Narendra Modi had promised the country’s workforce one crore jobs a year through “Make in India”, etc. But the self-proclaimed ‘Mazdoor No.1’, after occupying the throne, promptly pushed on the gears of neo-liberal crony capitalist extraction that was initiated by his predecessor Manmohan Singh. 2018, being the final year before the next General Elections, had […]
On 23rd December, Laali Guraas, a bi-monthly newsletter in Nepali language that is being published from the Darjeeling hills for the last 5 years, together with the Phulbari Sahitya Samiti, conducted a cultural festival “Srijana Utsav” to commemorate the 200th birth anniversary of Karl Marx. Several cultural, social and political organisations from the hills and […]
Bonus for tea plantation workers still remains one of the contentious issues plaguing the tea industry in Bengal. Every year just before the festive season, lakhs of workers denied most of the facilities under Plantation Act, are apprehensive about the quantum of bonus the union leaders and owners will announce. Rupam Deb writes for GroundXero on […]
The crisis of tea gardens in north Bengal go far deeper than only locked- out gardens and starvation deaths. These are but only one part of the complex web of problems plaguing the industry. Non-payment, or rather non-existence, of minimum wages being only one of them. The ongoing 3-day workers strike across the entire region […]
Lakhs of tea workers in Darjeeling Hills-Terai-Dooars in North Bengal are on strike for the second consecutive day. The workers organisations have rejected the ₹172 per day wage unilaterally proposed by the West Bengal government on 6 August, in a sector which makes the highest of profits. Rupam Deb recounts the history of minimum wage […]