MINISTER OF STATE (IC) FOR LABOUR AND EMPLOYMENT
(SHRI SANTOSH KUMAR GANGWAR)
(a) & (b): The Plantations Labour (PL) Act, 1951 regulates the conditions of work in plantations and provide for the welfare of plantation labour. The Act requires the employers to provide the workers with housing, medical facilities, sickness and maternity benefits and other forms of social security measures. There are provisions for educational facility for the worker’s children, drinking water, conservancy, canteens, crèches and recreational facilities for the benefit of the tea plantation workers and their families in and around the work places in the tea estates. The PL Act is implemented through the concerned State Governments for which separate Rules have been framed by them.
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Moreover, the workers of the tea industry are also covered by various industrial and social security legislations like Employees’ Compensation Act, 1923, Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972, Provident Funds & Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952, (Assam Tea Plantation Provident Fund, Pension Fund and Deposit Link Insurance Fund Scheme Act 1955 – only for Assam), Payment of Bonus Act, 1965, Maternity Benefit Act, 1961, Payment of Wages Act, 1936, Equal Remuneration Act, 1976, Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, the Factories Act and Industrial Employment (Standing Order) Act, 1946.
Tea Board also supports and extends various welfare measures for the welfare of tea workers and their wards/dependants, which is supplemental in nature. The labour welfare measures are undertaken within the ambit of the Plan scheme of the Board i.e. Human Resource Development component (HRD) under the overall “Tea Development & Promotion Scheme’’. This HRD component aims at achieving improvements in the life and living conditions of the Tea Plantation workers and their dependents under the three broad areas viz. (a) Improving the health and hygiene of workers and their dependants; (b) Education of wards of workers & (c) Training to the wards/dependants on workers. Disbursement made by tea board under the HRD schemes to Assam tea garden during the ongoing MTF period (2017-18 to 2019-20) is as under:
Schemes Year
HRD 2017-18 2018-19 2019-20
(upto February 2020-provisional) Total
Total 1.32 crs. 0.75 crs. 0.32 crs. 2.39 crs.
As per Tea Board Baseline Survey, 2018 data,facilities under different welfare measures with reference to health care sector, shelter and educational facilities covering number of labour quarters, hospitals, doctors, nurses, schools etc. as available in the tea gardens of Assam is as under:-
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Welfare measures.
Number of workers provided with houses Standard 196313
Non standard 79729
Number of hospitals 439
Number of beds in hospitals 12051
Number of dispensaries existing in tea states 460
Number of ambulances existing in tea states 740
Number of doctors available in tea gardens Full time 319
Part time 307
No. of Paramedical staff available in tea gardens Nurses 1154
Compounders 807
Dressers 785
Attendants 1201
No. of toilets in tea gardens 231970
No. of water points in tea gardens 94591
No. of school going children in tea gardens Boys 119209
Girls 117233
Type of schools existing in tea gardens Lower Primary 78370
Primary 55899
Secondary 33370
Higher secondary 13269
No. of children < 5 yrs of age 81611
No. of crèches available in tea gardens 1378
No. of crèche attendants 1196
(c) to (e): The fixation of minimum wages for tea garden workers, falls under the purview of State Governments which are the appropriate Government to fix/revise the minimum wages as per the provision under the Minimum Wages Act, 1948. Moreover, the wages of tea garden workers are fixed as per agreement reached between producer associations and workers unions.
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Daily wages of worker in the tea gardens in Assam are as under:
Name of the State Plantation District Effective Date Daily Wages
Assam a)Assam valley 01.03.2018 167.00
b) Barak Valley 145.00
Apart from the above daily wages, as per PLA, 1951, the workers are eligible to get other fringe in-kind benefits covering provision of drinking water, latrine accommodation at work sites, medical facilities, canteens, crèches, housing accommodation, education, firewood, free tea, food grains etc. are provided to the workers in Assam.
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