The coffee seeds and the tea leaves that Kerala caresses in the northern peak of the western ghats are waiting to be plucked. These need fresh hands. Those involved in the job are getting older and fewer.
Like Phattuma (55), one of the older workers in the tea plantations in Wayanad district, most plucking the tender tea leaves in the early hours of the new year day in Wythiri panchayat’s Poddar Estate plantation are around that age. It is hard to find a young face as one walks through the plantation amid a sudden burst of voices in early morning hours.
Phattuma, who gets Rs 135 a day, besides a weekly payment of Rs 100, will soon retire and draw a pension of Rs 1000. She expects a raise in minimum wages for workers this year. But nothing dramatic is expected, says Mani, another veteran worker in the estate. Workers are unionised and their leaders say the biggest increase that happened was after the National Rural Emplyment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) was implemented. This brought in a wage of Rs 125. The workers agitated, and the owners’ associations, with no choice, had to raise the minimum wage, which had been Rs 115 for three years, by Rs 20.
It was the first time such a big raise was given, workers recall. Otherwise, it never went beyond Rs 5 after every three years. They don’t expect this bounty again when the revision happens.
Besides, the workforce is shrinking in size, with hardly any new members joining the plantations.
The signs are there to see in the crèches run by the planations here. For instance, in the crèche where Mani’s wife works, there are only two children.
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Young women are not joining plantations any more, say Phattuma and her co-workers. The women in the plantations are ageing and sad, with little hope of any improvement of their lot.
If our men were not earning as labourers elsewhere, our families would be starving, said Phatumma. This once used to be a great opportunity for the people here. But now, there are other options, she says.
Mani, who earns Rs 4,050 a month, has managed to send a son to do a course in pharmacy, while his daughter is married to a man employed in West Asia. Jobs in West Asia, an educated generation and higher wages in non-plantation sectors have all contributed to shrinking the workforce.
Plantations would definitely survive, even if many of the workers don’t, says Mani. This is just the beginning of the end of regular workforce in plantation industry here, he says. Once the old lot is gone, probably, contract workers would begin to take over. While the ageing plantation workforce stares at you amid the wildly-growing bamboo jungles in Wayanad hills, there are new faces that are driving a new economy in this tribal district. Wayanad today is one of the most sought-after tourist destinations in the state. Mushrooming resorts have been providing work to local folks, even as the concept of home-stay tourism is growing more popular. It is quite possible that the moneyed investor would be the ultimate winner. But it also opens a window of opportunities for locals, says Ousepp, a veteran plantation worker now comfortably employed as the manager of Wayanad Coffee County, a resort started by Rajagopal and Ranjini Menon — outsiders, who bought 12 acres of coffee plantations and swore by responsible tourism.
We are employing locals and want to promote tourism, without disrupting the natural surroundings, the couple says. Whole of the workers’ families, living in the neighbourhood, form the workforce of the resort, which is setting up 12 cottages in the plantation. There also are home stays, which are gaining popularity and providing income to the locals. Ousepp’s relatives and neighbours have been watching the developments and garnering courage to take the leap into entrepreneurship. This is likely to be a new chapter for this valley of tea pluckers.