been absorbed by onesegment of the labour force: casual workers.

The pattern of occupational diversification among adults belonging to tea gardenworker households and ex-tea garden labour households brings out the relativesignificance of different livelihood sources succinctly. Firstly, the distinctionsbetween ‘tea garden labour households’ and ‘ex-tea garden labour households’seems to be of little analytical significance in the analysis of the sources of livelihood

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and employment. Whereas some members of the households have moved out of thegardens to other occupations, either out of compulsion or choice, other memberscontinue to depend on the gardens for their employment. Many of those who workin the gardens are employed as casual workers, mainly in the peak plucking season.Secondly, there is a great deal of occupational concentration in the tea gardens andthe overwhelming significance of tea gardens as a source of livelihoods can hardly beover-emphasized. Outside jobs are rarely stable, permanent and better earning jobssuch as government service or private salaried service; most are rather withinagriculture or in casual work outside agriculture, particularly in construction. Withinthe tea gardens, opportunities for vertical mobility are extremely limited.

The low occupational mobility among tea garden labourers has been mainlybecause of the continuation of the form of production within the tea plantations.The legacy of the indenture system ensures that the entire family of the workers –male, female and children – tend to be employed in the same garden. Theconcentration and isolation of tea garden labourers also erect effective barriers toalternative sources of earnings. It is always in the interest of the management toensure that the labour households remain dependent upon their earnings from thetea garden, as recruitment of new labour is costly.8 The employment of children intea gardens, inadequate schooling facilities and lack of scope for alternative skillformation leads to the persistent dependence of the children of tea garden labour onthe tea industry itself. Again, the payment of part of the wage in terms of subsidizedfood grains will be a strong incentive not to leave the garden. The ethnic identity ofthe immigrant tea garden labourers also acts as an additional barrier against theiroccupational mobility.

This has significant implications for understanding changing labour relations inthe context of globalization. The mutually reinforcing nature of the constraints facedby the tea garden labour force on account of the historical legacies of plantationlabour systems, as well as the increasing pressures for casualization, define theirconditions of work. The social, economic and spatial embeddedness of labourrelations continues to impact upon the ‘choices’ for mobility available to the workersand their families.

Acknowledgements

The paper is based on findings of a research project entitled ‘Occupational mobility ofplantation sector in Assam: determinants and implications’, carried out with financial supportfrom the National Tea Research Foundation, Kolkata. We owe a special debt of gratitude toSewali Kurmi, Jawan Singh, Kamakhaya Prasad and Robin Khataniar for their support indata collection and analysis. The paper benefited from the comments and observations ofparticipants at the Annual Conference of the British Association of South Asian Studies 2010,at University of Warwick, where an earlier version of the paper was presented. We are deeplyindebted to Barbara Harris-White for her insightful comments and suggestions. The usualdisclaimers apply.

Notes

1. In Dibrugarh district, Assam a tea garden manager was hacked to death by agitatingworkers on 30 May 2003 (Misra 2003). On 24 November 2007, when 6000 adivasis fromtea gardens of Assam gathered at a protest rally in Guwahati to demand ST status, theirrally was attacked by local shopkeepers and youth in retaliation against violent attacks bysome of the agitators (see Misra 2007).

2. The tea garden labourers settled outside the garden are variously called adivasis, tea-tribesor the ex-tea garden labour community. These terms are politically loaded statements of

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self-identification, particularly in Assam. Without taking a stand on this, we will use theminterchangeably.

3. Today, Assam produces around 52% of the total tea produced in India and employsaround 56% of the labour force working in this sector (Tea Board 2004).

4. This has its roots in the migration of labour from eastern and central India to the gardens,where movements of families were specifically encouraged to reduce the cost of laboursupply.

5. The ‘industrial plantation’ system that emerged in the nineteenth century represented ‘newforms of capital’, but its link with unfreedom of labour continues to remain one of theproblematic issues in understanding the nature of labour processes in plantations (Brassand Bernstein 1992, 4–5).

6. Educational attainment among the tea garden workers (mean years ¼ 2) is abysmally low.On the other hand there is a significant gap between the mean years of schooling betweenthe labourers (2–4) and those who have joined white-collar professions (9–13). Theaverage years of schooling among those who work within the gardens and those who workoutside, however, is not significantly different as most of the non-tea garden occupationsare also at the low-income end of the job spectrum.

7. Social security score has been calculated on the basis of the following parameters: paidleave, provident fund, pension, medical support, housing support, maternity leave,insurance, injury allowance and other benefits. Availability of each of these supports wasassigned a value 1, otherwise 0. Composite social security score (S) ¼ S Si, i ¼ 1 . . . 9.

8. According to existing legal provisions, labourers have the right to housing. Therecruitment of workers from existing labour families puts no extra burden onmanagement, but employment of new labourers will raise that cost substantially.

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