A new partnership between UNICEF and Ethical Tea Partnership (ETP) was launched here today to help protect and change the lives of children and young people living in tea gardens in Assam by addressing issues of violence, abuse and exploitation.
The three-year programme (2015-2017) will work with families in over 100 tea-gardens and 350 villages across Dibrugarh, Sivasagar and Tinsukia districts to empower and safeguard young people.
It will provide life-skill training and education to nearly 25,000 girls and 10,000 community members to protect themselves against abuse and exploitation, besides strengthening child protection systems with local and national government and empower the tea industry to support positive change, said Dr Tushar Rane, Chief of Field Office UNICEF Assam.
Although the project will be active in only select tea-gardens, the objective is that the impact will be sector- wide as the project aims to bring about systemic change through good-practice guidelines on child protection in the tea estates, responsible business practices for tea-estates, and support to the overall child protection structures and systems.
The project supported by Assam Government is to be the first of its kind as it brings together key stakeholders in the tea industry - both public and private organisations - and the supply chain to tackle child abuse and exploitation across the tea-sector.
Also supported by the Assam Branch of India Tea Association (ABITA) and the Bharatiya Cha Parishad (BCP), the partnership was launched by Assam State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (ASCPCR) Chairperson Runumi Gogoi with a one-day symposium on promotion of child rights in the tea-estates of Assam.
Although representing 17 per cent of the State's population, the tea-communities are among the most marginalised and socially excluded groups in Assam with poor development indicators, exacerbated by traditional social norms such as child marriage and child labour, Rane said.
