Darjeeling tea, known as “the champagne of teas,” is distinguished by its distinct flavour, aroma, and quality.
Darjeeling Tea Producers reports that production dropped from 8.13 million kilogrammes in 2016 to 6.60 million in 2022. One of the main causes of this reduction is workforce absenteeism, which has increased by up to 50% over the past year. Male workers started to depart from tea industry employment due to the capitalisation of production and low wages.
Due to their “nimble fingers,” women labourers were chosen for the labour-intensive task of plucking tea leaves. Whereas women struggle to participate in higher-paying positions that are reserved for men due to the gender discrimination of the workforce, and their labour goes unnoticed. The gendered division of labour is also very pervasive, and women have minimal opportunity to occupy supervisory positions.
More than 80% of the workforce comprises scheduled castes and tribes. For just Rs. 232 per day, these marginalised women toil away in the tea garden to create the most delectable cup of tea ever.

Acknowledgement

We express our sincere gratitude to Ging Tea Estate, Bannockburn Tea Estate, Pandam Tea Estate, Soom Tea Estate, Happy Valley Tea Estate, Puttabong Tea Estate, Phusbering Tea Estate, and Sington Tea Estate for allowing us to cover all necessary, relevant and important information regarding Darjeeling Tea.

We also thank all the labourers, supervisors, and field assistants for their cooperation and support.

Kavya Sanjaya is a research scholar at the School of Economics, University of Hyderabad

Dr. Gummadi Sridevi, a Professor at the School of Economics, University of Hyderabad