Nepal is a small country with a total area of only 1,47,181 square kilometres and a population of 18.4 million. It is primarily an agricultural country employing almost 80% of the labour force in the sector. Because of its high dependence on agriculture and its mass poverty with almost 49% of the population below the absolute poverty line, children are compelled to work for a livelihood from an early age. Child labour is found in agriculture, industries and services under pitiful conditions and at very low wages.

The issue of child labour in Nepal has been highlighted by NGOs such as CWIN. Government organisations, and international organisations such as UNICEF, ILO and Redd Barna have taken initiatives for the minimisation and eventual elimination of child labour. Trade Union organisations, particularly GEFONT and its affiliates, came into the scene after 1990 with a commitment for eliminating child labour. Working on a progressive and gradual elimination strategy, GEFONT conducted this survey with the specific objective to find out the extent and the exact nature of the problem in tea estates of Nepal, so that an effective action programme could be designed. The location of the study was limited to the far eastern Districts of Ilam and Jhapa where the tea estates are concentrated.

The survey covered altogether 35 tea estates. Four separate sets of questionnaires, after pre-testing, were finalised and used for the collection of information covering the tea estate management, workers' families, adult workers and child workers. In addition, focused group discussions were also conducted to collect qualitative information.

The total land area under the tea estates in Nepal is 5,018 hectares. However the area under actual tea plantation is 3,087 hectares, i.e. 61.52% of the total area. The tea estates, in total, produce 9,923,158 KGs of tea per year, of which 12.33% is high quality Orthodox tea, and the rest is CTC tea. Larger tea estates have their own processing factories and the small ones sell their raw products either to the larger ones or to the newly established processing factories in Ilam. The export of tea, especially Orthodox tea is far from satisfactory at present. Tea export as a whole is under the control of packers and business groups. Even the Nepal Tea Development Corporation is not aware of the actual quantity of its produce being exported. In the 132 year history of tea plantations in Nepal, the tea industry has proved to be highly profitable, but unfortunately the working conditions are still very poor and the wages very low, given the price of tea itself and the existing inflationary pressures.

GEFONT had earlier estimated the number of workers to be approximately 10,000. All-season workers have been found to be slightly higher than 50% of the estimate. Out of a total number of 5169 workers working in the tea estates during the survey, 992 were interviewed of whom 21 were child workers.

Traditionally, workers were categorised into Marad (male), Aurat (female), Chhokara (youth above 14) and Lokada (children below 14).This categorisation still exists in some private tea estates, but most of the tea estates now do not use this classification. Gender-based discrimination in wages is, however, common in private tea estates.

WORKING FAMILIES AT A GLANCE

The survey covered 509 worker families, the population of which is recorded as 2828. The average family size is 5.6 and the male to female sex ratio 97.1. The proportion of children under 15 years as well as persons above 60 is lower than the national average, at 40% and 3.4% respectively. Thus, the proportion of the productive age group is comparatively high. The families belong to diverse caste/ ethnic groups. The Santhals are the most in number (18.4) followed by the Brahmin (16.8) and the Chhetry and the Thakuri (13.5%). The proportion of the population belonging to the hill origin groups is high compared to that belonging to the Terai and mountain ethnic groups. 50.1% of the population are literate; the percentage being 61.5 for males and 39.5 for females. The hill groups are more literate than the Terai groups. The study into the occupational status indicates that 46.7% of the population aged 5 years and above is involved in work in the tea plantations whereas 21.5% work as unpaid family workers and 30.3% go to school or are idle.

Most of the working families are landless. A majority of the families live in residential huts (Dhuras) provided by the management, on the premises of the tea estate.

ADULT LABOUR

Out of the total workers, 46.1% are from the public sector tea estates and 53.9% from the private tea estates. The ratio of female workers to male workers is higher in the private tea estates than in the public tea estates.

Altogether 971 adult workers were interviewed during the survey, of whom 46.3% were males and 53.7% females. Of the total workers covered by the survey, the Santhals occupy the highest position, 21.5% (male 20.4% and female 22.5%) followed by the Brahmin 16.5% (male 16.9% and female 16.1%) and the Chhetry & the Thakuri 13.3% (male 14.2% and female 12.5%).

The highest proportion of workers belongs to the age group 25-34 (34.6% in total, 32.2% males and 36.7% females). The proportion of female workers is higher up to the age of 34 and is lower thereafter. The male to female sex ratio of workers is found at 86.4. The sex ratio starts to increase as age increases. It is to be noted that women are employed because of their plucking efficiency, but the efficiency is said to decline as age advances and the sex ratio goes up accordingly.

The percentage of literate workers is 35.2 (50% males and 21.9% females) much below the national average. The literacy of the Santhals who are the most numerous in the tea plantation work force is the lowest, being 13.4% (21.7% males and 6.8% females). It is interesting to note that only 1.32% workers have passed the School Leaving Certificate examination (SLC). No female worker has passed the examination due to early marriage or gender discrimination in terms of education.

Only 41.6% of the workers were found to be born in the same VDC, where they were employed. 12.2% of them were from India and a majority of the workers had migrated from elsewhere in the country.

There are mainly four types of workers- monthly salary earners, regular daily wage earners, contract workers and seasonal workers. Out of the total workers, 90.4% are regular daily wage earners (95.5% in the public sector tea estates and 86% in private ones). Monthly salary earners and regular daily wage earners are given the status of permanent workers.

