To: Dr. Jim Kim, President World Bank Group, Ranjit Barthakur, APPL Chairman, Ranjit Barthakur, APPL Chairman, Ranjit Barthakur, APPL Chairman, Jagjeet Singh Kandal, APPL Managing Director, Dr. Jim Kim, President World Bank Group, Sushil ...

Bring DigniTEA To Those Who Bring You Tea

Dear Sirs,

I am a proud drinker of Assam tea and support Adivasi tea workers in Assam. I am writing to request you to provide the over 155,000 tea workers that live and work on your plantations a life with basic dignity.

The Tata Group is world renowned for its high ethical standards and reputation, and the World Bank Group’s performance standards are considered a benchmark for ensuring positive development impacts. Together, in Amalgamated Plantations Private Limited (APPL), you have an opportunity to create meaningful change.

I urge you to take immediate steps to improve over 155,000 lives by providing decent housing, sanitation, water supply, health care, and education according to standards under the Indian law and World Bank policies. Tea workers and their families deserve to live in homes fit for human beings with drinking water and functioning toilets. Their children deserve access to quality education and advancement, instead of being left with no option but to become workers themselves, creating another generation of marginalised workers.

I urge you to provide your employees with living wages and ensure they have access to meaningful freedom of association, as protected under the Indian Constitution. Tea workers currently face a daily struggle to survive, and seldom have access to genuine support from unions or other organisations. Due to the appalling working and living conditions, and abysmally low pay, they are vulnerable to malnutrition and fatal disease.

Tea workers and their families deserve dignity, and to be treated like human beings. Tata and the World Bank have a responsibility to ensure this.

Yours Sincerely,

Why is this important?

Do you relish a cup of tea when you wake up in the morning? Did you know that the tea you are drinking could be produced by workers who suffer slavery-like conditions?

Tea workers in Assam earn a meagre wage of 126 Rupees a day, which is less than 2 British pounds and lower than the minimum wage mandated by national law. In addition, they live in appalling conditions, with poor access to basic services like water, health and sanitation, which expose them and their families to malnutrition and preventable deaths.

You can help to break this cycle! Bring digniTEA to those who bring you tea!