Political Participation and Voting Behaviour of Coffee Plantation worker in

Chikkamagaluru District of Karnataka State

Saravana K
Research Scholar
Department of Studies and Research in Social Work
Tumkur University

Dr.Lokesha M.U
Assistant Professor
Department of Studies and Research in Social Work
Tumkur University

Abstract
The Chikkamagaluru district resides within the Indian state of Karnataka and a part of a
Western Ghats. The Chikkamgaluru district is mainly an agriculture district and its economy
mainly depends upon the success or failure of crops particularly the plantation crops like tea
rubber(NR Pura) and coffee. The climatic environments and troposphere of the area
chikkamgaluru an appropriate place in Southern India for cultivation of Coffee as a result the
zones under coffee cultivation in this region are huge and extend. The cultivation of coffee is
mainly based on the plantation workers and the study is to analyze about the Political
Participation and Voting Behaviour of Coffee Plantation worker in Chikkamagaluru region. The
importance of considering these factors is analyzed and suggested as per the results inferred
from several tea estates and unions resides in Chikkamagaluru District.

Key words: Plantation, Political, Voting, Chikkamagluru, coffee

Introduction

The term Plantation has been defined under the Plantation Labour Act 1951 to include any
plantation to which the Act, whether wholly or in parts applies and includes offices, hospital
dispensaries, school or other premises used for any other purpose connected with such
plantation. Section 1(14) of the Act applies to any land or intends to be used for growing tea,
coffee, rubber, cinchona and cardamom which measure 5hectare or more and in which fifteen or
more persons are employed or were employed on any draft of the proceeding 12 month (PLA,
1951).

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Plantation Industries in southern India
The plantation sector in India plays an vital role in the economy of three Southern states,
Kerala in Rubber, coffee, Spices, Tamil Nadu in Tea and Karnataka in coffee. The total
plantation area is estimated to be around 17.2 lakh hectares. The estimated value of plantation
commodities in 2010-2011 is Rs.33,486 crores (Mahalakshmi, 2012).

Political Participation
Political participation, a necessary ingredient of political system denotes such activities
by which the citizens share in choosing the government. It generally means direct or indirect
involvement in political or decision making process by exercising franchise rights of sharing
power. The political participation of an individual in society deepens upon four kinds of motives
such as deferential, solitary, instrumental, and cubic (Wimmer, 2004). Deferential participation
results from the actors deep respect for and strong identification with the influencer and his
concomitant desire to be and to appear to be influenced by him. People holding higher
occupations usually reveal a greater willingness for participation. Their educational attainment
usually reflect high rate of their political participation. The manual or semi manual workers
engaged in longer hours without any security or leisure is not expected to have higher
participation compared to high professionals (Kumar, 2006).

Voting Behaviour
The Lack of political awareness among plantation workers is mainly due to the
circumcised garden environment which resulted in their socio-economic backwardness. The
socioeconomic backwardness and geographic isolation caused the tea garden labourers to have
fewer friends and narrower geographical range of social contacts than those in higher strata.
Knowledge about political parties ideology, policy and programme is quite poor. The workers
in general know only charismatic leaders of national stature. The garden workers the blind
followers of leaders and they neither know party candidate, nor find any candidate to favor them
after election, they vote as per the union direction (Kumar, 2006).

Significance of the Study

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Plantation workers who are working stayed in Chikkamgaluru migrated from various part of
southern India and settled in nearby plantations. Their melancholy mood, remorse and
repentance in plantation environment were beyond description. The geographical setting, ethnic
diversity, language barrier, nostalgia from ancestral places and many other compulsions forced
them to lead an unpleasant life in the plantation. The geographical milieu, ethnic diversities,
illiteracy and plantation environment led socio-economic backwardness which checked political
participation of the tea workers. The estate rules and the planters attitude towards the worker
did not allow interaction with the local people, which stood in the way of geminating political
perception. Hence this study is exclusively focuses on political participation and voting behavior
of Coffee plantation workers in chikkamgaluru.
Objectives of the Study

The present study has following objectives

1. To understand the socio-economic condition of Coffee Plantation Workers

2. To study the Political Participation and Voting Behaviour of Coffee Plantation
worker

Material and Method

This study was carried out by researcher in Coffee plantation area of Chikkmagaluru
District; Researcher used descriptive research design and data was collected from the 125
respondents from both permanent and casual workers involved for this study by applying
purposive sampling technique with the help of structured interview schedule. The collected data
was computed with SPSS 20.0 software.

