Siliguri: “Twenty, or there shall be no festival,” yelled Rajani Bhushal, a 64-year-old tea worker from Darjeeling’s Longview tea estate. She was one of the loudest demonstrators outside Shramik Bhawan, the north Bengal zonal office of the state government’s labour department in Siliguri. Inside, a tripartite meeting was on to decide the rate of bonus for…
On this day in 1955, workers of the Margaret’s Hope tea garden led a revolt against unfair management practices. Things are not very different today. Six decades after the Margaret’s Hope revolt, the workers on Darjeeling’s tea gardens are still as exploited as ever, earning low wages, with shrinking fringe benefits. | Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters…
SILIGURI, India — Darjeeling’s tea sector is facing the loss of 40% of its revenues for the year, amid political turmoil over long-standing demands for a separate state in the Himalayan district. Read the story here.
SILIGURI, Darjeeling, India — Two years ago, when Niraj Lama began stocking an unknown tea from Nepal at Happy Earth Tea, his family’s tea importing company in New York, it was with some trepidation. Jun Chiyabari Himalayan Autumn Bouquet, a light tea with notes of hay, honey and apples, came from a tiny Nepalese tea-growing…
Anuradha Sharma 