Literature Review

A 2006 study by Das and Islam explains that there is a widespread belief that female tea estate
workers (the overwhelming majority) are in deplorable conditions deprived of human rights
along with their children who do not get required education. They took a large survey size 1216
of tea workers and their adolescent children. The whole age range was 15-70 years. 59% of
workers were found to be illiterate, but nearly half of the sample sent their children to school.
However, female children were discriminated against in the field of education, probably in a bid
to make them into future tea workers. This is further supported as child labor is seen to be
insidiously pervading in the surveyed estates. There was a lack of cooperation form estate
authorities regarding children education. Over 50% of workers earned less than 20,000 Tk per
year, which is a low income and that is why 47% resorted to other part-time jobs than teapicking. The rest 53% have only the tea job and not enough money, so are sometimes forced to
go without food. 30% claim that vote candidates buy votes from them, and they have little idea
of the concept of good governance. Finally, and most sadly, 75% feel that they are treated as
untouchables by the other ethnic groups in Sylhet.
A 2013 article by M. Kabir et al. clarifies that the tea workers of Sylhet are the people from
various tribes in the Indian Sub-Continent. The mixed heritage has now given rise to a teagarden tribe. The article tells us how tribal practitioners of these tribes from Moulvibazar,
Sylhet use medicinal plants to treat many ailments that plague these tea workers, from simple
coughs and constipation to life-threatening diseases such as jaundice and diabetes. Allopathic
doctors exist in tea estates to treat these workers, but their low incomes prevent going to them,
and they stick to Kavirajes. The tribes are also plagued with disease-related superstitions such as
evil eyes and genies, and also prefer traditional witch doctor treatment by tabiz and Jharfuk.The plants used are found to be used by tribes in India: Rajasthan, Orissa, Mijoram,
Manipur etc which further lend proof to the origin of the tea-garden tribe people. Hence, the tribe
language is a mixture of Bengali, which the tribe calls Deshali and Oriya. The British brought
them to Sylhet in 1854 from these parts of India, but treated them like slaves, with minimal pay
and deplorable living conditions. Still today, they are at mercy of tea garden owners, the study
claims, and buy essential goods at high prices not accommodated by their low incomes. They are
treated as untouchables, except when they are employed as domestic help.
A 2014 study by ABM Hassan studies the living conditions of female tea workers in Sylhet.
Firstly, their parents get them married off in early life. 86% keep a small family size, which is
tied with 60% of them having knowledge about family planning and reproductive health. They
are often the sole earning member of their families, but in 68% of these families, husbands take
major family decisions and also take away their hard-earned wages, and adding salt to the
wound, females view males as Lords of the family. Many are harassed and tortured by their
husbands, but 98% of these female workers have no consciousness at all about laws regarding
Nari o Shishu Nirjaton/ Druto Biichar Aine (Law regarding torture of women and children/ rapid

justice). Estates often disregard the needs of these women, exploiting the fact that they have no
their job to resort to, and the government remains inattentive to their rights as well. This paints a
sad, grey, miserable picture about these female tea workers.