Results and Discussion

Table 1: Socio-Demographic Profile of Coffee Plantation workers

Sl. No Age Frequency Percent

1. 20-25 19 15.2
2. 25-30 35 28.0
3. 30-35 30 24.0

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 4. 35-40 23 18.4
5. 40-45 18 14.4
Mean = 20
Education Qualification
1. Illiterate 25 20.0
2. Can read only 42 33.6
3. Can read and write 31 24.8
4. Primary 25 20.0
5. Middle 2 1.6

Category
1. SC 51 40.8
2. ST 49 39.2
3. OBC 17 13.6
4. Minorities 6 4.8
5. Others 2 1.6

The table shows socio-demographic profile of plantation women worker, the mean age of
women worker is 20, education qualification of women workers is shows that majority 33.6
percentage of women plantation workers are can read only they are not received any formal
education and 40.8 percentage of women worker in plantation were belongs to scheduled caste.

Table 2: Motive behind voting

Sl. No Motive behind voting Frequency Percent

1 Rights and To Serve Nation 40 32
2 Monetary gain and other allurement 49 39.2
Vote as per the direction of Plantation
3 34 27.2
leader
4 Caste Leader 2 1.6

Total 125 100.0

Plantation workers enjoy election scenario with great pleasure. Each party womes to
them, offer money and wine to the headmen to woo voters. During election general issues are

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focused before the electorates. Sometimes manager (Kangani/mestri/righter) also play important
role in election, they easily mislead the voters. Table 2 reflect the clear picture that plantation
workers vote blindly on the base of monetary gain and 27.2 percentage of workers voting based
on local plantation leader. However caste based voting cannot be ignored.

Table 3: Reason for Voting

Sl. No Reason for Voting Frequency Percent

1 To Elect a popular Candidate 38 30.4

2 To elect party Candidate 50 40.0
3 To get benefit from Candidate 37 29.6
Total 125 100.0

The above table deals with reason for voting of plantation workers, the table clearly
indicates that plantation workers influenced by party rather than a candidate. Accordingly any
political activist can easily come to labour line, talk to them and can influence them on their line.
Before 1999 plantation workers were vote bank of congress due to influence of Indiragandhi.
After Bababudangiri religious issue Chikkamagaluru became vote bank of BJP (PUCL, 2000).
Majority of Plantation were owned by followers of BJP. Consequently, influence of plantation
contractors (Kangani) plays a major role in Chikkamagaluru plantation politics.

Conclusion

Though the coffee plantation workers in chiikkamagaluru are migrant, illiterates,

ignorant, poor and politically quite unaware, they are moving forward with their Trade union is
contractor, TV media. The news paper is rarely used by the workers living in far plantation.
However, young generation of the same stock who is in the regular contact with other cross
section of society and familiar with day to day political development inside the country.
Plantation worker are seldom apply their political wisdom and sagacity and they become victim

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of political indecision. They are misled by their leaders and they fail to make correct assessment
of the situation.

Bibliography
Kumar, P. (2006). State and Society in North East India: A study of immigrant Tea Plantation
Labourers. New Delhi: Regency Publication.
Mahalakshmi, A. (2012). A Study on the Socio-Economic Status of Women Employees in Tea
Plantation Industries. International Journal of Science, Engineering and
Technology Research (IJSETR) , 1 (6), 70.
PLA. (1951). Plantation Labour Act.
PUCL. (2000). Bababudangiri and communal situation in Chikamagalur town. Retrieved aPRIL
27, 2017, from http://www.pucl.org:
http://www.pucl.org/reports/Karnataka/chikamagalur.htm
Wimmer, M. A. (2004). Knowledge Management in Electronic Governance. Austria: Springer.