CHAPTER 4
THE COST OF 'LABOUR': PLANTATION LABOUR ACT (1951) AND THE SOCIAL
and economic impact is understood differently by the planters and workers. The former interprets it as empowering and the latter as cost enhancing (John and Mansingh, 2013).
This chapter examines the reasons for this differential interpretation by inquiring into the conditions that gave birth to PLA and its practice by various actors. The chapter examines three issues – whether PLA is cost enhancing, whether it is labour empowering and whether it is exclusionary. It seeks to answer in the context of the history of the tea plantation industry in India. The evolution of PLA, its implementation, reach, and assimilation in the daily life of workers is discussed in the chapter.
4.1. Introduction
The issue of the social cost of production has attracted scholarly attention in recent times. It has been quite apparent in the tea industry. The industry employs many unskilled and semiskilled workers. The plantation sector has been a significant source of livelihood and employment for the population of the regional economies (Joseph, 2010). Most plantations are located in the backward and rural regions of a few states in the country. The industry is highly labour-intensive, with a high presence of women workers who make up 54 per cent in tea and coffee plantations while 42 per cent in rubber plantations (Occupational Wage Survey, 2006). The tea industry is a highly labour-intensive sector. The tea workers are among the poorest and most deprived sections of organised labour in India. A sizeable number of them belong to the scheduled tribe communities of Central and Eastern India.
The tea plantations have a long history of over 190 years compared to other plantation crops. Thus, several historical studies focus on the condition of labour as existed during the pre-independence era. These studies focus on labour exploitation by the colonial masters, which excluded them from the mainstream economy and society (Behal and
Mohapatra, 1992). Another set of studies examines the socio-economic development of the tea garden workers in the post-colonial period (Sarkar and Bhowmik, 1988; Ramachandran and Shanmugam, 1995; Chaudhury and Tayal, 2010 cited in John and Mansingh 2012). The emphasis of these studies was solely the labour employed in the estate sector; the small grower sector was kept out of the preview as it is a recent phenomenon.
The tea industry, the earliest commercial enterprise established by private British capital in the Assam Valley from the 1840s onwards, has been the major employer of wage labour in Assam Valley during British rule. It grew stunningly during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. During the period, tea production increased from 6,000,000 lbs20 in 1872 to 75,000,000 lbs in 1900, while the area under tea cultivation increased from 27,000 acres to 204,000 acres (Behal, 1994). In the Assam Valley, tea plantations employment of labours increased from 107,847 in 1885 to 247,760 in 1900 (ibid.). The industry continued to grow steadily during the first half of the twentieth century.
At the end of colonial rule, the Assam Valley tea plantations employed nearly half a million labour out of a labour population of more than three-quarters of a million and more than 300,00 acres under tea cultivation out of a total area of a million acres under the control of the tea companies (Behal, 1984). This impressive expansion and the growth of the tea industry in the Assam Valley took place within a monopolistic control of British capital in Assam. An analysis of the list of companies shows that in 1942, 84 per cent of tea estates with 89 per cent of the acreage in the Assam Valley were controlled by European managing agency houses (Behal, 2011). At the all-India level, 13 leading agency houses of Calcutta held over 75 per cent of the total tea area (Ibid.). Today, Assam tea contributes to more than 51% of total tea production in India (Tea Board, 2018).
20 Plural abbreviation for pound unit of mass. An international term used to define weight or mass of an object.
Figure 4.1: Share of Assam tea of the total tea production in India
Source: Tea Board of India (2018)
The PLA provides welfare provisions to the tea garden labour community by providing a host of medical and educational facilities. The social cost perspective of these provisions is that the PLA requires the employer to provide these welfare measures. As pointed at the beginning of the chapter, the issues will be discussed by asking three questions: Is PLA cost enhancing, labour empowering, and exclusionary?. The work seeks to answer within the context of the history of the tea plantation industry in India. The evolution and growth of the PLA, its implementation, reach and assimilation, and understanding by the workers will be discussed.
4.2. Plantations and the law: The Beginning
Robert Bruce, a Scottish adventurer, discovered tea leaves growing 'wildly' while carrying out trade activities in the region in 1823. The Singpho chiefs have been growing and brewing this unique leaf for a long. Initially, they used it as a medicinal plant. The year 1834 was significant in the history of Tea plantations in Assam. This year, the Company administration
51.9
49.7 51.1
49.7 52.8
52.4 51.8
50.6 52.2
52.8
51.1 51.7
48 49 50 51 52 53 54
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
PERCENTAGE OF PRODUCTION
YEAR