When the state government is boasting of improving the condition of poor by pumping in massive fund in rural and health sector, at least 10 garden workers are reported to have died of starvation and lack of medical treatment since October 2011 in Assam’s Barrak Valley.
The workers who died of starvation were working in Bhuvan Valley Tea Estate, which is closed since October 2011.
The ten garden workers who lost their lives for lack of food and medical treatment have been identified — Rameshwar Kurmi (45), Subhasini Paul (80), Shachindra Ree (32), Shyamacharan Bauri (55), Nagendra Bauri (55), Sonamani Pandey (40), Bharati Kal (45), Susham Tanti (35), Ratna Goala (50), and Ramashish Dushad (80). The Barak Human Rights Protection Committee (BHRPC), a human rights group based in Assam, which carried out a detailed study on the pathetic condition of workers by sending a fact-finding team, found that there are dozens of workers still suffering from various sicknesses but never received medical treatment.
Pointing out that closure led to around 500 permanent workers and another 500 casual workers becoming jobless, the fact-finding team of BHRPC found that state administration, labour commissioner and even local MLAs and ministers had information about the pathetic condition of the workers.
The fact-finding team, which visited the tea estate on January 27, 2012, found that the workers were only forced to work much more than stipulated working hours but also paid very low wages without being provided any medical treatment. After the closure of the tea estate, the garden management did not pay their wages besides suspending the provident fund of poor workers. The fact-finding team also met garden workers and found Prakash Ghatowar (80) and his daughter-in-law Moni Ghatowar (32) of Didarkhush Grant who was suffering from pain in their legs.
Prakash’s grandchildren Pinki Ghatowar (17), Kamalabati Ghatowar (15) and Rinki Ghatowar (12), who were to give up their studies due to poverty are forced to collect firewood from the far off jungles and sell them at the markets for their livelihoods.