Hello,
Darjeeling tea is perhaps India’s most famous tea, and indeed, one of the world’s most famous teas. Since tea bushes began to be planted in the district in the mid-1800s by British colonisers, the industry has grown to become the region’s economic backbone.
But in recent years, it has come under immense strain from a combination of factors, including climate change, competition and sociopolitical strife. Among the government initiatives to help estates survive is a policy that allows them to use a proportion of tea estate land for other purposes.
Amidst this turmoil, it is the workers who cultivate the plants who are hardest hit, as Nolina Minj found. Many receive pay that is below minimum wage, often months delayed, and have no rights over their homes on estate lands.
“As tea estate owners and workers explained, Darjeeling tea is considered a national pride, often gifted to foreign dignitaries by Indian political leaders,” Minj said. “The crisis in the Darjeeling tea industry is deeply entwined with the tea estate workers’ crisis. Darjeeling tea is produced because of them and the future seems bleak if both the tea industry and the workers’ conditions are not improved.”
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Ajay Krishnan
Senior Editor

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Why workers who grow one of the world’s finest teas face an uncertain future

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