Guwahati, Feb 8: Save the Children (also known as Bal Raksha Bharat), in collaboration with Tea Association of India (TAI) had organised a first of its kind, workshop on Child Sensitive Development Plan (CSDP) for children residing in the tea garden areas.
Tea estate managers, welfare officers and Assam Chah Mazdoor Sangha (ACMS) from as many as 40 tea estates under TAI’s Jorhat chapter came together to deliberate on the Child Sensitive Development Plan.
The CSDP would not only facilitate the overall development of children but also contribute in responsible business for societal causes.
The Tea Association of India would facilitate setting up mechanisms in hand-holding the tea estates for developing the plans and monitoring of it.
It has been decided that Bal Raksha Bharat will be steering the process of CSDP in close collaboration with TAI. The day’s discussion saw the commitment from the tea producers towards ensuring child rights in their respective tea gardens.
Corporate Managers and Executives, management staff and estate workers have committed to report incidents of violence against children through a clear and well-established reporting and referral mechanism.
Speaking on this occasion, Mr. P.K Bhattacharjee, Secretary General, TAI informed that he was very happy to see the representatives from the union for initiating the support for the holistic development of CSDP.
Further informing that India produced 47 million of Tea and market economy is dependent on the business. The eco system dependent various stakeholders i.e., producers, govt. seller, buyers, exporter, transporters including warehouse in the value chain.
Chittapriyo Sadhu, Deputy Director Program Management Bal Raksha Bharat highlighted that it’s a historic moment and all key stakeholder’s i.e. tea associations (TAI), Trade union ( ACMS), Civil Society and representative from tea management had participated in developing the Child sensitive development plan. These efforts lead to achieving the SDGs goals and supplements the efforts Govt. in achieving Human Development Index.
These platforms will also contributes boosting the tea sector in supply chain and creating value additions.
Among others, the workshop was graced by Dipanjol Deka, Secretary, Tea Association of India, Guwahati, Abhijeet Nirmal, Deputy Director- Child Protection, Bal Raksha Bharat, Ranjan Kr. Borah, Senior Manager- Bal Raksha Bharat and Ms. Kritanjali Kashyap, Assistant Manager from Bal Raksha Bharat and Bhimananda Tati and others representing from ACMS