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The Cost of Every Cup
By Tej Bahadur Singh

Neeta Oraon lives in Nazira, a small town in Assam’s Sibsagar district. At 27, she has already spent more than a decade working in a tea garden. Her dream of becoming a nurse gave way early to the demands of poverty, debt, and family survival. She now works long hours under the sun, earning 250 rupees a day while caring for her ailing mother. Like Neeta, thousands of women in Assam’s tea gardens remain trapped in cycles of generational hardship and unseen labour.

Assam is the centre of India’s tea economy. In 2024, it produced nearly 650 million (65 crore) kilograms of tea—worth about 148 billion (14,800 crore) rupees—and brought in billions in foreign exchange. But this success rests on the backs of the industry’s lowest-paid workers. Women make up more than half of Assam’s tea workforce, yet most earn less than 300 rupees a day. Many are anaemic, overworked and lack access to basic needs like healthcare, housing and toilets.

Tea garden communities in Assam have among the highest maternal mortality rates in India.

The roots of this exploitation run deep. A legacy of colonial systems, combined with weak enforcement of labour laws and state apathy, has allowed companies to profit while workers live in neglect. Most of the women workers still receive far less than what they are entitled to. Many of them are casual workers—unregistered, unprotected and easily replaceable.

Education could offer a path out, but dropout rates remain high—especially among girls. A study across Assam’s tea garden areas found that nearly half the children drop out before completing school (Source: IJCRT, Oct 2023). Without enough to eat, without books or support, they are pulled into the same labour their parents had hoped to escape.

For Neeta and many like her, every cup of tea sold to the world carries the price of a lost childhood, a broken dream, or an unhealed body. Yet, amid the hardship, they continue to hope—hope that their children might not have to choose between survival and a future.


Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
01:26 - Assam’s Tea Industry
4:11 - Neeta’s Story
6:15 - Assam’s Tea Production
7:35 - Challenges
8:20 - Less Wages
14:00 - No Education
18:48 - Difficulties Faced by Women Workers
20:35 - Exploitation of Workers
24:57 - No Toilets