Department of Adult and Continuing Education, North Eastern Hill University, Shillong, Email: bishnusw@yahoo.com
The tea states of Assam are the legacy of the British system characterized by most of the migrant labourers from Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and West Bengal. These labourers have permanently settled in tea estates and are the source of continuous labour supply to the same industry/estate from one generation to another. Even the liberalization, privatization and globalization have not touched them. The tea industries never faced the shortage of labourers in spite of their being paid low wage, poor working conditions, poor conditions of work, and bad weather conditions. The labourers work either as permanent monthly paid wage workers or as temporary weekly paid wage workers. The subsistence of the family occurs because of the family pattern of employment. Almost all the adults and sometimes the women and children are found to be employed in the tea estates. The employment of casual or temporary laboureres increases during the peak period of harvesting tea. This indicates that the nature of employment for most of them is seasonal. The laboureres work under scorching heat, chilling cold and have become all weather proof. The mothers and children are the worst sufferers in terms of health. The legislations and acts have failed to provide an adequate health care system for the workers and their families. The paper analyses the major areas of health concern of the workers in tea estates and suggests suitable adult education intervention measures for enabling them to have a better quality of life in terms of mental, physical and social wellbeing and not merely free or absence from diseases.
Health Care Services, Adult Education
