CHAPTER III 101
3.2 Discrimination
3.2.3 Work Hazards
The plantation workers have to work under harsh conditions. Health refers to general state of physical, mental and emotional well being. This wellbeing is affected by accidents ill- health- physical as well as mental.
Women workers who have come of age feel that leaves’ plucking is non-hazardous in nature and those in practice for many years can do it without much of difficulty. Only when the leaves become a bit old and hard to pluck, the pluckers find it tough. Most of the times, the stems of the plant cut through the fingers of the workers. Thus it is said that the tea industry is sustaining on the blood and sweat of the Adivasi workers. It is a very difficult job because more than 30kgs is collected by the women workers and they have to work in the hot sun for long durations of time throughout the day carrying heavy baskets of tea leafs on a daily basis. The state plays a weak role in the eradication of capitalist exploitation as it is also dependent on the benefits from capitalistic production. Thus even the government schemes seem to pay little heed to the welfare of the weaker sections of the society which consists of the Adivasis. The MGNREGA scheme which allocated just
rupees ten thousand per anum to every household shows that the state has consistently ignored the malnutrition and insufficient aid given to the downtrodden as it is generally considered that the the Adivasis workers have minimal needs. The women are the most vulnerable to such ignorance from all sections of the society.
Industrial accidents may occur in a tea factory due to these major causes- chance occurrences, unsafe work assigned without adequate training given prior to taking up the work, inappropriate shielding equipments, disrupted machinery use, insecure storage, overloading, insufficient lighting, insufficient ventilation and recklessness of the workers.
Accidents are more frequent in the tea manufacturing units mainly engaged in Cut-Tear-Curl (CTC) processes.
Chemical hazards are caused in the processes like spraying of pesticides and insecticides in the plantation area might cause skin diseases, inhaling chemicals on a regular basis usually results in lung related diseases and others. Working in tea factories and tea packaging units involves performing hard labour like shifting of heavy goods, equipments, working in heat generated environment in tea roasting units usually gives rise to health problems like injury due to muscle damage, cardiac issues, cuts and bruises, industrial accidents causing serious injuries. It causes tiredness, stress and burout. These are also some of the significant factors of absenteeism among the tea plantation workers.
The management is seen to show least interest in ensuring health and safety of the workers in the tea estates for those involved in garden work and factory work. The provisions of the Factories Act 1948 are not efficiently followed in the tea factories.
Table 0-1 Indicators/ Factors of discrimination: Work Hazards Serial
Number
Districts Work hazards (%) Machinery
hazards
Chemical hazards
Difficulty of the pluckers
1 Dibrugarh 46 32 88
2 Sibsagar 38 45 73
3 Jorhat 53 28 67
4 Golaghat 57 36 74
5 Sonitpur 43 34 83
6 Cachar 39 28 79
7 Kamrup 34 22 87
Table 3.1 indicates that the plantation workers face various kinds of work hazards. The three most important ones are related to machinery, use of chemicals and those faced by pluckers. Machinery hazards have reduced comparatively to the previous times since most of the work has been automated recently. The workers engaged in the factories are assigned work to feed the tea leafs into the Curl-Tear-Crush (CTC) machines. Mostly men are engaged in these works. However lot of heat is generated in the factories and thus it is a hazard for the workers there.
As per Section 32 A of the Plantations Labour Act of 1951, ‘where in any plantation an accident occurs which causes death or any bodily injury to a worker by reason of which the worker injured is prevented from working for a period of 48 hours or more immediately following the accident, the employer shall send a notice to such authorities in such form as prescribed.’ Thus, the employer has to take precautionary measures to deal with the work hazards and ensure the safety of the workers at workplace. Usually it is seen that this aspect is ignored by the management. An even in cases of severe accidents, emergency medical facilities, staff and ambulance is unavailable.
There is lot of use of chemicals, pesticides and others sprayed on the plantation areas.
Inhaling those on a daily basis causes cancer and other diseases among the workers.
However, low percentage on the table shows the ignorance of the workers on the daily use of chemicals on the plantation area. There is no awareness on such hazard.
“We have to work in the field from 7 to 11 a.m. and then again from 1 to 4 p.m.
carrying huge baskets of tea leafs on their head. We carry a minimum of 30 kgs of leafs every day”.
The pluckers face problems in working under difficult weather conditions on the plantations all throughout the day carrying heavy baskets on their head resting on their back. Most of the women pluckers develop worst back and spine related problems at a very early age. Moreover, in order to earn incentives, the pluckers try their best to accumulate extra kilos of leafs to earn incentives. Thus, carrying forty kilos and above weight per day during the season time negatively impacts the heath of the workers.