By Sujit Chakraborty

Guwahati, Mar 14 (IANS): As Assam goes to three-phase Assembly polls with numerous issues, the spotlight is on the 10 lakh tea garden workers.

Assam has over 10 lakh tea workers in the organised sector working in 856 tea estates producing around 55 per cent of India's tea. Tea tribe communities are determining factors in around 25 to 30 seats in 126-seated Assam Assembly.

The Bharatiya Janata Party-led government, which after coming to power in 2016 had increased the wages of the tea workers by Rs 30, and on February 20 the state government decided to hike the daily wages to regular 7,46,667 tea garden workers by Rs 50 -- from Rs 167 to Rs 217.

However, the implementation of the Rs 50 a day hike in wages for tea garden workers is likely to be delayed as a petition filed by the Indian Tea Association (ITA).

Hearing the petition of the ITA and 17 tea companies that own over 90 per cent of tea estates in Assam, Justice Michael Zothankhuma recently asked the state government not to take any coercive action against the ITA and the tea companies until case challenging the state Labour Department's notification on the wage hike, is disposed of.

The High Court upheld the argument that the wage hike was "illegal" as no committee or sub-committee had been formed, as required under relevant sections of the Minimum Wages Act, 1948.

The matter is listed for next hearing on March 15.

Accusing the BJP government for not increasing the daily wages of the tea garden workers, the Congress, which is contesting the Assembly polls with six other parties, recently announced five "guarantees" for the people to be fulfilled if the party comes to power, including raising the tea workers' daily wages to Rs 365 from the existing Rs 167.

Congress alleged that Prime minister Narendra Modi had promised to revise the daily wages of tea workers in Assam to Rs 350 prior to 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

Renowned political commentator Sushanta Talukdar said the economic condition of the tea workers was very pitiable and they have been deprived of their due wages and other benefits.

"The political parties before every election promises to increase their wages and various benefits, but after the polls nothing is fulfilled.

"Without empowering the workers, the tea industry cannot flourish. If the tea industry thrived, the economy of Assam would further prosper facilitating to deal with the growing unemployment problems," Talukdar told IANS.

All Assam Tea Tribes' Students' Association (ATTSA) have announced a shutdown of all tea gardens on March 22 alleging neglectful attitude towards the tea workers of Assam.

AATTSA President Dhiraj Gowala said that all governments have failed to address the problems of the tea workers.

"We, before the elections, would apprise the people how the injustice has been done to the tea workers by the incumbent BJP, previous Asom Gana Parishad and Congress governments," Gowala told IANS.

On February 6, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had distributed Rs 3,000 each to 7,46,667 tea garden workers in Assam under the 'Chah Bagicha Dhan Puraskar Mela' scheme.

The scheme was started by the Assam government in 2017-18 and that year Rs 2,500 each was provided to 6,33,411 tea garden workers, while a similar amount was deposited in 7,15,979 bank accounts the next year.

According to the experts, drop in production due to Covid-19 pandemic, nationwide lockdown, besides governmental restrictions, caused loss of huge foreign currency earnings as India used to export tea to more than 30 countries.

According to economists and experts, delayed start of various works in the tea gardens, including plucking and processing, besides government enforced restrictions last year, are among the key reasons to give a blow to export of tea.

Assam, which roughly produces 55 per cent of India's total tea production of 1,389.70 million kg, has 856 large tea gardens and over a lakh small tea growers engaging few lakh workers in this industry

The 126-member Assam Assembly will see three phases elections -- March 27 (47 seats), April 1 (39 seats) and April 6 (40 seats). The results will be declared on May 2.