COVID-19 is a ticking time-bomb in Assam's tea gardens

In this article, Senior Journalist Sanjib Kr Baruah reflects on the risk posed by reverse migration to the tea gardens of Assam, amid the global COVID-19 outbreak.

New Delhi:The dreary tales of life in the crowded labour lines in the about 800 tea gardens of Assam is a well documented fact. That is why perhaps most of the young boys try to move out for a better life by travelling to faraway states looking for jobs in factories, commercial establishments, offices, hotels, shops, and small enterprises.

But with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) spreading uncontrollably fast, these migrant youth belonging to the tea garden communities are coming back home to Assam in droves after the governments declared lockouts in many of these states. At least 22 of India’s states have declared lockouts till now.

With no medical screening of these youth amid extremely inadequate health infrastructure and with tea gardens offering just the most ideal conditions for the virus to wreak havoc on, the returnees are becoming the biggest cause for concern with no fool-proof way to find out if the youth from these affected states are carrying the dreaded virus or not.

Amid rampant illiteracy and lack of awareness, this is leading to a concern that the tea gardens of Assam are perhaps sitting on a veritable powder keg that may blow up anytime soon.

“We are sitting on a big time bomb in the tea gardens. I have young boys coming back home who were working in Kerala, Bangalore and Odisha. On their return there has been no proper medical screening conducted on them nor are there any facilities here as such. There is no other alternative for the government but to send in health workers into the gardens,” Rishi Malhotra, manager, Sapoi Tea Estate, told ETV Bharat.

Sapoi Tea Estate, a 680-hectare area tea farm, is situated near Dhekiajuli, about 145 km northeast of state capital Guwahati.

Said a top tea industry official on condition of anonymity, “These youths have come back in large numbers although we are keeping a watch. But monitoring them has become a big crisis. The SOP mandates that they be kept under quarantine for two weeks, but there are no facilities to accommodate them.”

Assam’s tea gardens employ about 10 lakh workers both regular and casual, excluding their families and dependents, who together live mostly in cramped colonies within the garden.

The official, who has been recently assigned the duty of undertaking measures to combat COVID-19, said, “With no testing kits, no masks and no bleaching powder to sanitize, there is no doubt we are headed for a catastrophe in the tea gardens. There is no way to ensure that the returnees maintain social isolation. They live very close knit community lives where there is a lot of social intermingling.”

Another official that ETV Bharat spoke to said there is a panic-like situation in the tea gardens which has only been worsened by rumours and myths being spread on social media. “Without active government help and scarce facilities, illiteracy among the tea garden workers is becoming the biggest of hurdles in combating COVID-19.”

The Tea Board of India is mandated with welfare measures for plantation workers and their families in the area of health, hygiene, and education.

India produces about 23 per cent of the world’s tea of which Assam’s share is more than half. India’s export share is about 14 per cent among the tea exporting countries while the country consumes about 19 per cent of the total global tea consumption.