Generally, the daily wages range from Rs. 21 to 47.50. The wage of Chhokaras (adolescent) ranges from Rs. 20 to 36. Wage differences are more common in private tea-estates. The rate of overtime payment is based on hours and the regular daily wage. However, in plucking, the over-quota payment is Rs. 0.65 per kg (the quota being 23 kg per day for CTC tea and 9 kg per day for Orthodox tea.)
82.1% of the total workers have been provided 'Dhuras' (residential huts). Medical facilities are limited to 'first aid'. However, the NTDC reimburses Medical expenses up to Rs. 200 per permanent worker annually. Paid leave is extremely limited. Five percent of the daily wage is deducted from wages every week as the provident fund contribution by the worker and the same amount is added by the management. 'Dasain expenses' are given as a bonus equal to 18 days' wage in the public sector tea estates and 4-12 days' wage in the private estates.

In principle, there are child-care centres in every tea estate but only 0.7% of the respondents were satisfied with the condition of the child care centres. In fact, with a few exception, most of the so-called child care centres are made up of a couple of jute carpets under the shade of a tree. In most cases female workers can be found working with their babies tied on their back.

AN OVERVIEW OF CHILD LABOUR

It is difficult to estimate as to when child labour came into existence in tea estates. No research had been conducted before 1991 regarding this issue. The CWIN-study of 13 tea estates in 1991 was the first one, followed by the GEFONT study of five tea-estates in 1995. Child labour in tea estates had declined rapidly between 1991 and 1995. It appears that the enactment of the Labour Act 1992 had a wide impact with regard to the minimisation of child labour. The present survey confirms to the fast declining trend. Some of the interesting findings of the survey are as follows:

• Out of the total number of adult workers interviewed, 27.5% had joined the tea estate as child workers (male 23.8% and female 30.7%), 4.3% having joined work in the tea-estates aged between 5 and 9 and 23.2% aged between 10 and 14 years.

• A major source of child labour is the working families themselves, especially those who reside in the 'Dhuras'. A few Indian child workers are also employed during peak plucking season in some tea estates located near the southern and south-eastern border in Jhapa.

• Out of a total population of 2828 in 509 working families covered by the survey, children in the age group of 5-14 constitute more than a quarter. Among them, 57.4% are enrolled in schools and 42.6% do not go to school. Among the non school going children, 24.7% work within & outside their home, whereas 17.9% are complete idlers, neither going to school nor working. Looking at the figures from the view point of gender 38.3% of boys and 46% of girls do not go to school. There is a significant difference in school enrolment of boys and girls in the public sector and the private sector tea estates. 26.7% of the boys and 34.9% of girls from the public sector tea estates working families and 47.3% of the boys and 58.4% of the girls from the private tea estate working families are not enrolled in schools. Further, most of the children who have been enrolled are not found to be regular at school. If jobs are found, the families concerned are willing to remove them from school. The fact that the management has not provided work for the workers' children is one of the reasons for their dissatisfaction with the management.

• The major causes of child labour in tea estates are landlessness, low wages, absence of educational facilities, acute poverty and a lack of awareness about the adverse effects of child labour. The Terai-origin groups especially the Santhals have been found to be most unaware about the effects of child labour.

• 'Chhokaras' i.e. adolescents (15-18 years) comprise 8.6% of the sample population of 2828 (102 be males, and 141 females) constituting 7.3% of the male population and 9.8% of the female population. Working Chhokaras are 5.1% of the sample population and others wait for the peak season for employment. The wages of Chhokaras vary from estate to estate, ranging from Rs. 18-30 in the private sector and from Rs. 30-36 in the public sector.

• The actual number of children (5-14 years) working at the time of survey in tea estates was 23. They were all-season workers. Since the survey could not be conducted during the peak season, seasonal child workers were not found. Twenty one child workers were interviewed, of whom 7 were males and 14 females. A single child was found in the age group of 5-9 and the rest were in the age group of 10-14. Of the child workers 19% received wages lower than Rs. 20 per day and the rest 81% received wages between Rs. 20-25. The children were found to do every type of work except spraying pesticides.

• The idle children of the tea workers' families are frequently used as substitute labourers whenever their parents have to go outside the tea estate or if they fall sick. Besides, to fulfil the plucking quota or to earn over-quota payments, working parents often use their children during the peak plucking season.

• It is clear that child labour has, now, become an off the record issue. Therefore, the protection of child workers has become more difficult. They are subjected to abuses and their health conditions are very poor. Out of the sample of child labourers, 47.6% said that they frequently suffered from cold, cough and fever.

• The tea estate children are deprived of basic primary education although the schools are not very far from the tea estates.

Child labour has declined in tea estates in a fast and dramatic manner because the management has stopped recruiting children after the enactment of the Labour Act (1992). However, since the income levels of the workers have remained stagnant and the socio-economic conditions of the workers' families have not improved, the idle children may shift to other sectors creating diverse child labour problems. Therefore, providing the children with education, building awareness about the consequences of child labour, introducing income generating schemes and effective workers' education programmes are urgently needed in order to eliminate child labour from tea plantations of Nepal on a permanent basis.