GUWAHATI: The Assam Chah Mazdoor Sangha (ACMS), the largest trade union of garden workers in the Northeast, has demanded a separate autonomous council for holistic development of the community.
“The tea tribes’ community despite living in Assam for decades (since the British era) is one of the most backward communities. But for decades, political parties have used the community as vote banks, made pre-poll promises but only to deprive tea tribes of their due. Hence, we believe that only a separate autonomous council is the way out to help uplift the community in general,” Nabin Chandra Keot, ACMS central vice president told The Shillong Times from Dibrugarh on Wednesday.
The state government has recently granted autonomous councils to three indigenous communities in Assam.
“We welcome the government’s move to grant autonomous councils to indigenous communities. So being one of the oldest tribes of Assam, it was about time that the tea community was granted an autonomous council which will foster development in sectors which the community is still lagging behind,” Keot, who is also the convener of Tea Tribes Adivasi Autonomous Council Demand Committee, Assam, said.
He further recalled that four years have passed since the Prime Minister came to the Upper Assam town and promised a hike in wages of tea workers to Rs 351 per day.
“However, nothing but the formation of an advisory board, and grant of an interim relief of Rs 30, happened. We say with conviction that we do not want temporary schemes before elections but overall development of the community which can be fulfilled only through a separate council,” he added.
Citing instances of “neglect”, the ACMS leader pointed out that less than one per cent people from the community have been absorbed in government posts.
“A majority of schools in the tea garden areas are yet to be provincialised. Besides, 70 percent of the garden hospitals do not have doctors while 60 to 70 per cent of women are anaemic, and hence the maternal mortality and infant mortality rates in the garden areas are relatively higher,” Keot said.
According to the National Register of Citizens (NRC), the population of tea tribes, who were brought to Assam from other states (mainly eastern India) during the British Raj for cultivation of tea, currently stands at 1.36 crore.