While you sit comfortably in a cozy corner of your beautiful home, sipping on a hot cup of tea on a bright and sunny afternoon, think about this: a poor pregnant woman somewhere in India, risked her life picking the very same leaves you are enjoying right now.
India’s tea capital, Assam, known for producing half of India’s tea leaves, is also notorious for exploiting women, tasking even pregnant ones to pick leaves while denying them access to proper maternity and hospital care. Many of the women working in Assam’s tea plantations are also denied their wages unless they meet the strict quotas for the day, a shocking revelation since the region provides for some of the world’s most popular tea brands.
Assam is also considered the most dangerous place in India to give birth, no thanks to the lack of hospitals, poor working conditions, and long working hours that pregnant women have to contend with. Statistics show that Assam’s maternal mortality rate far exceeds that of the nation’s, with 237 out of every 100,000 women dying in childbirth.
Authorities claim that plantations are required to provide for its workers’ basic medical needs but none of the requirements are being met. Tea farmer associations claim to abide by the requirements but put the blame for the atrocious conditions on the lack of government infrastructure and personnel.
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