Assessing the Need for Living Wage Benchmark Studies for the Tea Sector in Assam and West Bengal

Dr. Kuriakose Mamkoottam, Anker Research Institute and Vidya Rangan, ISEAL

INTRODUCTION

The Global Living Wage Coalition (GLWC) is a leading coalition of organisations engaged in supporting workers around the world to afford a decent living for themselves and their families. It is a unique knowledge-action partnership that works through providing high quality and consistent knowledge and information about living wage levels and supporting the implementation of wage improvement strategies by working on the ground and through supply chain action. The Anker Research Institute’s landmark Anker Living Wage Benchmark studies and reports have laid the foundations for improved wage negotiations, supply chain action and upward movement in worker wages in several parts of the world.

Tea occupies an important space in India both in terms of providing a livelihood to millions of people and as a source of income generation, including export earnings. From a developmental perspective, there is considerable concern among researchers, independent experts and civil society – globally and locally – about the living conditions and low wages of workers on tea plantations, especially in Assam and West Bengal in eastern India. Conversations around ‘living wages’ and ‘decent wages’ for tea workers have been triggered in this context1 both through publications from civil society and, importantly, a report by the Parliamentary Standing Committee2 on issues affecting the tea industry, especially in Darjeeling. Simultaneously from the market side, an increasing number of global tea brands and retailers in major importing markets (of Indian tea) are making commitments to progressively realise higher wages for workers in their tea supply chains and origins.