Increasing Trend Of Unemployed Workers And Their Rehabilitation In Tea Industry Of Bangladesh
- May 13, 2021
- Posted by: rsispostadmin
- Categories: Business Administration, IJRISS
International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume V, Issue IV, April 2021 | ISSN 2454–6186
Increasing Trend Of Unemployed Workers And Their Rehabilitation In Tea Industry Of Bangladesh
Professor Md. Lutfar Rahman MBA (IBA, DU) Tea Planter
Professor, College of Business Administration &
Registrar, IUBAT- International University of Business Agriculture and Technology
4 Embankment Drive Road, Sector 10, Uttara Model Town, Dhaka 1230, Bangladesh
Abstract:-Bangladesh Tea industry is menaced by the growing number of non-workers in 163 tea gardens stretching over greater Sylhet and Chittagong tea districts. The indentured tea workers brought during British era from various famine-stricken areas of Indian subcontinent alluring better income and living condition now stands at 437619. As tea industry is labor oriented and needs very cheap workers for its sustainability, a ratio of 1:1 has to be maintained at the maximum to deploy workers in an acre. Hence there is no scope to increase number of tea garden workers from existing 122840. Huge non-workers are the sources of various troubles in tea industry. There is only 7000 hectares are left for new plantation. The existing tea plantation comprises about 50% area old and are becoming unproductive. There is no adequate measure to replenish old areas with new planting materials. In absence of development work in the gardens such as infilling, block infilling and replacement replanting in a massive way in old areas huge number of tea gardens workers are rendered jobless. From a total 314779 jobless workers a good number would have been employed had there been development work in tea gardens. A section of unemployed workers might be employed in export processing zones which are created by the government near to the tea gardens.
Key words: Indentured, non-workers, ratio, yield, replenish, hectare, planters
Background:
From time immemorial tea has been eulogized in so many ways. According to eighteenth century English poet William Cowper, “It is the cup that cheers but not inebriates”. And it is this very fact that has made tea such a wonderful beverage, popularity of which never seems to diminish. (Nahar, 2011). Tea is a labor-oriented enterprise as it is agro-based. It requires labor at every stage of its work right from clearing fields and running the machinery in the factory.
Tea is a commodity with a colonial legacy in Bangladesh. The British companies initiated its production in what is now Bangladesh. Once it was predominantly an export commodity. But today most of the tea produced in 163 tea gardens in Bangladesh is consumed locally. (Gain, 2009).
In Bangladesh, tea cultivation started in the 1840s (near Chittagong Club, Chittagong). Malnicherra Tea Estate, Sylhet, is the first tea garden of Bangladesh established in 1854 and in commercial production in 1857. (Amin, 1990).
