GUWAHATI, Dec 10 - A recent study conducted in 1,463 households of tea gardens covering seven districts of Assam, it was found that 2 out of 5 children (40 per cent) had dropped out from school and 9 per cent had never attended school.
Further, of the total respondents, it was found that only one-fifth of the working children (tea gardens) are currently attending school and a whopping 63 per cent have dropped out in order to earn for their families.
The child rights situational analysis in the tea gardens by Save the Children further showed that working children usually work for long hours with 65 per cent of them found working for over 40 hours a week.
�Forty per cent of these children mentioned that there are no toilets at their workplace and about 13 per cent of them do not even get paid for their work in tea gardens,� the study conducted in Tinsukia, Dibrugarh, Sivasagar, Jorhat, Golaghat, Sonitpur and Nagaon said. In each district, 10 tea gardens were covered.
The findings were released by Save the Children in collaboration with the Assam State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (ASCPCR) during a State level consultation on the Plantations Labour Act 1951 here today.
This was organised in response to the recent proposal from the government to amend the Plantations Labour Act, 1951, to provide enabling provision for the workers of tea gardens.
The objective of the consultation was to facilitate sharing of joint reflections and recommendations from all concerned stakeholders for the proposed Amendment bill that is likely to be tabled during the Winter Session of Parliament.
The consultation was attended Dr Sunita Changkakati, Chairperson, ASCPCR, Jayanta Kalita, Joint Director, Department of Social Welfare, Dr Reeta Rasaily, scientist, Division of Child Health, Indian Council of Medical Research, Dr DK Saikia, Regional Director, Regional Centre, NIPCCD, and Bidisha Pillai, Director, Programme and Policy Impact, Save the Children.
Apart from them representatives from different civil society organisations, tea garden management, academic institutions and media were also present to contribute in the discussion.
Bidisha Pillai from Save the Children set the contexts of the meet by welcoming the move of the government to consider the amendment of the Plantation Labour Act.
�We know that several children are being denied their basic rights in the tea gardens and there is an urgent need to look at how that situation can be changed. All stakeholders � the government, plantation owners, communities and civil society groups � must work collaboratively to come up with a solution in the best interest of children,� she said.
Dr Sunita Changkakati, Chairperson, ASCPCR, in her keynote address, stressed the need of addressing the plight of the children in the dialogues and actions in the current context. Highlighting the growing incidences of child trafficking and early marriage among the girls from tea gardens, she called for increased community awareness and collective actions of the service providers for encouraging the prevention, timely reporting and redressal as well as reintegration of such children into mainstream life.
The consultation echoed the need for revisiting the current Plantation Labour Act in the light of the existing policy.