COVID-19 spreads fear among India's tea pickers

CHENNAI－When Indian tea plantation worker Bholanath Natto and his wife tested positive for COVID-19, their biggest worry was not their health. It was where they would quarantine and how they could get hold of food and drinking water without his wages.

As some of the cities worst hit by India's COVID-19 crisis see a lull in new cases, infections are rising among millions of tea pickers. Many live in cramped living quarters where measures to curb the virus' spread are difficult to implement.

The positive test result and hospital orders to quarantine have been a logistical nightmare for the Nattos, who spent the last 15 days holed up in a wood shed behind the two-room plantation house they share with their children.

"We converted a shed where we stored wood in case our cooking gas ran out into a makeshift room for my wife and me to live in isolation," Natto, 55, said from his home in the state of West Bengal.

"My teenage daughter stepped into the kitchen for the first time to cook, while her older brother tried to arrange drinking water for us. Nobody wanted to help us because everyone is scared. We are home alone, with food running out."

India reported its lowest daily rise in new infections since April 11 on Monday, but concerns have been voiced about rising numbers in the country's east and northeastern regions which are home to lush tea gardens that supply much of the world's tea.

Since the pandemic began, India has reported 28 million COVID-19 cases and 329,100 deaths, health ministry data showed. The true figures are widely believed to be much higher.

India's tea estates employ some 3.5 million workers, thousands of whom are now quarantining in small, overcrowded homes, struggling to access food, water and aid, union leaders said.

In West Bengal, more than 4,500 cases have been recorded across 300 of the state's 800 tea plantations, government data showed. Cases in the tea gardens of neighboring Assam have risen three-fold in the last 10 days, with more than 6,000 workers and family members testing positive, local media reported.

Poor working conditions

India is the world's second-largest tea producer and the industry has long faced accusations of exploitative labor conditions ranging from long working hours and low pay to poor healthcare facilities and bad housing.

Labor rights campaigners said such issues could make the tea plantations and the often-remote settlements where tea workers live particularly vulnerable to COVID-19.

Tea industry group the Indian Tea Association said it was pushing for plantations to ensure on-site vaccination for all workers and their families.

But deep in the heart of the gardens, where the ongoing tea picking season means nonstop work, the workers said they had no access to separate quarantine facilities and were constantly worried they would spread the infection to their families.

Agencies via Xinhua