Assam: Being Made to Work Despite COVID-19 Crisis, Tea Tribes Call for 48-Hour 'Bandh'

Dispur, March 23, 2020:

Decrying being made to work in spite of the global coronavirus catastrophe, the tea tribe laborers of Assam have gone on a strike for 48 hours.

Assam Tea Tribes Students’ Union (ATTSA), an influential body of tea tribe laborers, through an official release, notified, “Assam Tea Tribes Students’ Union President Dhiraj Guwalla and General Secretary Pawan Bediya are informing via this release that keeping in mind posed by the coronavirus (COVID-19), from the coming 23 March 2020, a 48 hours tea garden bandh has been declared. Additionally, under the Industrial Disput Act, 1947, we have demanded the Assam Government and the tea garden owners to pay us our due salaries.”

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Talking to mediapersons, a leader of the ATTSA said, "To stop corona in its tracks, the Government has taken initiatives in every sector - private or Government. However, the mass gatherings in tea gardens are still there; no social distancing is there. Thus, keeping this in mind, since the PM had called for janata curfew, we have called for a bandh with the same sentiment. The ATTSA workers will meanwhile spread awareness about COVID-19 in these places."

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He further stated that the tea tribe workers, who are especially vulnerable, must receive aid from Government. "In Kerala and Maharashtra -- where there have been many cases of the virus, we have seen youths from the tea gardens returning home. What happens to them?" The tea tribe leader further lamented that protocol -- such as isolation wards in hospitals, availability of hand sanitizers, and maintenance of 1 metre distance.

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