Assam tea garden women: 'They must have a seat at the table', says Gaurav Gogoi

Guwahati: APCC President and MP Gaurav Gogoi, speaking during the ongoing Winter Session of Parliament in New Delhi on Sunday, warned that women, the backbone of Assam’s tea gardens, are still excluded from crucial policy discussions affecting their lives.

Raising the issue forcefully in the House, Gogoi said the tea industry survives on the daily hard labour of women, yet their concerns are rarely considered when decisions are made.

He emphasised that women perform the toughest physical work, from plucking leaves to carrying heavy loads, while the financial gains mostly benefit garden owners and big companies.

He highlighted that despite being the largest participating workforce in the estates, women have almost no representation in meetings between garden managements, labour unions, and the government.

According to him, this systematic exclusion prevents their most urgent problems from entering policy frameworks.

Gogoi listed several issues that demand immediate attention: lack of toilets in labour lines, rising anaemia among women workers, poor access to healthcare, drug abuse and liquor outlets near estates, and increasing domestic violence. He said these are real, daily challenges, but “remain unheard because the affected women are not at the discussion table.”

The Congress leader urged the government to ensure the mandatory inclusion of women representatives in every future meeting related to the tea industry.

He argued that without women’s participation, policies will continue to overlook the ground realities of plantation life.

Gogoi also asked whether the government is willing to bring a formal proposal guaranteeing women’s representation in tea-industry negotiations.

He said this step alone could transform welfare planning, fair wage discussions, and social-protection measures for lakhs of women workers across Assam.

The Session is currently ongoing and will conclude on December 19. It began on December 1.