Socio-Economic Condition of Upper-FAGU Tea Garden Workers

Abstract

In recent days, discussions about socio-economic condition of teagarden workers is a very relevant topic in the scenario of West Bengal. The present study has  examined the socio-economic condition and the nature of  gender inequality (if there any), of the tea garden workers of Upper Fagu Tea Garden village, under  Gorubathan  Block  of  Darjeeling District, which is a world renowned tea producing district of West Bengal. The study has been conducted mainly by the primary survey because of the unavailability of sufficient secondary data and to represents the real scenario or situation. In this village 423 population of two labour line named Gudamline and Gudamtar out of total 2000 population of 6 labour lines have been taken as sample. The study finds that workers socio-economic condition is medium, they have no complaints against their working condition, the main problems in this study area are lack of water availability, non- existence of H.S school, market, hospitals, health centres, healthcare etc. If we give a focus on education we can see  the  literacy  rate  among  the  female  is  enough  lower  than  the  male  literacy  rate  which  focuses  on  the  gender  inequality  in  education. Not  only  this  if  we  compare  the   educational  level  of   male  and  female  population  it  will  be  shown  that  the  percentages  of  female  population  are  gradually  declining  from  primary  to  higher  studies  level than the male population. Male work participation rate is also higher (54%) than the female work participation rate (46%) among regular workers.